World music arrives at UNAM with a message of peace and social cohesion.

▲ The Pasatono Orchestra and the Tierra Mestiza Ensemble (right) will perform at the Nezahualcóyotl Hall on September 6 and at the Simón Bolívar Amphitheater on September 21, respectively. Photo: Annete Pérez and Eduardo Baltezer

Angel Vargas

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, August 16, 2025, p. 5

Music is an instrument of peace and social cohesion, said Mixtec musician Rubén Luengas, director of Pasatono Orchestra, when describing how in the Sierra de Oaxaca, people seal alliances through the gozona , a musical exchange where “I bring a band to your party and then you return the gift.”

This is the philosophy that guides the participation of this Oaxacan musical project in World Music , a series organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) that will bring together six groups from Mexico, Argentina, and Poland from September 6 to October 5.

Behind this initiative is the intention to build bridges between roots and modernity, but also to open institutional spaces and concert halls dedicated to academic or classical music to traditional music or works inspired by those territories.

"It's very important to establish a dialogue between concert music and music rooted in the roots," emphasized composer José Julio Díaz Infante, head of the UNAM Music Department, when announcing the program for the series at a press conference yesterday. This program is part of the First National Week of a Culture of Peace at the country's leading educational institution.

In addition to Pasatono Orchestra, which will inaugurate this concert series with its debut at the Nezahualcóyotl Hall on September 6, the lineup includes the Tierra Mestiza Ensemble, also from Mexico, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary on September 13 at the Carlos Chávez Hall. On September 14, the Coral Meridies studio from Argentina will perform at the Simón Bolívar Amphitheater, a venue that will host the Polish children's choir Don-Diri-Don on the 21st.

With a proposal that blends Celtic, Scandinavian, Balkan, son jarocho, and jazz music, the Mexican ensemble Basasa will offer a free concert at Las Islas de CU, while Los Viudos de Piazzolla, a quartet led by bandoneon player César Olguín, will bring their classic and contemporary tango to the Simón Bolívar Amphitheater on October 5.

Díaz Infante emphasized that all these groups, in their respective fields and through their repertoires, have done significant work in raising awareness of tradition to the public, as well as how it evolves and interacts with modernity.

“The fact that all the concerts in the series feature newly created music is an essential message, because ultimately, that's what keeps any expression alive. Of course, the entire field of research from every angle is very important: musicological, ethnomusicological, anthropological, but ultimately, these musics aren't museum expressions: they're living music,” he emphasized.

“It's music of our time, contemporary, but rooted in its roots. That's very important: that the public can experience all these new creations and make them their own, request more of them, and seek to ensure that institutional spaces, festivals, and other venues become increasingly open to these proposals. That's what will keep our music alive and evolving.”

The fact that this series is part of UNAM's First National Week of a Culture of Peace has a profound significance for composer Gerardo Tamez, director of the Tierra Mestiza Ensemble and recent recipient of the 2024 National Prize for Arts and Literature.

"It's very important because we're past those times when it was necessary to search for an identity to see where we came from. I'm referring specifically to the era of nationalism, which was certainly justified, but is no longer appropriate for our times," he reflected.

Invitation to shake hands

Today, he added, we understand that seemingly alien cultures also belong to us: “It's part of a global understanding. We don't need to create nationalisms, be gregarious societies, isolate ourselves, or be chauvinistic. It's a time when the world has to catch up with itself.”

In this regard, Rubén Luengas emphasized that Pasatono Orchestra's proposal is an invitation to reflection, analysis, and, "above all, to extend a hand" through a musical invitation.

"Beyond the official projects, which can help, we see, from the perspective of the community and the reality of the people, how music is a peacemaker and a method of social cohesion," he stated, citing the example of the "gozona" (a type of dance).

After celebrating the opening of UNAM and the Nezahualcóyotl Hall to this type of musical proposal, the composer and researcher agreed with Díaz Infante on the importance of dialogue as a factor in promoting rapprochement, not only between genres, eras, and musical proposals, but also in human and social terms to build peace.

“For the cultures of Oaxaca, words are very important, and they are found in many languages, which we interpret as music. In fact, we have a work for orchestra and tonal language, Palabra Sagrada , in which language is used as the main material for the music,” he added.

"In the villages, as our elders used to say, the only thing we have and the most important thing is the word we speak. It establishes dialogue, and through it, we can build peace, communion, and social cohesion."

Regarding his group's proposal, which will celebrate its 27th anniversary on September 4, the Mixtec musician defined it as "a kind of musical grammar," given that its members come from different indigenous communities in Oaxaca.

This grammar "is expressed through Triqui, Zapotec, and Mixe thought, with distinct ways of understanding the world and the musical universe of each of these cultures. Oaxaca is one of the most musically diverse places in Mexico, and that is expressed in this musical language that we are going to share now."

Regarding her debut concert at the Nezahualcóyotl Hall, she indicated that it will be titled Migrante 27: Music of Migration, Exile and Transhumance , "because we are going to engage in a series of stories through music that have to do with these themes, in addition to including a repertoire about peace, something so important and necessary for our country, our region and our entity."

He added: “We are suddenly very surprised by the genocides and wars in other countries, but we rarely reflect on what is happening in our own territory. I'm talking about my region, Oaxaca, the Mixteca region, the Triqui region, where violence is a daily occurrence. One of our members, a traditional singer, had to flee his homeland because social movements can be very strong and violent.”

More information about the concerts can be found at https://musica.unam.mx.