Simonett’s article describes the rise of a distinctly Chicano music craze in the 1990’s. The quebradita’s hype involved a variety of factors unique to Mexican Ameircan youth circles in Southern California; for one, it was a site of reclamation of Mexican identity during a time when many youth were addicted to more “American” styles like rap, rock, and house. Banda music offered an opportunity for youth to dance to music rooted in their largely Chicano communities, that celebrated Mexican sound and vaquero fashion. Interestingly, one major component of the quebradita is its use of el caballito, a “little horse” dance that involves “breaking in” a woman on the dancefloor (“quebrar” means “to break” in Spanish). This reminds me of how Puerto Rican youth pioneered the “perreo” dance style in the 2000’s as part of reggaetón subculture, using a hypersexualized dance style to express themselves with regard to the music they consumed. A final point I found fascinating is that clubs catering to the quebradita craze “carried out similar functions as gangs” in that they catered to specific segments of the Chicano community, often according to the regions of Mexico from with youth’s families originated.
I am curious as to how contemporary youth subcultures are able to re-appropriate the styles and sounds of their cultural homelands when most youth within that subculture understand these styles from a strictly diasporic standpoint. For example, growing up in East LA definitely exposed youth to elements of Mexican culture, but the ability of quebradita to place them in spaces of cultural celebration less available in rock and rap frameworks is a particularly interesting theme that seems evocative of a range of other diasporic or racialized styles (bhangra, reggaetón, Afro-Punk).
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