MUSIC-SPAIN: Double Concert to Aid Mexico’s Indigenous Peoples

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Dec 15 1999 (IPS) - Some of Spain’s most popular music groups, together with their counterparts in Mexico, will perform a simultaneous fund-raising “Concert for Indigenous Peoples” this Saturday. The two shows will be broadcast live by Television Española (TVE), and available over the Internet.

The event is sponsored by the Madrid-based Foundation of Artists and Intellectuals in Support of Ibero-American Indigenous Peoples (FAIPII), whose board of trustees is headed by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, a prominent defender of human rights.

FAIPII director Adriana Arce told IPS the group expects to raise some 200,000 dollars, all of which will go towards financing five co-operative development projects in indigenous communities in Mexico.

The money brought in by the concerts will help fund a group of authors who write in Mexican indigenous languages, an education programme on women’s health and rights in Altos de Chiapas, the construction of homes and a development centre in Pueblo Triqui, a project to promote and recover Mexico’s indigenous medical knowledge, and an inter-cultural education project in the Wixarika- Huichol area of Jalisco state.

FAIPII was founded in 1993 by a group of Spanish artists and intellectuals, including Paco Ibáñez, Luis Eduardo Aute, Joaquín Sabina, Agustín Goytisolo and Carlos Cano, as well as judge Baltasar Garzón, who has risen to fame for his role in the human rights case against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In Colombia alone, FAIPII has supported and financed the construction of a rice-mill in Puerto Nariño, irrigation canals in Leticia, bilingual (Spanish-indigenous language) education in Arhuaca, school-building and the infrastructure for fish and rubber industries in Makuna, a children’s home in Bastemingbe- yebna and health services in Tolima.

The group has also carried out projects for the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua and Bolivia, as well as awareness campaigns for the people of Spain.

Surday’s concert in Spain, to be held at Madrid’s bull-fighting ring Plaza de Las Ventas – will feature the musical groups Ella Baila Sola, Hevia, Tam Tam Go, Cristina del Valle, Eternal and Cañizares – all popular Spanish musicians.

Across the Atlantic in Mexico, the concert will take place at the ruins of Tenochtitlan, and stars Mexican musicians Rosario, Manolo Tena, Navajita Plateá, María Lavalle and Carlos Cruz.

The show in Madrid begins at 21:00 local time, while Mexico’s spectacle starts at 14:00 local time. The events on both sides of the ocean will take place simultaneously, transmitted via satellite.

The Internet broadcast can be viewed by accessing the web-site at http://ya.com/milenio, which also provides donation information.

Though FAIPII receives government support and sponsorship, most of its funds come from the major events organised by the group – with the added benefit that the famous donate their talent for the shows.

Music concerts have been held in Bogota and Medellin (1993), Madrid (every year since 1994), as well as annual summer courses at Complutense University of Madrid, and a bull-fight at the capital’s traditional Plaza de Las Ventas in 1995.

The event that had the greatest impact so far was the simultaneous concert held at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, Cartagena in Colombia, and in Madrid, on Jan 18, 1995.

All FAIPII concerts are broadcast live by TVE and Latin American stations. TVE will also re-broadcast Saturday’s event on Dec 27, on its national channel (with Spain’s largest viewing audience), and also via the Internet.

In its six years in operation, FAIPII has organised 26 events, with thousands of people in attendance, and millions of viewers via TVE.

The Foundation also receives the support of singers Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, Carlos Cano, Luis Eduardo Aute, Joaquín Sabina, Manolo Tena and Celtas Cortos, as well as writers Antonio Gala, Miguel Delibes, Antonio Buero Vallejo and Mario Benedetti.

Saturday, the world will be able to enjoy ‘Ella Baila Sola’ (She Dances Alone), really two singers presented as “two sides of the same coin,” Marta and Marilia. Their music is pure pop, but has a social content and a melancholic undercurrent.

‘Eternal,’ also a pop group, recorded the main theme for the Spanish-version soundtrack to Walt Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. The group was also invited to perform for Pope John Paul II after he heard their recording of “I Am Blessed.”

The music of another group, Hevia, incorporates the bagpipes – the traditional instrument of Asturias and Galicia in Spain, and of Scotland – under the direction of Asturian bagpiper José Angel Hevia.

Juan Manuel Cañizares, from Andalucia, sings in many styles, including ‘bularía,’ rumba, Andalucian tangos, ‘tanguillos.’ All are harmonised with his flamenco guitar, which he began playing when he won a raffle at age eight. By age 10 he was studying in the Municipal Conservatory of Sabadell in Catalunya.

His music, and that of the other musicians from Spain and Mexico, is expected to bring in the much-needed funding that will help improve the lives of Mexico’s indigenous peoples.