Sara Curruchich

Xun Ciin/Courtesy of the artist

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Xun Ciin/Courtesy of the artist

Sara Curruchich

Xun Ciin/Courtesy of the artist

Editor’s Observe: To commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month this 12 months, World Cafe is happening a musical tour of Latin America. Each weekday from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we’ll highlight the music of a special Latin American nation with a curated playlist of important tracks, recent voices and wild playing cards.

As with lots of our 21 Days playlists, our tour into music in Guatemala is rooted within the nation’s Indigenous traditions.

For hundreds of years, Maya peoples have used a wide range of wind and percussion devices, like ocarinas, guiros and rattles, which are nonetheless current within the work of artists right now. Sara Curruchich and Ch’umilkaj are each singer-songwriters of Kaqchikel descent who mix conventional people music with extra up to date instrumentation, writing songs about Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples and their struggle for equality.

Then, there’s an instrument that holds a particular place in Guatemala’s musical historical past: The marimba has been in style right here ever since enslaved individuals from Africa introduced early variations of the percussion instrument. You’ll be able to hear it on this playlist from teams like Maderas Chapinas and Bohemia Suburbana.

Presumably certainly one of our favourite threads on this playlist is the bevy of vibrant indie pop music from artists like Tita, Los Florifundia and Tijuana Love. We extremely suggest Tita’s 2022 album, Mundo Merciless.

Additionally within the combine is Grammy-nominated songwriter and guitarist Gaby Moreno. We have included an album minimize, that includes fellow Guatemalan Oscar Isaac, from her 2023 acoustic album, X Mí (Vol. 1).

Take pleasure in, and be sure to come again tomorrow to search out out the place World Cafe‘s headed subsequent.