The Sounds of Aguante: Politics of Fandom in South American Football

An examination of sound, violence, and transnationalism in South American Football

Winner of a 2026 BFE Book Prize (British Forum for Ethnomusicology)

The Sounds of Aguante is an ethnographic study of the use of sound by hinchas (football fans) in the Latin American Southern Cone. Deeply affected by the neoliberal deterioration of working-class life in the region, hinchas use practices such as drumming, launching pyrotechnics, and singing contrafacta of popular music--activities that circulate transnationally through both digital and analog media--to cheer for their teams. Hinchas discuss and compete, both domestically and internationally, over which hinchada is the most musically creative, dominantly assertive, unwaveringly loyal, and sonically intense in South America. Drawing on first person accounts as well as media coverage, Luis Achondo shows that hinchas use sound to create alternative imaginaries, make their deprived social conditions audible, and sometimes to engage in deadly conflicts where violence often becomes the primary mode of resolution. This study demonstrates that fan (re)mediation has constructed a transnational public assembly that considers itself a central component of soccer, challenging the notion of sports as mere athletic events and fanbases as simple consumer bases. Examining how sound mediates necropolitical relations among fans, the book also highlights how sound functions as both a source and expression of necropower among hinchas.