New York – Employing music as a weapon against war, especially the chronic one in his homeland, Colombia’s Cesar Lopez Villegas fashions hybrid guitars using elements of guns as part of a “civil resistance” movement embraced by Juanes and other celebrities.
The initiative has also been signed on to by percussionist Juan Sebastian, cellist Sandra and singer Adriana Lucia, with whom Lopez formed the group “Almas Parlantes” (Talking Souls) six months ago, a project of love for Colombia that they have now brought to New York.
On Thursday, an “escopetarra” – a blend of the Spanish words “escopeta” or rifle and “guitarra,” guitar – will be presented to the United Nations at the conference on small arms and light weapons that began here on Monday.
The musical instrument will be auctioned off in September and the funds will be donated to a social project in the town of San Jose de Apartado in Colombia, the 33-year-old Lopez told EFE.
Lopez thought up the idea of creating an escopetarra in 2003, and the project now has the backing of the Colombian government.
His commitment to converting weapons – which each year kill 17,600 people in Colombia, according to the U.N. – into musical instruments has captured the attention of other famous performers, including Lopez’s compatriot Juanes and Argentina’s Fito Paez, both of whom already have their own escopetarras.
In addition, his idea has attracted pop phenomenon Shakira and Mexican performer Julieta Venegas, who will shortly receive their own instruments.
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has asked for one, as well as Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana, but the young members of Almas Parlantes also dream of getting requests from Bono, Sting and other artists so as to take the message of halting violence to other parts of the world.
“Bono and Sting are also involved in bringing messages of peace with their music and our mission is to foster the transformation of a violent weapon into an instrument that transmits emotions and peace, in place of the adrenaline of violence,” said 28-year-old Juan Sebastian.
The process of converting an AK-47 assault rifle into a musical instrument with all the technical specifications takes a month and costs $2,200, and Lopez says over the next few months they will convert 15 rifles into escopetarras in the Bogota workshop of Luis Alberto Pared with funds donated by the United Nations.
To have brought to the U.N. the voices of the thousands of Colombians who have suffered violence from weapons, which have killed about 475,000 Colombians since 1979, is something that pleases Lopez and his companions, who on Wednesday will – for the first time – offer a concert at a Manhattan nightclub.
The quartet will share the stage with African singer Angelique Kidjo, who in her songs has dealt with the issues of race, the environment, neglect and the need for integration, although her main concern is education.
The social messages presented by Almas Parlantes in their music, which is a fusion of Colombian folk with rock, are put together by Lopez with the help of the others, each of whom brought to the band the experience of other musical groups to which they have belonged. But above all, the thing that they all desire is peace for their homeland.
“In Colombia, we have received a Master’s Degree in pain, but I think that that has made us stronger as a society and we value not only efforts for peace but also each tiny triumph that a foundation or the U.N. has, because we understand the urgency of the message and the transformations,” Lopez said.
He said that the message that they bring to the young people who are coming to the concert is that “weapons don’t give strength to your arguments.”
The concert is sponsored by Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms and Oxfam International.
“Almas Parlantes is a bet, a way of life and each time we go out on stage we want to affect people. We know that we’re not staying quiet in the face of the violence in the country and that we young people have resources, ideas and dreams to fulfill,” said Sandra, 31.
Like her colleagues, Adriana Lucia believes firmly that “we can sow positive things for new generations.”
“We know that there are seeds that are going to stay there and that others are going to gather them and that is the idea: for the music to be something more than entertainment, for it to act on and have an effect on people. We know that music is a marvelous weapon and we want to use it,” she said.
