We propose to contribute towards strengthening the Mayan language and Yucatecan spanish by thinking of the problems in our communities and proposing solutions by composing music, being us the ones who can give ourselves a voice. Our proposal is to provide workshops with young leaders of music projects in different communities of Yucatan, to build strategies for collaborative musical composition with themes that affirm our culture in our present. Our goal is to create 10 songs as a result of the proposed group workshops about the problems and solutions that we collectively construct.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Mérida
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We will develop this project together with 10 young men and women between 14 and 29 years of age, all Mayan language speakers or monolingual Spanish speakers, and leaders of musical projects in their communities. The majority of collaborators are familiar with using social networks to convey their ideas; therefore we aim to generate a response through all the social networks to share and generate collective legitimacy about them.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
David Alberto Escalante Euán | https://www.facebook.com/atmosferalibre
Guillermo Hermas Gorocica Medina | https://www.facebook.com/hermas.medina
Iván José Siliceo Bermudez | https://www.facebook.com/ivansiliceo
Santos Lorenzo Itzá Ek | https://www.facebook.com/lorenzo.itza
Iván Chan Cortázar | https://www.facebook.com/yum.pec
Joel Andreí Espadas Llanes | https://www.facebook.com/mishimiau
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The main idea is that the themes of the songs affirm our cultural elements and those of others, meaning that they legitimize the importance of helping each other for the well-being of the community; for example, the importance of reciprocity and mutual support, the benefits for the community by making decisions for our community from our mother-tongue and racial or ethnic discrimination, among some possible topics, provided that they express an alternative for resolution.
The ways we will publicize our results will be through social networks widely used by our collaborators: Soundcloud, You Tube, Wordpress, and also one to one social networking, for example Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook and Twitter. We will share our results using the project name “The South of South”.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
The Santiaguero Collective is a collaboration of musicians dreamers and creators of culture located in the Santiago neighbourhood in the Historical Center of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Within its space they have developed the “Rizoma Community” project which aims to produce and develop sound recording of musical ideas with social issues.
Guillermo Alonso, is a partner in Research and Popular Education Self- Management Civil Assosiation (IEPAAC- based on Spanish “Investigación y Educación Popular Autogestiva A.C.” ). He will assist by monitoring and advising on the evaluation of the project.
Musicians: Pool Punk, Yazmín Novelo, Pío Pech Varguez, Capitan Pachamama, Ruido Social, Chan Santa Roots, Mamá Ruda, La Kolekta, and others.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
We want to create inter-knowledge workshops with ten leaders of musical projects, so that they in turn can share the knowledge built with other musical partners that are part of their communities. The participation may be maintained with previous agreed partnerships, by finding strategies to address transportation expenses and meals for participants and also to facilitate documentation tools to replicate the strategies in their communities.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The team we have created incorporates five musicians and a computer programmer. The musicians are familiar with a diverse variety of fields, such as anthropology of music, social work, communication and agroecology. Together, we have knowledge of sound recording in high quality and in the area of visual recording and editing, producing free software, web programming on different platforms, in order to generate community workshops on culture and arts, and to develop strategies to share musical knowledge.
We will use laptops, audio interfaces and basic microphones to produce music. From these tools we can create three different workshops:
1) on use of microphones and recording in the field;
2) on free software for music production;
3) on collaborative music composition.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
“The Rizoma Community” [http://colectivosantiaguero.org/gracias/] is a space of 30 m2, located in the historical center of Merida where we have the tools to invite people to find their human qualities and document their artistic ability. We have the following equipment for the project to be completed successfully: Laptop Asus s6c, Icore5, 16gb en ram; PC, Icore7, 16gb en ram; Interface ZoomR16 8ch; Yamaha MG166cx 16ch; Internet Wireless 5mbps; 2 Monitors Mackie Mr8 MkII; 2 Speakers JBL-JRX15; 1 Amplifiers Backstage CS12000; 2 Mic Rode NTG1, 1 Mic XML990, 1 Mic Shure Beta52, 4 Mic, 2 headphones RolandRH5, 2 hp audiotechnica, 5 bases of microphone, 2 tables 1.80m, 1 Launchpad, 1 Controler Behringer, 1 Marshall MG100FX, 1 Drums Pearl Forum Series, Audacity 2.0.5, 1 movil Chevy2006.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
In Santiaguero Collective, of which I am part, we have worked with youth for 8 years. We try to explore ways to generate free collaborative culture based on solidarity economies and self-management: equipment loan, generation of cultural spaces, musical collaborations. We would like to incorporate the sharing of equipment for each group to develop their own ideas for the future.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Our goal is to learn from the collective motivation. Share and receive knowledge to conduct the workshops. Build a social bond among participants to enable us continue to work in each of our dreams. We thought of the physical distance that separates us from the musicians and transportation of instruments, but is a constant with which we have always had to deal with.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Seek strategies that are designed documented and validated by the participants. We will rely on participation during the 45 workshops. Will be significant for us the possibility of developing problems detected 10 and proposed solutions for each of these.
Guillermo Alonso, is a partner in Research and Popular Education Self- Management Civil Assosiation (IEPAAC- based on Spanish “Investigación y Educación Popular Autogestiva A.C.” ). He will assist by monitoring and advising on the evaluation of the project.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Month 1:
Organizational Meeting (2s)
Workshop on Mayan Language (TLM) (2s)
Workshop on collaborative music composition 1 (WCMC) (1s)
Month 2:
WCMC 1 (1s)
Workshop on Recording in the Field 1 (RIF) (2s)
Disclose in Social Networks (DSN) (1s)
WCMC 2 (1s)
Month 3:
WCMC 2 (1s)
RIF 2 (2s)
DSN (1s)
TLM (2s)
WCMC 3 (1s)
Month 4:
WCMC 3 (1s)
RIF 3 (2s)
DSN (1s)
WCMC 4 (1s)
Month 5:
WCMC 4 (1s)
RIF 4 (2s)
DSN (1s)
TLM (2s)
WCMC 5 (1s)
Month 6:
WCMC 5 (1s)
RIF 5 (2s)
DSN (1s)
Meeting for Feedback 1 (MFF)(1s)
Mastering Workshop 1 (MW)(1s)
Month 7:
MFF 2 (1s)
MW 2 (1s)
WCMC 6 (2s)
RIF 6 (2s)
Month 8:
DSN (1s)
WCMC 7 (2s)
RIF 7 (2s)
Month 9:
DSN (1s)
WCMC 8 (2s)
RIF 8 (2s)
Month 10:
DSN (1s)
WCMC 9 (2s)
RIF 9 (2s)
Month 11:
DSN (1s)
WCMC 10 (2s)
RIF 10 (2s)
Month 12:
DSN (1s)
MFF 2 (2s)
MW 3 (2s)
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
$ 380 Dls | Electric Power 1 year
$ 300 Dls | Internet Service 1 year
$ 350 Dls | h4n field recorder
$ 507 Dls | Supply partners (7.69 dlls per session)
$ 761 Dls | Transport reviewers (11.53 Dlls per session)
$ 100 Dls | Cables and Rechargeable Batteries
$ 100 Dls | Pay a translator
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We believe that the project is viable because it is based on the knowledge of the members and collaborators. Our experience, knowledge, time and effort as musicians and managers; Management software as well as support of our capital and favors chain that has worked since our formation.
Contact name
David Escalante Euán
Organization
Colectivo Santiaguero