This dissertation is a qualitative analysis of Chicano/Latino music listeners in Southern California. The purpose of this study is to investigate how listening to music, through its affective (both specific sentiments and a general sense of what a space or time feels like) and sonic energies, generates modes of thinking and feeling that shape identity, community and resilience. While Latino music cultures have long been celebrated listening and listening practices as a form of knowing, being and surviving is understudied.

I focus on three groups of listeners that, I argue, represent Latino listening cultures--- a culturally specific set of shared attitudes, values and practices around listening to particular music. The listening cultures analyzed included Mexican custodians who listen to the radio at work, Chicana/o Morrissey fans, and undergraduate Latina/o iPod users.

Methodologically, my research is grounded in ethnographic methods of participant-observation, interviews, surveys, and material collection. A total of 40 semi-structured interviews were carried out with Chicano/Latino music lovers and 275 students responded to a web survey. A grounded theory approach was used to code all data. Additionally, I recorded field observations at concerts, work spaces, and campus common areas.

Findings suggest that practices, associations and feelings generated through listening to music are a significant site for critical awareness of ethnic and gender identity, racialization, and community. Ultimately, I argue listening may generate resilient forms of listening and living. One major finding from the Chicana/o listening culture built around Morrissey was that at an individual level, Morrissey provides a venue for fans to explore emotional losses and vulnerabilities, as well as, nontraditional gender roles and identities. At the collective level, listeners discussed finding solace over feeling excluded from the wider society because of racial and cultural differences. The Mexican custodians found, in Spanish-language radio, a late-night companion for their solitary job, an affirming connection to Mexico and a way to literally claim space through music. A survey of 275 undergraduate Latinos revealed that listening to music on digital music players functioned as a sonic refuge for coping with stress, a minoritized status on campus, as well as a portable sonic archive of ethnic identity.