This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and Courture Latino USA. Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest of the media.
And while the country is struggling to deal with these, we listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studios United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.
I'm Maria Inojosa. Noan getio, gebila gevirix Latino USA. Listener, What's up? What's up? You know what I love? I love our archive. Here's a story from it.
I really didn't have a musical community until maybe I was like seventeen or eighteen years old in Chile, because growing up, it was really more me and my own world, spending time in that kind of wonderment with music, whether it was like Spice Girls or Keith Jarrett, Oh Sweet Genety's and Charlie Arcia.
From Pudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Josa Today. Francisca Valinsuela, the Chilean American singer, songwriter, author and entrepreneur Francisca Valinsuella's musical identity was shaped in two countries, the United States, where she was born and spent her childhood, and Chile, her family's homeland, where she moved to in her teens. It was there in San Diego, Chile's capital city, that her prolific career as a bilingual pop rocker would begin.
Francisca's music career is a testament to Chile's thriving DIY music scene. Her efforts to get the attention of major labels weren't working out, so Francisca cut her teeth, performing in small venues and reaching out to local radio stations. Her first album, Moredree de la Lengua, was released in two thousand and seven. From there, Francisca found success as
a workie musician. In twenty fourteen, she created her own music label called Frantastic Records, and she toured in the United States, where she continued to build her global fan base. After noticing a lack of women in music festivals around the world, Francisca founded a LATINX feminist community called Ridosa, which means a noisy woman. Since its inception in twenty sixteen, Rithosa has hosted an annual music and culture festival throughout
the Americas. Artists such as Javiera Parra, Huimera, Sarrignana, and Pussy Riot have played at Ridosa Fest, and other creatives like Monla Ferte, Lido Pimenta, and Jessica Salgado have spoken at Ridosa's events and panels. Even during the COVID nineteen epidemic, the platform has engaged with its community with online workshops and interviews. Francisca released her fourth studio album, La fort
Lesa in January of twenty twenty. On this episode, Francisca talks about her journey from California to Chile, and she takes us on the road that led her to La fort Lesa.
Hi, everybody, my name is Francisca Alenzuela. I'm a Chilean singer, songwriter, performer.
And artist Hope and Joy.
I was born in California, in San Francisco. My family is bicultural, so I grew up kind of first generation of a Chilean family in the Bay Area. My parents, which are Chilean, were in the States since the seventies and then they went back to Chile and took us
with them naturally in the nineties. I grew up in elementary school until like sixth grade or so in the Bay Area, and then moved to Chile with my family, so we have kind of this multicultural Chile California, you know, Lyringo Chileno situation.
I think that I was really lucky because my.
Family really preserved the Chilean identity and were able to maintain that in the house. So, for example, growing up, I remember I learned how to read and write in English first, and I remember I call my mom.
Like mom, and she'd be like Mama.
So there was always this this kind of natural yet conscious effort to keep us attached to both cultures. And I think I'm very lucky that I've been able to live a bicultural or multicultural identity, which is something that many people in the US I think have. At the time when I moved there, I was confronted with a whole bunch of things that I took for granted in California, which is naturally very diverse, which is very progressive, and has so many resources, and it's such a unique history
and identity. So going back to Chile, there were all these other issues that I had never even thought about. And there was all these formalities too that I wasn't exposed to, and a lot of religion. So there was a lot of culture clash in many respects, whether in my inability to communicate properly or the more conservative kind of very antiquated culture in many ways. Language wise, eventually I began to kind of not only get comfortable with Spanish,
but also understand myself in Spanish. Like, for example, I didn't know how to really read in Spanish that well, and then eventually I was like, I got curious about reading in Spanish. I was like, who are the most famous authors in Spanish? Like who are singer songwriters in Spanish. That's how I discovered like Shaquita last Elia. I began to kind of go down the nopster at the time hole and google all the different kinds of singers and begin to be interested in the language itself.
Poets.
I remember, I was like into poetry, so I was like, who are the Spanish poets and found and all these different voices that I had never discovered. I think if I always had an interest in the arts in general, and literature and music and books, I'm very lucky because.
In my house that was always very nurtured.
Even though my parents and my brothers aren't necessarily in the creative arts or in literature or anything like that, they were always validating this interest and seeing it as something that was important and valuable. They'd allow me whether at ten or fifteen, I was like, family, sit down and have a show to put on, and then I'll
be like, okay, here she goes. Do you think the idea of pursuing music or really switching to music came much later, like I would say, in my late teens, because I was always writing and doing stuff with music, and I began to take piano lessons really young. Then when I was in Chile, I did more piano lessons and actually was interested in pursuing classical music at one point because I wanted to be like Keith Jarrett. That
was my dream, like an improv jazz pianist. But the classical piano things seemed so daunting and imposs and I remember this one teacher once was like, you know, there's only one classical pianist for orchestra. It so difficult, and I was like, oh, I'm never going to.
Get that spot.
On the side, I would write songs for myself and write songs in a very pop format, and only when I began to show it to my friends in high school, they were like, this song really resonates with me. I totally identify, and they'd asked me to sing the song in school.
When we get together in those houses. And it kind of became a thing. It kind of like my stick that.
I would write songs, and I would write songs about boys I liked or my friends' stories, and that also was really encouraging Giadne, Oh, that's good. Scenes. Eventually music began to take off for me, and sheated performing my own stuff, you know, maybe two or three years in a certain circuit because I was performing like in restaurants and jazz bars and all that kind of stuff.
And eventually put together a band.
And once that band began to perform and was part of a scene, and I began to put together an album and eventually make a little bit of money off of that, I was like, Okay, I think I'm safe, and I can you know, quit college and really commit to this full time love.
I know, get okay.
So my first album in Chile called Morte Dere Lingua, which means by your tongue came out. We recorded it, I think in two thousand and five, two thousand and six. I actually recorded it with the generous collaboration of a band in Chia, Carlos Bunks, and they kind of god fathered the project and taught me a whole bunch of things I had never been in a studio before. We'd rehearse and do all this stuff to kind of eventually
put together an EP. And that EP I took to multiple radio stations everywhere, to TV anyone that I thought could listen to it and open an opportunity for these songs to be heard somewhere.
I took to.
I would go on a daily basis all these places with my songs, and I put together the MySpace and the YouTube and eventually the Facebook and all the platforms that were integral to having an independent project.
Because I had even gone to labels at the.
Time, the very few ones in the Southern Cone like Agentina, Chile, and they all said no. So I was like, I can either sit and wait for something or someone to come and pick me up. Just might as well move forward and figure this out because I don't have another option.
Really gombnad Misste.
The first album came out, the first songs began to sound on the radio. This was a you know, a process of maybe two years or so, and as I was saying very much artisanal, very much DIY and then I was performing and finding places to play and kind of begging places to let me perform, and eventually things began to slowly take off. And when that happened, I
think I began to feel more comfortable and validated. I think I'm still on that path of self validation and self discovery and learning how to listen to myself as an artist and who I am as an artist.
Truly, it took me a while to really have a self confidence to be like, Okay.
Yeah I am I can be a captain of this vote, I can be the leader of my project. I can understand that there's an artist in me that you know, deserves to be heard kind of And then also began to eventually see how can I leave Chile, how can I make this a project that has the international reach? And that's been kind of the path. Which is the last and most recent album that came out. I think I didn't really have an idea of or a shape
of the album. Previously, it began to come together maybe a year before, like a year in, I want to say, the sense that I released them and was the first single, and just when Thoma came out, I began to imagine what this album was was speaking to and what photo it was taking of the moment.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah do momento moment ah yeah yeah, ooh yeah yeah yeah doment moment ah yeah yeah.
There's an inherent difference between this alum and the previous just because of course the person I am today not the person I was five ten years ago their moment. I would say it's a very confessional and emotional album that speaks to the process of empowerment and power and getting out of the dark place that maybe a lot.
Of us have been through at times.
And it's an album that has moments of like self realization and insecurity, and it's kind of a conversation with myself and also with the world in different dimensions, whether as like a woman, whether it's sexists, invisruality, whether it's joy, whether it's giving in to someone else, whether it's getting over a really damaging relationship.
I think also especially for women.
Culturally, we grew up thinking that the hero is someone outside of us, someone that comes and rescues us. I wanted to illustrate that with the concept of Ita So You'll Sit. It is a song that talks about the battle that we all may face on a day day basis, whether with ourselves, the world, someone something specific and overcoming that battle. My idea with the song and the concept was defined or resignifying the idea of who a hero is. And it also speaks to the fact that sometimes our
biggest enemy, our biggest villain, is ourselves. If we overcome which we're all capable of, we can also be our own heroes. It's almost like a cinematic description about what I imagine, how strength feels like, what it looks like. It's a moment to look at yourself and see who you are and accept that and love that and love all the pieces in the parts.
I almost forget sometimes that I wrote that song.
You know, even in the recent months when things have been hard, my friends are.
Like friend, but you got this. You wrote the song.
You understand that this is something you can you know you can face and you can do, especially for women and people that have been marginalized. I think not only are many stories and realities made invisible or made to feel invalidated, but I think also we're put into boxes. And I think the idea of truly freeing yourself from whatever chains are holding you back is an invitation that
is really power horful. This is a song and this is an album that talks about this personal journal is personal transformation and strength, but it also talks about how.
We are strong together.
As is an intersectional, interdisciplinary LATINX feminist festival, community and platform and we you know, we seek to empower women and marginalized voices and non binary voices in the creative industries throughout Latin America and the US, and we do that with actual music festivals. I put that together in twenty sixteen. We've been doing festivals and stuff all over the region. We've done stuff in Peru, Argentina, Mexico, here
in the States as well. We do workshops, we do conversation panels, talks, and seminars, and we also do content and research. How can there be one girl representing all Mexican girls in Mexican music when there's not.
One type of woman for the succeed in La care.
We have different stories, and I believe that all of our stories should be represented.
We put together the first study on female participation in Latin American music festivals and Latin American award shows and awards just to kind of put on the table this conversation about the lack of female participation, representation, and just just to be able to have identified the problems that are within our industry, whether it has to do with stereotypes, abusive behavior, the lack of participation, and the barriers that to access these opportunities. The fellow, I think that our
region is a very machista region. It's the place where you know, diversity, especially the multi dimensions of women, aren't really welcome. And I think to break those stereotypes and free you know, whether it's men, women and non binary folks from the constructions of gender and the pressure of gender is really important because if something I've seen transversally in all the Riosa is that the stories of all these women and all these creative fields have been you know,
no one has been exempt of that. And to also celebrate and connect the network of women in the region and the creative industries, it has been really important because that was something that hadn't been mapped out yet.
Ola Ilma Loyo Sandro de miss West.
In a personal note, I think it's been an amazing thing because I was feeling very alone at the time in the music industry in the Latin world, and it really also was a response to the desire to make.
Community, and it's been such a beautiful thing to.
See how many colleagues and creative voices have been generous with their time and have opened up and shared and connected with the whole community with the platform with me as well.
That was singer songwriter Francisca Balinzuela Latitolino Escant. This episode was produced by Oscar de Leon and Gini Montalbo was edited by Alexandra. The Latino USA team also includes Victoria Strada, Renaldo Leanoz Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Lori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Benilee Ramirez, Mike Sargent, Nour Saudi, and Nancy Trujillo. Our director of engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Additional engineering support by Gabriel Lebayez and jj Carubin.
Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by Zeer Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer Marino Rosa. Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on your social media and as always, remember note maayes pasta a proxima jao.
Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment, building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians. The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities. And funding for Latino USA is coverage of a culture of health is made possible in part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
It's hard with genres, you know that, I would say In the main thing is like Latin alternative pop singer songwriter confessional vibes.