Adelaida Reyes is Professor Emerita at New Jersey City University, and has taught as at Columbia University, New York University, and The Juilliard School of Music. Her previous book, Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free (Temple University Press), won the 1999 Book of the Year award from the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (United States). She has pioneered ethnomusicological studies of forced migration and of urban musical life.