CANCELLED – Pre-show Talk with Valentina Acevedo Montilla

This event has been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, click here to read more.

Presented by the Chan Centre

“Soy de aqui y soy de allá”

From rock to reggae and cumbia to bolero, La Santa Cecilia, taking its name from the Patron Saint of Music, describe their sound as “a guisado, or stew, blending all those influences into a savory bilingual mix.” (New York Times). This talk will look at some of the ingredients of that bicultural “guisado” and the role of identity, politics and diaspora in their sounds. What does it mean to be from here and there at the same time?

Valentina Acevedo Montilla’s interests live in the borderland between art and activism, artistic programming and creation. She holds a BA in Art History and Anthropology from UBC and is an arts organizer, writer, and curator in the making. Valentina is a firm believer of the power that art has to generate change. Both Mexican and Venezuelan, she is committed to creating spaces that allow for collaborations to happen in the intersection between living on unceded Coast Salish territories as an uninvited guest, and the responsibility she carries to her family and ancestors. Currently, she finds herself immersed in her Mexican roots, coordinating the Cultural Affairs Department of the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver.