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

After writing Spirit Run, his first memoir, Álvarez became a father and found himself keen to pass on his family’s patrilineal stories to his son. Here, he describes his odyssey to connect with his grandfather Eulogio’s accordion-based musical heritage, make sense of his father Huicho’s loner tendencies, and find himself in the process. Learning from accordion players and manufacturers across the country, Álvarez weaves European tales into South and Central American folklore and links each side of the Mississippi to the Deep South. With the help of an aunt in Texas, Álvarez realizes his Michoacán grandfather was both a reprobate and a trickster, which shreds his romantic notions of the man. By the tale’s end, it is his love of norteño music that ties up loose ends across the Álvarez generations. Taking the audiobook listener along for a metaphorical ride, Asa Siegel’s convincing narration reenacts in reverse the Álvarez family’s migration to the U.S. and unflinchingly conjures up the ghosts that are part and parcel of this musical and personal journey.