Musical sound has been central to heteromasculinist productions of nation and homeland, whether Chicano, Tejano, Texan, Mexican, or American. If this assertion holds true, as Deborah R. Vargas suggests, then what are we to make of those singers and musicians whose representations of gender and sexuality are irreconcilable with canonical Chicano/Tejano music or what Vargas refers to as 'la onda'? These are the 'dissonant divas' Vargas discusses, performers who stimulate
our listening for alternative borderlands imaginaries that are inaudible within the limits of 'la onda'.