Embodying sound: body, territory, and community in the music of Mare Advertencia and Cynthia Montaño

ABSTRACT

Rap and urban music have become increasingly relevant in the study of alternative practices of art, activism, and resistance in Latin America. This article examines how Mare Advertencia Lirika (Zapotec) and Cynthia Montaño (Afro-Colombian) use rap to build community and women’s agency through staging Indigenous and Afro ancestral knowledge in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Cali, Colombia, respectively. Grounded on an analysis of their albums and the conduct of ethnographic work in Oaxaca and Cali, I contend that these artists’ rap art embodies alternative forms of Indigenous, Black, and grassroots expressions from a feminist community perspective. By embedding their work on ancestral knowledge, community practices, and an interwoven sense of cuerpo-territorio, both at the sound and lyrical levels, these artists challenge patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist violence. This study aims to understand better the intersections between music, women of color’s agency, and social movements in local/global scenarios.

KEYWORDS:

• Rap
• cuerpo-territorio
• community
• race
• indigeneity
• women

Acknowledgements

I want to express my special gratitude to Cynthia Montaño and Mare Advertencia Lirika for the hours of conversation and their clarity and openness. Without them, this article would not have been possible. Additionally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers at LACES for their constructive critiques and the editor for their guidance throughout the process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For further reference, see McSherry (2017).

2. Abya Yala is a term of Kuna origin widely adopted by Indigenous peoples throughout Latin America to refer to the American continent.

3. This uprising started in the 2006 march by Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), which Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz met with violent repression. In response to the government violence, the people of Oaxaca occupied the Zocalo. They formed the First Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) to demand Ruiz Ortiz’s resignation. This struggle was a response to immediate repression and the government’s intention to silence widespread protests for the benefit of big corporations and the state. The APPO declared they were fighting against exploitation and extractivism by big corporations and the state.

4. Marimba is a suspended xylophone composed of chonta slats, each with a guadua resonator, and played with rubber-covered mallets, accompanied by drums and maracas. For more information, see Sevilla (2008).

5. For further reference, see the documentary ‘La marimba: el piano de la selva’ by Anthony Gonzales Canga.

6. It is important to note here that these connections are also present in the theoretical and critical elaborations of ecofeminist thinkers (Mies and Shiva 2014)

7. My own translation from: ‘Las mujeres indígenas enfrentamos la colonialidad que habita al interior de nuestros pueblos y ocasiona violencia de género, pérdida de nuestra espiritualidad e identidad, y el terricidio en todas sus formas’

8. See Quijano (1992).

Additional information

Funding

The Tinker Summer Field Research Grant supported this work for the summer of 2022, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Grant at The University of Texas at Austin for the summers of 2021 and 2022.

Notes on contributors

Pilar Villanueva-Martinez

Pilar Villanueva-Martínez is a Ph.D. in Latin American Cultures and Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work focuses on the music production of Indigenous, Black, and Mestiza women in Latin America. Her research deals with the intersection of music, race and gender, feminist geographies, and decolonizing methodologies.