Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy

236 Pages·2014·1.65 MB·English

by  Dolores Ines Casillas

Sounds of Belonging
CRITICAL CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
General Editors: Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kent A. Ono
Dangerous Curves: Latina Authentic™: The Politics of
Bodies in the Media Ambivalence in a Brand Culture
Isabel Molina-Guzmán Sarah Banet-Weiser
The Net Effect: Romanticism, Technomobility in China: Young
Capitalism, and the Internet Migrant Women and Mobile Phones
Thomas Streeter Cara Wallis
Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Love and Money: Queers, Class,
Technology and the Culture of Surveillance and Cultural Production
Kelly A. Gates Lisa Henderson
Critical Rhetorics of Race Cached: Decoding the Internet
Edited by Michael G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono in Global Popular Culture
Stephanie Ricker Schulte
Circuits of Visibility: Gender and
Transnational Media Cultures Black Television Travels: African
Edited by Radha S. Hegde American Media around the Globe
Timothy Havens
Commodity Activism: Cultural
Resistance in Neoliberal Times Citizenship Excess: Latino/
Edited by Roopali Mukherjee as, Media, and the Nation
and Sarah Banet-Weiser Hector Amaya
Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Feeling Mediated: A History of
Race and Representation after 9/11 Communication Technology
Evelyn Alsultany and Emotion in America
Brenton J. Malin
Visualizing Atrocity: Arendt, Evil,
and the Optics of Thoughtlessness Suiting Up: Cultures of Management
Valerie Hartouni in the Media Industries
Edited by Derek Johnson, Derek
The Makeover: Reality Television
Kompare, and Avi Santo
and Reflexive Audiences
Katherine Sender Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-
Language Radio and Public Advocacy
Dolores Inés Casillas
Sounds of Belonging
U.S. Spanish-Language Radio and Public Advocacy
Dolores Inés Casillas
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
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© 2014 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Casillas, Dolores Inés.
Sounds of belonging : U.S. Spanish-language radio and public advocacy / Dolores Inés
Casillas.
pages cm --  (Critical cultural communication)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-7065-8 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-0-8147-7024-5 (pb)
1.  Radio broadcasting--United States. 2.  Radio broadcasting--Social aspects--United States.
3.  Hispanic Americans and mass media. 4.  Radio broadcasting--Political aspects--United
States. 5.  Mass media and immigrants--United States. 6.  Hispanic Americans--Legal status,
laws, etc.--United States.  I. Title.
PN1991.3.U6C365 2014
791.440973--dc23
2014020799
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
Para Dolores
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Language xiii
Introduction: Public Advocacy on U.S. Spanish-Language 1
Radio
1. Acoustic Allies: Early Latin-Themed and Spanish-Language 21
Radio Broadcasts, 1920s–1940s
2. Mixed Signals: Developing Bilingual Chicano Radio, 51
1960s–1980s
3. Sounds of Surveillance: U.S. Spanish-Language Radio Patrols 83
La Migra
4. Pun Intended: Listening to Gendered Politics on Morning 101
Radio Shows
5. Desperately Seeking Dinero: Calculating Language and Race 127
within Radio Ratings
Afterword 147
Notes 153
Bibliography 183
Index 207
About the Author 221
>> vii
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Acknowledgments
I spent many mornings revising this manuscript at coffee shops located
in busy strip malls. The early morning radio played by Latino workers
at nearby eateries inspired me to see this project to fruition. I thank
them for their soulful gritos and for turning the volume up.
This project began years ago at the University of Michigan almost
immediately after I read Susan J. Douglas’s Listening In: Radio and the
American Imagination and Frances R. Aparicio’s Listening to Salsa: Gen-
der, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures. Their insights on
sound, race, and the politics of listening remain present throughout
these pages. I owe this project’s ambitious mixed methods and atten-
tion to early radio to Catherine Benamou. Throughout my professional
development, Adaljiza Sosa Riddell, Rosa Linda Fregoso, and Aída
Hurtado have all served in some capacity as nurturing academic mad-
rinas. For their feminist mentorship and frequent reminders to always
craft and own my voice, I cannot thank them enough.
I also owe a great deal of thanks to friends and colleagues who
joined me in writing sessions or generously commented on previous
renditions of these chapters. I thank Mary Bucholtz, Pat Zavella, Yeidy
Rivero, Josh Kun, Arlene Dávila, Angharad Valdivia, Robin Li, Jess
Rigelhaupt, and Sergio de la Mora. My dearest friend Nicholas Syrett
read every word of this manuscript more than once and used his trade-
mark wit to cajole me through revisions. I am grateful to have someone
so generous, smart, and humorous be my writing partner of nearly ten
years. Of course, all errors and omissions in these pages are mine.
I have also been fortunate to be a part of a group of feminist pro-
fessors who consistently renew my love for researching and writing on
Latina/o studies: Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, Deborah Paredez, Deborah
R. Vargas, and María Elena Cepeda. At the same time, Elena Gutiér-
rez, Erica Rios, Lisa Lapeyrouse-Edmonds, Élida Bautista, and Ana
Christina Ramon have provided timely doses of Chicana love whenever
>> ix