Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico

"The accordion in the title belonged to Noé Álvarez‘s grandfather, a man so ill-prepared to face life’s hardships that he took to the nomadic life as a wandering musician leaving behind a family and at least three generations of familial trauma in his wake. Álvarez’s decision to chase not only his grandfather’s bitter history, but also his fascination with the accordion leads him to examine the role the instrument plays along the U.S./Mexico border, as well as the Cajun swamps of Louisiana. Part musicology treatise, part confessional, Accordion Eulogies is a powerful look at the process of healing and how he chooses accordion music to be the soundtrack of that healing."