Nationalism and Latin American Music: Selected Case Studies and Theoretical Considerations

In discussing the criollo-based independence movements in the Americas during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Benedict Anderson notes that these cases are not easily explained by the usual means of national linguistic and cultural distinction. 1 He writes: "All, including the U.S.A., were creole states formed and led by people who shared a common language and common descent with those against whom they fought" (1991, 47). "Yet," he asserts, "they were national independence movements" (ibid., 49).