UC San Diego

This thesis discusses popular Peruvian musical hybrids. It presents an overview of the major conceptual tools used to evaluate cultural mixing, including hybridization, transculturation, and mestizaje, and important theories in Latin American musical and cultural analysis, particularly with regards to national identity. Next, it identifies and analyzes Peruvian musical history within the past century, focusing on the hybridization of national genres with international forms. It describes the vals criollo, highlands genres including the huayno, the Afro-Peruvian revival, música chicha, fusion styles from the 1980s and 1990s, and techno-cumbia, and discusses their connection with local, regional, and national identity projects. Finally, this thesis focuses on contemporary musical fusions, analyzing the musical hybrids produced by Miki González, Novalima, Jaime Cuadra, Ángel Lobatón, and Jean Pierre Magnet. It evaluates how these projects modernize Peruvian musical heritage, educate later generations on these traditions, represent elite visions of society, and are relevant to the development of an inclusive Peruvian identity