University Advancement

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CSUN Professor is Studying Musical Pilgrimages in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Nov. 8, 2007) — New Cal State Northridge faculty member Peter Garcia is launching his academic career at the university in a unique way, spending the semester in Mexico studying the musical pilgrimage associated with the Fiesta de San Francisco.

Garcia, an ethnomusicologist in CSUN’s Chicana/o Studies Department, won one of the relatively new Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowships to study the festival celebrated in Magadalena de Kino, 50 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border.

Garcia was interviewing for the job at CSUN when he learned he’d received the fellowship. "Border fellowships are rare," said Garcia, who jumped at the chance to explore the music associated with an event that draws people from both sides of the border.

Garcia took a semester’s leave of absence from CSUN this fall so he could do his research as a professor-in-residence at the University of Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico. When he returns in the spring, he’ll be teaching two introduction to Chicano cultural classes as well as a course on vocal music.

"The Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship is flexible enough so you can go back and forth across the border," he said, noting that as border security has stepped up in recent years, such opportunities are rare.

People make the trek to Magdalena de Kino annually for the week-long festival, arriving from northern Mexico, New Mexico and Texas to visit the statue of Jesuit missionary Francisco de Javier, complete their pilgrimage and participate in the fiesta’s dancing, feasting and fairs. The saint’s actual feast day is Oct. 4.

"But the dimension I’m interested in," said Garcia, "is the musical pilgrimage, the role of the musicians who play all over the town and plaza, the establishment of the economy surrounding the event, how the musicians are hired, whether they attend for devotional or economic reasons."

Garcia also is researching the variety of musical genres at the festival, ranging from mariachi and brass bands to Yaqui deer dancing. He will share videos with students in his Chicana/o Studies Department classes when he returns for the spring 2007 session.

Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowships are awarded to scholars studying border culture, society and politics as a way of fostering a deeper understanding of Mexico within the United States.