Helena Simonett received her doctoral degree in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently teaching at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. She conducted extensive research on Mexican popular music and its transnational diffusion. Her publications include Banda: Mexican Musical Life across Borders (2001, Wesleyan University Press) and En Sinaloa nací:Historia de la música de banda (2004, Sociedad Histórica de Mazatlán, Mexico),as well as numerous journal and encyclopedia articles.