Interview with Comadre Araña, conducted by Michael Birenbaum Quintero, during the 7th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, held in August of 2009 in Bogotá, Colombia under the title Staging Citizenship: Cultural Rights in the Americas. In this interview, the group Comadre Araña talks about how its particular performance-related work makes a political intervention in the public sphere. This interview complements Comadre Araña's concert, showcased in this 10-day event, which brought together activism, scholarship, and art around the themes of legacies, memories, struggles, and frontiers of citizenship.

Biography

In Comadre Araña, the traditional music of Colombia's Pacific region meets jazz, rock, pop and electronic music. Three female voices intermingle with the rhythm of the bombo, marimba, cununo and guasá, along with electronic instruments such as the Indian sitar, the tiple guitar of the Colombian Andes, loops, samplers and all the resources of live electronic music.

Members:
Juan Sebastián Monsalve (Director and bass player)
Juanita Delgado (voice)
Verónica Atehortúa (voice
Urpi Barco Quintana (voice)
Andrés Felipe Salazas (drums and percussion)
Rocío Medina (marimba de chonta and percussion)
Edwin Ospina (electric guitar, percussion)
Camilo Velásquez (tiple guitar, electronic programming and guitar)