Annotations for Places: Chile

In an old classroom in South Seattle, in the community center known as El Centro De La Raza, a transformation is taking place. Two evenings a week, kids as young as eight and as old as 20, some of them just a step away from joining a gang, are instead writing poetry. Ingrid Lobet reports that little by little, the kids and the adults who hear them are realizing the importance of what they have to say.

Outside the old school building, a dozen kids are shooting hoops as a cool night begins to fall across the city of Seattle.

Fellas, let's go.

As 6:30 approaches, the kids file into the classroom from the ball court. Others come in from elsewhere, looking tired. Whether tired or full of energy, the 15 kids in this room are here by choice. They've come because here they can put heart into words.

Ode To My Car. The exhaust blows out like the drop of oil. The black dewey night that passes, simply turn itself into a single piece of grass.

Martinez, Armando (Man) has been coming to El Centro for several months now.

Wild rivers, one drop of water that continues, grass, and then run off with my motor vehicle.

The kids' hands shoot into the air. They can't wait to comment. Their comments encourage, but also suggest certain word changes or changes in delivery. Armando's own older sister has a comment for him. I liked your poem, hijo, she says, it was really good. I like the way you read really slow.

Let's go ahead and stand up. It really helps to stand up. I'll be right here beside him.

But even the support that fills this room isn't enough for 16-year-old Glenda Arenas on her first night. When it comes time for her to read the poem she's just written, she hangs her head, her long dark hair, mostly covering her face. Her voice begins, barely audible.

Ode To The Homies. The tree, kicking it. Summer, smooth.

This first night, Glenda can't finish. Another girl comes over, stands by her, and finishes the poem.

Ode to the homie, the tree, kicking it. Summer, smooth. It's all eight-ball. Say eyes, high on weed, 44 Magnum, blow to the head, a scorched rag in the hood, the brightness and the sky showing a flag. Green, white, and red grows into multiplication, sweet and sad.

There's a little poet running around your house, no matter how small he or she is.

Roberto Maestas has directed El Centro for 20 years. He's seen a good number of the 74 children who've spent time in the workshops changed by them. Some are getting better grades, some are being invited to recite poetry at rallies and banquets.

I don't think that poetry itself is going to save the inner cities, but when a young person reads their poetry and other people appreciate their poetry, that begins to build a sense of value, a sense of worth, a sense of somebodiness.

Recently, we had an election for student council, and I didn't really think I'd make it, and I beat everybody by 10 points. It was really amazing.

15-year-old Sandra Martinez says it was in the poetry workshops that she learned to be confident enough to assume that position of leadership.

My name's Sandra Martinez and the poem I'm going to read is "Garibaldi Park in Mexico City".

Blue corazon danced on the stones, cuando la mujer was tocando las musica. On the streets, los gatos laughed, and tonight's the final night.

The poets of El Centro, known as Hope for Youth, now have a book, it's called Words Up. And the kids are getting more and more attention, some even nationally and internationally. Just recently, Hope for Youth received an invitation from the government of Chile to travel there this summer. For Latino USA, I'm Ingrid Lobet in Seattle.

The musical style known as La Nueva Canción, the new song movement, was beginning in the mid sixties and for 20 years, the signature sound of Latin American music. Founded by singers Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara of Chile and Atahualpa Yupanqui in Argentina. La Nueva Canción sought to create an awareness of Latin America's Indigenous musical heritage while addressing the region's political situation. Today, as younger generations identify more with the Rock in español, or Rock in Spanish movement, La Nueva Canción has lost some of its popularity. But a group of Latin American musicians living in Madison Wisconsin, believes strongly that La Nueva Canción is still alive and well. Even as they strive for a new sound fusing musical styles. Betto Arcos prepared this profile of the musical group called Sotavento.

[Transition Music]

Founded in 1981 by a group of Latin Americans living in Madison, Wisconsin. Sotavento's early recordings focused on the legacy of the Nueva canción movement. Traditional music primarily from South American regions played on over 30 instruments, but as the group grew musically and new members replaced the old ones, their approach to music making also changed.

[Un Siete--Sotavento]

For percussionist. Orlando Cabrera, a native of Puerto Rico, the band search for a new sound helps each member bring his or her own musical background.

We get together and someone starts playing a rhythm based on some traditional music, let's say from Mexico, from Peru. This person might ask, why do you play something there? Some percussion, for example, and at least in my case, my first approach will be to play what I grew up with. The things I feel more comfortable with. So if it fits and it sounds good, then we'll just go ahead and do something.

We are a hybrid. I mean we're all kind of different flowers that are being sort of sewn together and planted together, and what comes out is a very, very different kind of flower.

[Flute music] The hybrid group always searching for its own sound is how founding member Anne Fraioli defines the music of Sotavento and in their last recording, mostly original compositions. Sotavento takes Latin American music one step ahead by blending instruments and styles to form a new one.

[Amacord--Sotavento]

Sotavento's approach to composing and playing music is the group's artistic response to a top 40 music industry that overlooks creativity and experimentation. For Francisco López, a native of Mexico, this commercial environment and the group's principles of Nueva Canción have a lot to do with Sotavento's search for a new sound.

Nueva Canción has always been alive and always been alive because there's always somebody out there that is trying to produce new stuff, and that's what Nueva Canción is all about. Somebody that is uncomfortable with situations. Say for example, the commercialization of music.

According to lead vocalist, Laura Fuentes. The fact that the group's music may be heard on a light jazz or new age radio station proves that Sotavento's music is what is happening right now and that it is not completely folkloric or passe.

[Esto Es Sencillo--Sotavento]

However, Laura Fuentes believes that Sotavento's music is not specifically designed to sell. Sharing what they feel as artists is hard.

But it's worth it. I can't see us putting on shiny clothes and high heels trying to sell somebody something that we are not, something that people seem to be more willing to buy. I'd rather challenge people to hear the beauty in something different, something new.

[El Destajo--Sotavento]

For Fuentes, a native of Chile, Sotavento is also a way of establishing a connection between an artistic musical expression and its historical background.

[El Destajo--Sotavento]

An example of this connection is a Afro Peruvian style, known as Festejo, a musical style created by a small black community in Peru as a result of the living conditions they experienced during slavery.

[El Destajo--Sotavento]

In keeping with the tradition of the new song movement, Sotavento arranged music for a poem by Cuba's Poet Laureate, Nicolás Guillén. The poem called, Guitarra is for Sotavento's and Farioli a symbol of the voice of the people.

[Guitarra--Sotavento]

Wherever people are, there's going to be a voice, and I think my guitarra represents that voice, that's music, and I think it's also saying that people have to hold on to their roots. They have to hold on to their musical traditions, because it's those traditions that are really going to allow them to express who they really are, where they really come from.

[Guitarra--Sotavento]

This summer Sotavento will perform in Milwaukee and Madison, and in the fall there will begin a tour of Spain. The recording called El Siete was released on Redwood records. For Latino USA, this is Betto Arcos, Colorado.

When the stars left, the crowd went to the ballroom floor, to the food tables. There were tiny empanadas on one, some fancy fruit on another. The caterer promised the grapes were from Chile, not from California where Latino farm workers are still boycotting. And on a table over in the corner, there were tiny little tamales. The people serving them even unwrap them for you. With Patricia Guadalupe, I'm Franc Contreras in Washington.