Transcript:
Music has always been important to Karin Stein. The daughter of a musician, she grew up in rural Colombia and was surrounded by local folk music.
Stein: “Music has been, since I arrived in the U.S., the way to keep my cultural background with me. … And whatever I do with music always comes deeply from the heart and from my soul.”
So she says music is a natural way for her to share her concerns about climate change and pollution – which disproportionately affect Latino communities.
Clip from ‘Mamita’: Hoy este arrullo es para la Madre Tierra / que tiene fiebre / que tiene fiebre y no la escuchan / no la escuchan en su agonía / en su agonía”
(Translation: Today this lullaby is for Mother Earth. She has a fever. She has a fever, and we aren’t hearing her agony)
Stein is the director of EcoMusica, a project of Mom’s Clean Air Force, and leader of the SonTierra ensemble.
This group of Latino musicians writes and performs songs that call for cleaner air and climate action.
Clip from ‘Mamita’: Mamita-é, mamita-é, mamita e-a, mamita-é, mamita e-a”
Stein: “We have the words in our songs, but I don’t think the words right off the bat is what people remember. What they first resonate with is the rhythm, the harmonies, just the emotional part of sounds, of music, and then that becomes a vehicle to further conversation.”
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media
