Music ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-2026

Abstract

Despite its significant contribution to the educational mariachi movement in the United States, the history of the Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference (LCIMC), established in 1994, remains largely absent from existing scholarship. This study offers a historical account of mariachi music in Las Cruces and the development of the LCIMC, establishing a foundation for future research on mariachi music in the Mesilla Valley. Distinct from other mariachi conferences that emerged at the turn of the 21st century, the LCIMC was shaped by its location in a border city in New Mexico. Conceptualizing both physical borders and metaphorical border spaces as “constructed borderlands,” this analysis draws on Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderland theory to foreground the contradictory yet generative nature of boundaries in shaping lived experience. Extending this framework into the sonic realm through Josh Kun’s concept of “aural borders,” it argues that the LCIMC functioned as a site that disrupted and reconfigured these physical and metaphorical borderlands.

Degree Name

Music

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Department of Music

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ana R. Alonso-Minutti

Second Committee Member

Bernadine Hernández

Third Committee Member

Cathy Ragland

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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