Interpellation and performance: The construction of identities through musical experience in the Virgen del Rosario fiesta in Iruya, Argentina

The rituals of the Virgen del Rosario fiesta in Iruya, Argentina, a privileged event for studying the relationship between musical activity and the construction of identities, include elements related to local and broader communities of identification. Its musical spectrum runs from Catholic religious songs and the music of the cachis adoration to cumbia, Argentine patriotic anthems, and local, Andean, and national folkloric music. The fiesta displays processes of communalization-the interplay of homogenizing and particularizing projects of state formation with local notions of traditions-and contributes to creating a collective identity. This identity construction takes place through an unequal and dynamic negotiation of meanings in which cultural inscription is articulated with the performances of social actors.