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Connectivity: Chulas Fronteras
with Juan Antonio Cuéllar (archivist) &
Maureen Gosling (director/editor)
Thursday, February 26 / 7:00 PM
Pollock Theater, UCSB
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In partnership with the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music, the Carsey-Wolf Center is pleased to present a special fiftieth anniversary screening of Chulas Fronteras (1976), newly restored in 4K and paired with the 1979 short Del Mero Corazón. Directed by Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, Chulas Fronteras celebrates the famed Mexican-American musicians of the borderlands, the migrant farming communities from which they come, the strong family bonds of Tejanos, and the social protest ethos inscribed in their music. From joyous, lively dance tunes to soulful, political work songs, musica norteña fuses traditional Mexican harmonies with central European dancehall rhythms. The film brims with tender affection for its subjects, the vitality of their marvelous music, and the generosity of spirit that they show in the face of hardship. Del Mero Corazón (Straight from the Heart), directed by Les Blank and Maureen Gosling, is a lyrical journey through the heart of Chicano culture as reflected in the love songs of the conjunto tejano and musica norteña traditions. The film was constructed from outtakes from Chulas Fronteras and additional footage shot in California.
A performance by corrido singer-songwriter Gallo Armado (Fernando Ríos) will precede the screenings of Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazón. Following the screening, filmmaker Maureen Gosling (assistant editor of Chulas Fronteras and director of Del Mero Corazón) and library science doctoral student Juan Antonio Cuéllar (longtime archivist of Arhoolie Records’ Frontera Collection) will join moderator David Novak (Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music, UCSB) for a discussion of the two films.
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Juan Antonio Cuéllar
(archivist)
Juan Antonio Cuéllar was born in Mexico and is now based in San Francisco. He was a member of the bilingual punk band La Plebe. With the Arhoolie Foundation, he helped preserve the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Spanish-language recorded music. His work focuses on Mexican and Mexican American vernacular music and archives as spaces of community memory. Cuéllar is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at San José State University and is an archivist at The Los Cenzontles Music and Art Academy.
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Maureen Gosling
(director/editor)
Maureen Gosling is a documentary filmmaker who has worked as a director, producer, editor, and sound recordist since 1972. She collaborated for two decades with Les Blank on more than twenty films, including the BAFTA-winning Burden of Dreams. Her feature documentaries include Blossoms of Fire (2000), This Ain’t No Mouse Music! (2013), and The 9 Lives of Barbara Dane (2023). She also served as director/editor of Del Mero Corazón and assistant editor/translator of Chulas Fronteras.
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Gallo Armado
(Corrido singer-songwriter)
Gallo Armado is the musical project of corrido artist Fernando Ríos from Monterrey, Nuevo León. In 2025, he became the first corrido artist to win Nuevo Talento Nuevo León with the environmentally focused “El Corrido del Aire.” His work centers working-class life, social justice, and environmental activism. He is currently preparing his debut album La Ciudad es Nuestra and an upcoming 7” single.
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Moderator David Novak
(Music, UCSB)
David Novak is Associate Professor in Music and Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music at UCSB. He is the author of the award-winning book Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation (2013), translated into five languages. His current book project, Diggers: An Archival Counterhistory of Popular Music, examines the globalization of music through informal archives, collectors, and digitization networks in the Global South.
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