Todos Juntos - City of Melbourne

In 2020 during the second Victorian COVID-19 lockdown, Yo Soy presented Todos Juntos, a mini series of events and short content by Latinx people in Melbourne, currently living in lockdown. Running from August 14 to 21, Todos Juntos was all about being together despite this time of major isolation.

We curated a week-long music series, launching and concluding with DJ sets from MC Clandestino and DJ General Feelings. We also shared unique curated playlists and accompanying writing, featuring the music that connects our creatives to culture and community. This project was supported by City of Melbourne.

Artwork by Natalie Estay Valenzuela

Jessica ibacache

"The last time I was in Chile I had a conversation with my uncle about our shared hobby: listening to music. He said that he simply loves listening to music more than anything. That’s when my connection to music clicked.

My family is made up of music fans and I was raised to connect to music in the same way. We listen to music during our every day because it makes life just that much better, we listen to music to create just the right ambience for an occasion, we listen to music because it help us get through tough times in life, and most of all we listen to music so that we can express ourselves fully without judgement. In times when we can’t articulate how we feel or what we want to say, music is there to help us do it, and that’s why I love it so much.

This playlist is a list of songs by Latinx artists that I’ve connected with in some way or another. Songs I listen to when I need reassurance of my emotions or values, songs I dance to alone in my room, and songs that remind me of my fellow music fans, my family."

Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh

"I've been writing & re-writing the explanation behind this playlist & it keeps coming out all wrong or disconnected. & honestly? also pretty fucking sad, which seems to be the vibe at the moment for everyone. apartness without an end in sight, without the possibility of a togetherness anytime soon, is heavy. both in terms of existing in ~tHe diAspOrA~ & in the communities we build for ourselves within it.the simplest way to explain myself, and explaining myself is something i constantly struggle with, is that there are two rolling sections to this playlist.

the first includes songs that i heard around me each time i went to chile to see family (tu veneno, that’s what you get, perfecta, perfect company, lullaby). the second section is made up of songs connected to the strange complexities of existing and evolving as a latinx person in so-called australia. they have specific connections to my personal learnings & understandings of identity, community, play, care, gender, sexuality, spirituality, family, art & celebration (woman is a word, suga suga, la camisa negra, loba, nada). the playlist is organised in my own sense of “chronological” order, because time is a fake bitch."

Natalie Estay Valenzuela

"Growing up in Perth, from an early age my parents didn’t listen to much Spanish speaking music – my connection was with my non-English speaking paternal grandparents. I grew up with mostly soul, r&b, blues, and reggae music in the home, thanks to my music-loving father. It wasn’t until in my teens that we started going to Chilean community and social events that my Latina identity and connection grew stronger and was further established when I travelled through South America and lived in Chile for the first few years of my early 20s.

My (Chilean) Spanish both written and spoken is predominantly self-taught through interpreting music, asking my mother for help and my interest in social/political readings. My list starts from memories of Perth’s Chilean social events, my father taking me to see Buena Vista Social club, my early “clubbing/pub” days to my years living and travelling around South America."

Ana Maria Gomides

"For many years my immediate família and I have been living apart, in various different places across the globe. The last time we were all together was in the summer of 2013-2014, at my irmão’s wedding in Brasil. So much has happened in that time: mental health breakdowns, big fights, deeply buried secrets coming out, me coming out, deaths, further moves to other countries. My sobrinha was born and now she’s three!

I’ve never been as active on our WhatsApp group chat as I am now. I miss my família more than ever, maybe because any possibility of me seeing them in the flesh has been taken away from me by the pandemic, which has had absolutely devastating effects in Brasil, because do bozo filho da puta de merda presidente in place.

A few months ago, I made an (ongoing) playlist of songs, about and for the four of us. This significantly smaller playlist, is made up of three sections, each containing five songs that were introduced to me throughout my childhood in Brasil, by my Mãe, Irmão and Irmã, in order of introduction.

Don’t you put it on shuffle, I will know and I will curse you!"

Frankie Hadid

"Yalla! Me casé <3 Salaams! Bienvenidos a mi boda. In this playlist I'm taking you to my wedding party. House rules: Do not play on shuffle. Respect the ritual. The journey begins with my entrance, surrounded by belly dancers, eventually guests join me on the dancefloor y a perrear se ha dicho. Hasta abajo!"

Patty Abalos

"Growing up in Sydney (and later rural Queensland), some of my earliest music memories are of my parents playing records - Elton John, Queen, The Beatles, and Electric Light Orchestra. As I grew up, one of my earliest memories of Spanish-language that I heard was 'Que Canten los Niños' by Jose Luis Perales.

Slowly my parents introduced me to more Spanish-language music including Illapu, Camilo Sesto, and Victor Jara, and one summer all I listened to was Ana Gabriel, and I was hooked. I learnt my broken spoken Spanish from listening to my parents speak, but always as my second language, never attending Spanish classes, and growing up away from the Chilean community, where my brown skin always stood out. It was via music, and later through watching comedias (Chilean soaps), that opened the door to connecting more with language and my latinx identity, though some days the mother tongue still doesn't come naturally.

These songs are a reflection of memories, experiences, and family - of becoming comfortable with different parts of my identity with all of the pressures of the diaspora, of finally seeing myself represented, of making our own communities, and found families. They are organised in order of this music being discovered or having an impact on my life."

Ari Vélez Olivera

"Deeply rooted, transgenerational sadness is difficult to name in foreign languages. When the big tide comes to wreck it all, when the desasosiego invades, these songs come to hold us together."

Denisse Sandoval

"Culturally I’m a bit of a mix and I don’t feel like a full member of one culture or identity. My parents are Chilean so I heard South American folk music and ballads as a kid.

I grew up in Brentwood, New York, a Latinx and African American working-class immigrant community on Long Island in the 90s where hip hop and salsa filled the air. A lot of people around me were Caribbean and Central American so I heard heaps of soca and bachata. A West-Indian girl taught me how to wine when I was nine, later an Argentinian girl taught me salsa in her driveway when I was 15.

I used to watch the breakdancers practice on cardboard in high school hallways after class. I cherish all these memories and am grateful to have rhythm in my feet thanks to all the beautiful people I grew up around."

MC Clandestino

DJ General Feelings