La Pena : the politics of early world music

Abstract

La Pen~a, the Latin American Cultural Centre, was a cultural project that emerged in Newtown, Sydney in the early 1980s, in a time of increasing policy and cultural debate over multiculturalism in Australia. An early embodiment of 'world music', it revealed some of the earliest expressions of world/multicultural music in the country. The history of La Pen~a exposes complex interrelationships between music and politics within the solidarity movement of Latin American exile communities, and presents several continuities and discontinuities with two other parallel projects, Papalote and Cafe Carnivale. La Pen~a's project has been documented on video and this thesis incorporates a documentary film that contributes to the early history of multiculturalism in this country, particularly the role of Latin American communities and cultures, and the role of music in the cultural politics of the time. The thesis is grounded in theoretical and empirical research on alternative media for social change, and discusses notions of radical media practice and the strategies used by this community striving to create a better world. This is a story of struggle for humanity, hope and also recognition and visibility, with music and education as tools. The thesis reflects on expressions of idealism and contrasts with ideas present in contemporary popular culture, particularly through a brief analysis of Latin American and 'world music'. The contribution of this work is to expose one of many invisible (multi) cultural experiences in Australia. Awareness of experiences like this could assist in a period when there are re-emerging attitudes of intolerance and violence in Australia as extreme expressions of what in the thesis is referred to as 'cultural tarzanism'.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English