From “The Three Caballeros” to “Coco”: Sounding the Good Neighbor Legacy in American Popular Media

This collaborative project by Adolfo Estrada (Tarleton State University), Lauryn Salazar (Tarleton State University), and Stacey Jocoy (Library of Congress) traces the evolving sonic diplomacy of the United States’ Good Neighbor Policy—from its 1940s origins to its echoes in contemporary popular media. During World War II, the Office of Inter-American Affairs enlisted Walt Disney and composer Chuck Wolcott to foster hemispheric cooperation through music and animation. Working with Mexican songwriter Manuel Esperón, Disney’s The Three Caballeros (1944) brought mariachi and regional Mexican sounds to American audiences on an unprecedented cinematic scale. Ethnomusicologist Salazar’s research underscores Esperón’s authorship within the score and highlights how mariachi became a vehicle for reshaping cross-border musical identity. We situate The Three Caballeros alongside the lesser-known Mariachi Vargas' Potpourrí Los Buenos Vecinos—a medley weaving together “Zacatecas,” “Anchors Aweigh,” “The Washington Post,” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever”—as emblematic of midcentury musical diplomacy. These works sonically performed alliance and mutual respect through…