Curated by cultural historian, author, and USC Professor Josh Kun, this is a multi-part “musical exhibition” exploring the musical networks between Los Angeles and various Latin American communities and cultures. Accompanied by an edited collection of essays, interviews, album covers, and photographs, The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles (UC Press), the series takes place in venues throughout Los Angeles, in conjunction with many Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions. The series and book will also be accompanied by a series of curated playlists that will appear here and on the PST: LA/LA website.

From Carmen Miranda to Chicano Batman, Juan García Esquivel to Yma Sumac, Eddie Cano to Earth, Wind & Fire, the project listens for the musical urbanism of Los Angeles through the ear of Latin America. It makes the argument that the musical life of this dispersed and dynamic metropolis is shaped by a hemispheric crossroads–immigrant musicians and migrating, cross-border musical cultures that not only have determined L.A.’s musical and urban history, but have been active participants in the making of the city’s modern aesthetics and modern industries. How is the idea of Los Angeles as a cultural center and a hub of cultural industry dependent on the musical ecologies, histories, audiences, and economies of Latin American music? How have Latin American immigrants and U.S. Latina/os used music to broker a relationship with the mythologies and dreamscapes of Los Angeles on the one hand, and the political limits and political possibilities of Los Angeles on the other? How have Los Angeles music and culture industries used Latin American immigrants and U.S. Latina/os as laborers in the production of the city’s mythologies and as pawns in the game of city politics?

Musical Interventions is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. For more information, visit pacificstandardtime.org

Major support for this program and publication is provided through grants from the Getty Foundation.