CubaPLUS Magazine

The Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music (CIDMUC) is strengthening its international profile at the 17th Congress of the Latin American Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-AL), currently taking place in Mexico.

Through October 2, the historic center of San Cristóbal de las Casas is hosting specialists from across Latin America to discuss the role of popular music in relation to the entertainment industries, as well as collective initiatives promoting dignity and justice.

In a regional context marked by ethical, social, and political tensions, the forum confirms the central role of the Cuban school of musicology in academic dialogue across the continent, according to a statement from CIDMUC.

The event has featured presentations by prominent researchers with longstanding ties to musicology in Cuba and to institutions such as CIDMUC and Casa de las Américas.

Highlights include papers by Peruvian scholar Julio Mendívil, Ph.D., titled “The Song of Máxima: Materiality and Politics in the Voice of a Peruvian Peasant Woman,” and Uruguayan scholar Marita Fornaro, Ph.D., titled “Censorship, Self-Censorship, Exile: Case Studies in Uruguayan Popular Music, 1969–2025.”

Cuban participation in the opening sessions has been represented by scholars Liliana González, Ph.D., and Pablo Suárez, Ph.D., whose work explores memory, cultural resistance, and forms of dissidence in reggaeton music videos.

CIDMUC will continue its participation with two key events. On September 30, María Elena Vinueza, Ph.D., will deliver the lecture “Ancestral Memory and Repertoire in the Arará Group Ojún Degara” as part of Symposium 7.

On October 1, Leannelis “Lea” Cárdenas, a Master of Science and CIDMUC director, will present “Routes of Identity in Contemporary Cuban Music: Subjects, Practices, and Musical Heritage Collections in the Central-Western Region.”

The study is the work of a team of the institution’s specialists and forms part of a cultural sector project approved by Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban Institute of Music.

According to the statement, IASPM-AL has held its congress in Cuba twice, both times in Havana: in 2006, with Casa de las Américas as the main venue, and in 2016 under the theme “Visions of America, Sounds of America.”

This makes Cuba one of the few countries to have hosted the forum more than once and reaffirms Cuban musicology’s role as a key contributor to the study of popular music across the region.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)