Hurray for the Riff Raff is a project so strongly centred around the voice, vision, and personality of one person—Alynda Lee Segarra—that it is difficult to decide whether to use a plural pronoun, ‘they’, as you might use... Read Article
Perhaps there is something about the borderlands setting of Tucson, Arizona, that inspires musicians to experiment with a variety of sounds. The Tucson-based rock bands Giant Sand and Calexico have developed reputations for their shifting approaches and genre... Read Article
It is tempting to present Luísa Maita’s new album Fio da Memória as a dramatic departure from her debut, Lero-Lero (2010). In fact, I did so here when describing the album’s eponymous first single. And it is pretty clear... Read Article
Brazilian singer-songwriter Luísa Maita is not to be rushed. Her next album, Fio da Memória, due for release in Canada on September 23, the US on September 30th and on various dates internationally thereafter, is the long-awaited following... Read Article
Walter Fraga’s Crossroads of Freedom: Slaves and Freed People in Bahia, Brazil, 1870–1910 is an impressively constructed study of the lives of Afro-Brazilians in the Recȏncavo region of Bahia (the Recȏncavo is the area surrounding the Bay of... Read Article
Thanks to its proximity to Mexico, Texas has been home to musicians who have recorded in Spanish for many decades now. Naturally, this tejano music has been strongly influenced by Mexican forms like ranchera and corridos. That is... Read Article
With The Invention of Nature (subtitled The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science) Andrea Wulf makes a persuasive case that Alexander von Humboldt’s contributions are foundational to modern scientific and environmentalist thought and should... Read Article
When I first saw Sounds and Colours ask for a list of the top books in Latin American history, I assumed such a list would come easily to me. Ideas for books to include, of course, have come... Read Article
Casita de Salvajes (Little House of Savages — I like that name!) are a four-piece band from Buenos Aires that appear to be fairly new. I say so because in researching them for this review I found only... Read Article
Russo Passapusso’s debut solo release, Paraíso da Miragem, marks the arrival of a major talent. The album occasionally recalls the music of the 1970s, but it is very much in line with the exciting sounds that have emerged... Read Article
Getúlio, a new film about Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas by João Jardim, reminds me somewhat of Lincoln, the 2012 film about the American president of the same name. Both films focus on crucial events in the lives of... Read Article
If the Mapuche people are known at all outside Chile, it is as the fierce Araucanian warriors that managed to repel Spanish and Chilean attempts to colonize their homeland until the 1880s. (The terms “Araucanian” and “Mapuche” are... Read Article
