This timely and commendable reader, edited by Javier F. León and Helena Simonett and published in collaboration with the Society for Ethnomusicology, is made up of a collection of essays selected to showcase the work of Latin American music scholars over the last 25 years. The aim of the editors has been to increase knowledge of research by scholars based in Latin America and the Caribbean among ‘English-language scholars working outside of the region’ (p. x). As such, all of the essays have been translated from Spanish or Portuguese into English and have been chosen for their applicability ‘to contemporary research issues and concerns within the region, rather than adopting a more historical or geographically based approach’ (p. ix). Following a Preface and Introduction, the collection of essays is divided into three parts, each of which is prefixed by a short introduction providing useful chapter summaries.

The book begins with an introductory chapter (‘One Hundred Years of Latin American Music Scholarship: An Overview’), which is written by Simonett but ‘is a revised, rewritten, reorganized, expanded rendering’ of an unfinished manuscript by the late Michael Marcuzzi (note, p. 47). The chapter offers an historical overview of Latin American music scholarship since the turn of the twentieth century, starting with four pioneers: Carlos Vega in Argentina, Mário de Andrade in Brazil, Fernando Ortiz in Cuba and Carlos Chávez in Mexico. Continuing to focus on the first half of the twentieth century, the chapter then details the dynamics and key figures of emerging scholarship in four regions: Mexico and Central America, the Andean region, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Brazil. This is followed by a section titled ‘New Directions’ (p. 20). Here, Simonett (and Marcuzzi) highlight how from the 1960s there was a move away from a systematised view based on a ‘tripartite ethnic scheme: Amerindian, African, and European’ as well as a ‘search for origins or originary traits’ (p. 20). In turn, there was a shift toward a more anthropological and experiential engagement with contemporary practices, which resulted in emerging interests in topics such as migration and minority populations. The authors discuss developments in Venezuela, Mexico and Central American, elsewhere in South America, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Brazil. In addition to documenting the contribution of specific scholars the chapter emphasises the pivotal role played by national and transnational institutions, which proliferated in the post-1950 period and contributed to a plethora of books and periodicals. The authors conclude: ‘The continent in all its diversity has prevented a monolithic perspective to emerge and, thus, preserved the complexity and multivocality of music scholarship’ (p. 46). Furthermore, they suggest that engaging with vantage points ‘from the South’ can facilitate greater dialogue ‘across disciplinary, subdisciplinary, national, hemispheric, institutional, and language boundaries’ (p. 46).

Part 1 of the book is predominantly historiographic and features essays that critically map a ‘shifting landscape of disciplinary boundaries and definitions by focusing on both the legacy of particular academic lineages as well as their more recent contestation’ (p. 70). Essays in this section are concerned with methodological and theoretical developments in South American music research (Raúl Romero); deconstructing essentialisms about Colombian musical traditions linked to nationalist ideologies (Carlos Miñana Blasco); the conceptual tensions around notions of ‘the popular’ in Latin American music research (Juan Pablo González); productive ways of combining lay and scholarly histories of the charango (Julio Mendívil); the influence of nationalistic ideologies on Chilean music historiography (Alejandro Vera); and how the hybridity of bambuco challenges the epistemological foundations of musical (sub)disciplines (Carolina Santamaría-Delgado).

The authors in Part 2 focus on issues of style and genre. Generic taxonomies have long been central to Latin American music research but this group of essays is testament to recent developments where ‘the primary interest has been to examine the various ways in which genre is musically, discursively, and socially constructed, not only by practitioners themselves, but also by listeners, music critics, and academics’ (p. 216). Authors in this section variously address the transnational development of mambo style (Rubén López-Cano); trace generic histories of samba carioca that go beyond the limits of historical recordings (Carlos Sandori); consider the radical and progressive foundations of Violeta Parra's songs (Rodrigo Torres Alvarado); offer a sociological analysis of the emergence of the ‘new Argentine songbook’ (Claudio Díaz); rethink notions of appropriation in the development of timba (Iñigo Sánchez Fuarros); and consider the relationship between genre and gender in Brazilian popular music (Rodrigo Cantos Savelli Gomes and Maria Ignêz Cruz Mello).

Part 3 deals with the challenges of overcoming the historical pervasiveness of national identities and attendant issues of hegemony, indigeneity and cultural essentialism. As such, the authors in this section orientate themselves toward the marginal, the subaltern and the indigenous. Here, the essays variously consider the perceived distinction between indigenous and non-indigenous musics in Mexico's Huasteca region (Gonzalo Camacho Díaz); examine how Mapuche musical practices work to counter narratives that assume their incompatibility with modernity (Jorge Martínez Ulloa); propose ways of establishing more equitable partnerships between scholars and culture bearers from ethnic minorities in Brazil (Angela Lühning); critique the interrelation between applied ethnomusicology, state-sponsored institutions and indigenous musical practices in Mexico (Marina Alonso Bolaños); and reinvigorate the debate around indigenous exceptionalism by considering how applied work can help prevent the co-option of Afro-Brazilian cultural practices by nationalist and capitalist forces (José Jorge de Carvalho).

This is a terrific collection of essays that will be essential reading for English-speaking scholars and students of Latin American music, culture and history for decades to come. It will be valuable for ethnomusicologists researching in other regions of the world, too, and in graduate teaching where language abilities inhibit engagement with the work of scholars based in Latin America. It provides an enticing introduction to the diversity of musical research from within the continent that should inspire more and deeper engagement with views from the south.