Camera: Pruitt Allen, David Barnes, Hayden Draycott, Ned Driscoll, Anna Beth Lee, John Wetmore
Editing: Ned Driscoll
Originating from San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala, Sara Curruchich stands out as the first Indigenous woman to perform internationally in both Spanish and Maya Kaqchikel, her native language. At the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Indigenous Voices of the Americas program, she opened the concert with the song “Abriendo La Voz” (Opening the Voice), paying tribute to the diverse voices of nature, including the forest, rain, fireflies, and corn. Accompanied by her bandmates—Moty on drums, Sandra Moreno on marimba, and Karla Molkovich on bass—Curruchich beautifully demonstrates how traditional Indigenous music from Guatemala can harmonize with various other musical genres.
“Indigenous music should not be confined to our traditional forms,” she expressed in a subsequent interview. “We should engage with contemporary genres like rock and pop without losing our Indigenous identity.”
Eloy Neira de la Cadena is an intern for the 2024 Festival and a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside.
