Entre Mujeres: Collective Songwriting in a Mexican Community

To illustrate their experience with the Collective Songwriting, Martha Gonzalez (2020) provides an in-depth account of a collaboration where both she and musician Quetzal Flores engaged in this process. As a part of a Fulbright-Garcia Robles sponsored scholarship project called Entre Mujeres, Gonzalez and Flores relocated to Xalapa, Mexico, to collaborate with women participating in another participatory musical culture called son jarocho.

Their goal was to create musical artifacts that expressed the women’s experiences as participants in this tradition as well as their concerns regarding the effects of transnationalism on their lives. Through moments of participation in community musical events called fandangos, extended jam sessions captured on portable recording equipment, and conversations that focused on generating collective expression and chronicling the essence of the shared testimonios through lyricism, Gonzalez and the other participants were able to create a musical artifact that documented their “experiences as women, life lessons, and general life philosophies” (Gonzalez, 2020, p. 97).

As described in the above section, the testimonios that were produced through these vulnerable, emotionally charged, and hopeful conversations set the tone for the music that eventually emerged. Below are the lyrics to the song “Sobreviviendo” that this group created (Gonzalez, 2020, g. 98):

The people live in struggle
Without knowing what is to come
As they walk their journeys
New roads emerge
They don’t know if there will be a tomorrow
But nevertheless they depart
Surviving, survive
Just moving, without sensing

Despite the strongest winds
The palm tree will always be
I bend to the sadness
I stand tall for the loving
The root is what matters
For all humanity

In essence, the process of creating the lyrics is the foundational activity of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, mainly because “testimonio centers firsthand knowledge and experience as an invaluable resource and a place from which knowledge can be formulated” (Gonzalez, 2020, p. 101).

This knowledge is not limited only to socio- historical understandings of the world but also extends to the negotiated synthesis of musical knowledge that results from the sharing of musical contributions from each participating member. For example, the final musical artifact contained elements of son jarocho, the extended harmonies of vocal jazz, Afro-Peruvian cajon rhythms (particularly zamacueca), a soaring violin melody, and musical stylings that are similar to the South African choir tradition.

In line with the indigenous element of participatory horizontally introduced earlier (Figueroa Hernandez, 2007), all participants were able to contribute based on the particular skill sets and perspectives that they brought to the collaboration.