Xochitl Chavez, Ph.D

Xochitl C. Chávez, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, where her community-engaged research centers on transnational Oaxacan and Indigenous musical practices, gender, and migration. Her public programming experience spans museums and folklife festivals, beginning with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where she contributed to the 2010-2015 programs, and continued through a Smithsonian Latino Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship. As Guest Curator and Cultural Advisor at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, she contributed to the museum’s inaugural exhibition, ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States, and to ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa. At the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture, she co-coordinated an NEH-funded music residency featuring son jarocho and fandango workshops, culminating in a community Fandango for Cheech Marin’s 80th birthday on July 11, 2026. As Co-Principal Investigator of the NEH-funded “Soundscapes of the People: A Musical Ethnography of Pueblo, Colorado,” she documented the musical life of her hometown through interviews with more than 40 musicians and community members. Her book, The Guelaguetza: Transborder Indigeneity, Music, and Festival in Greater Oaxaca (Oxford University Press, 2026), traces how Oaxacan communities sustain festival traditions from Oaxaca to California. Grounded in acompañamiento, her work honors culture bearers as keepers of living tradition.