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Speaker 3: I really didn't have a musical community until maybe I
Speaker 3: was like seventeen or eighteen years old in Chile, because
Speaker 3: growing up, it was really more me and my own world,
Speaker 3: spending time in that kind of wonderment with music, whether
Speaker 3: it was like Spice Girls or Keith Jarrett, Oh Sweet
Speaker 3: Genety's and Charlie Arcia.
Speaker 1: From Pudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Speaker 1: Josa Today. Francisca Valinsuela, the Chilean American singer, songwriter, author
Speaker 1: and entrepreneur Francisca Valinsuella's musical identity was shaped in two countries,
Speaker 1: the United States, where she was born and spent her childhood,
Speaker 1: and Chile, her family's homeland, where she moved to in
Speaker 1: her teens. It was there in San Diego, Chile's capital city,
Speaker 1: that her prolific career as a bilingual pop rocker would begin.
Speaker 1: Francisca's music career is a testament to Chile's thriving DIY
Speaker 1: music scene. Her efforts to get the attention of major
Speaker 1: labels weren't working out, so Francisca cut her teeth, performing
Speaker 1: in small venues and reaching out to local radio stations.
Speaker 1: Her first album, Moredree de la Lengua, was released in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. From there, Francisca found success as
Speaker 1: a workie musician. In twenty fourteen, she created her own
Speaker 1: music label called Frantastic Records, and she toured in the
Speaker 1: United States, where she continued to build her global fan base.
Speaker 1: After noticing a lack of women in music festivals around
Speaker 1: the world, Francisca founded a LATINX feminist community called Ridosa,
Speaker 1: which means a noisy woman. Since its inception in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: Rithosa has hosted an annual music and culture festival throughout
Speaker 1: the Americas. Artists such as Javiera Parra, Huimera, Sarrignana, and
Speaker 1: Pussy Riot have played at Ridosa Fest, and other creatives
Speaker 1: like Monla Ferte, Lido Pimenta, and Jessica Salgado have spoken
Speaker 1: at Ridosa's events and panels. Even during the COVID nineteen epidemic,
Speaker 1: the platform has engaged with its community with online workshops
Speaker 1: and interviews. Francisca released her fourth studio album, La fort
Speaker 1: Lesa in January of twenty twenty. On this episode, Francisca
Speaker 1: talks about her journey from California to Chile, and she
Speaker 1: takes us on the road that led her to La
Speaker 1: fort Lesa.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody, my name is Francisca Alenzuela. I'm a Chilean singer, songwriter, performer.
Speaker 4: And artist Hope and Joy.
Speaker 3: I was born in California, in San Francisco. My family
Speaker 3: is bicultural, so I grew up kind of first generation
Speaker 3: of a Chilean family in the Bay Area. My parents,
Speaker 3: which are Chilean, were in the States since the seventies
Speaker 3: and then they went back to Chile and took us
Speaker 3: with them naturally in the nineties. I grew up in
Speaker 3: elementary school until like sixth grade or so in the
Speaker 3: Bay Area, and then moved to Chile with my family,
Speaker 3: so we have kind of this multicultural Chile California, you know,
Speaker 3: Lyringo Chileno situation.
Speaker 4: I think that I was really lucky because my.
Speaker 3: Family really preserved the Chilean identity and were able to
Speaker 3: maintain that in the house. So, for example, growing up,
Speaker 3: I remember I learned how to read and write in
Speaker 3: English first, and I remember I call my mom.
Speaker 4: Like mom, and she'd be like Mama.
Speaker 3: So there was always this this kind of natural yet
Speaker 3: conscious effort to keep us attached to both cultures. And
Speaker 3: I think I'm very lucky that I've been able to
Speaker 3: live a bicultural or multicultural identity, which is something that
Speaker 3: many people in the US I think have. At the
Speaker 3: time when I moved there, I was confronted with a
Speaker 3: whole bunch of things that I took for granted in California,
Speaker 3: which is naturally very diverse, which is very progressive, and
Speaker 3: has so many resources, and it's such a unique history
Speaker 3: and identity. So going back to Chile, there were all
Speaker 3: these other issues that I had never even thought about.
Speaker 3: And there was all these formalities too that I wasn't
Speaker 3: exposed to, and a lot of religion. So there was
Speaker 3: a lot of culture clash in many respects, whether in
Speaker 3: my inability to communicate properly or the more conservative kind
Speaker 3: of very antiquated culture in many ways. Language wise, eventually
Speaker 3: I began to kind of not only get comfortable with Spanish,
Speaker 3: but also understand myself in Spanish. Like, for example, I
Speaker 3: didn't know how to really read in Spanish that well,
Speaker 3: and then eventually I was like, I got curious about
Speaker 3: reading in Spanish. I was like, who are the most
Speaker 3: famous authors in Spanish? Like who are singer songwriters in Spanish.
Speaker 3: That's how I discovered like Shaquita last Elia. I began
Speaker 3: to kind of go down the nopster at the time
Speaker 3: hole and google all the different kinds of singers and
Speaker 3: begin to be interested in the language itself.
Speaker 4: Poets.
Speaker 3: I remember, I was like into poetry, so I was like,
Speaker 3: who are the Spanish poets and found and all these
Speaker 3: different voices that I had never discovered. I think if
Speaker 3: I always had an interest in the arts in general,
Speaker 3: and literature and music and books, I'm very lucky because.
Speaker 4: In my house that was always very nurtured.
Speaker 3: Even though my parents and my brothers aren't necessarily in
Speaker 3: the creative arts or in literature or anything like that,
Speaker 3: they were always validating this interest and seeing it as
Speaker 3: something that was important and valuable. They'd allow me whether
Speaker 3: at ten or fifteen, I was like, family, sit down
Speaker 3: and have a show to put on, and then I'll
Speaker 3: be like, okay, here she goes. Do you think the
Speaker 3: idea of pursuing music or really switching to music came
Speaker 3: much later, like I would say, in my late teens,
Speaker 3: because I was always writing and doing stuff with music,
Speaker 3: and I began to take piano lessons really young. Then
Speaker 3: when I was in Chile, I did more piano lessons
Speaker 3: and actually was interested in pursuing classical music at one
Speaker 3: point because I wanted to be like Keith Jarrett. That
Speaker 3: was my dream, like an improv jazz pianist. But the
Speaker 3: classical piano things seemed so daunting and imposs and I
Speaker 3: remember this one teacher once was like, you know, there's
Speaker 3: only one classical pianist for orchestra. It so difficult, and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I'm never going to.
Speaker 4: Get that spot.
Speaker 3: On the side, I would write songs for myself and
Speaker 3: write songs in a very pop format, and only when
Speaker 3: I began to show it to my friends in high school,
Speaker 3: they were like, this song really resonates with me. I
Speaker 3: totally identify, and they'd asked me to sing the song
Speaker 3: in school.
Speaker 4: When we get together in those houses. And it kind
Speaker 4: of became a thing. It kind of like my stick that.
Speaker 3: I would write songs, and I would write songs about
Speaker 3: boys I liked or my friends' stories, and that also
Speaker 3: was really encouraging Giadne, Oh, that's good. Scenes. Eventually music
Speaker 3: began to take off for me, and sheated performing my
Speaker 3: own stuff, you know, maybe two or three years in
Speaker 3: a certain circuit because I was performing like in restaurants
Speaker 3: and jazz bars and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: And eventually put together a band.
Speaker 3: And once that band began to perform and was part
Speaker 3: of a scene, and I began to put together an
Speaker 3: album and eventually make a little bit of money off
Speaker 3: of that, I was like, Okay, I think I'm safe,
Speaker 3: and I can you know, quit college and really commit
Speaker 3: to this full time love.
Speaker 4: I know, get okay.
Speaker 3: So my first album in Chile called Morte Dere Lingua,
Speaker 3: which means by your tongue came out. We recorded it,
Speaker 3: I think in two thousand and five, two thousand and six.
Speaker 3: I actually recorded it with the generous collaboration of a
Speaker 3: band in Chia, Carlos Bunks, and they kind of god
Speaker 3: fathered the project and taught me a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: things I had never been in a studio before. We'd
Speaker 3: rehearse and do all this stuff to kind of eventually
Speaker 3: put together an EP. And that EP I took to
Speaker 3: multiple radio stations everywhere, to TV anyone that I thought
Speaker 3: could listen to it and open an opportunity for these
Speaker 3: songs to be heard somewhere.
Speaker 4: I took to.
Speaker 3: I would go on a daily basis all these places
Speaker 3: with my songs, and I put together the MySpace and
Speaker 3: the YouTube and eventually the Facebook and all the platforms
Speaker 3: that were integral to having an independent project.
Speaker 4: Because I had even gone to labels at the.
Speaker 3: Time, the very few ones in the Southern Cone like Agentina, Chile,
Speaker 3: and they all said no. So I was like, I
Speaker 3: can either sit and wait for something or someone to
Speaker 3: come and pick me up. Just might as well move
Speaker 3: forward and figure this out because I don't have another option.
Speaker 4: Really gombnad Misste.
Speaker 3: The first album came out, the first songs began to
Speaker 3: sound on the radio. This was a you know, a
Speaker 3: process of maybe two years or so, and as I
Speaker 3: was saying very much artisanal, very much DIY and then
Speaker 3: I was performing and finding places to play and kind
Speaker 3: of begging places to let me perform, and eventually things
Speaker 3: began to slowly take off. And when that happened, I
Speaker 3: think I began to feel more comfortable and validated. I
Speaker 3: think I'm still on that path of self validation and
Speaker 3: self discovery and learning how to listen to myself as
Speaker 3: an artist and who I am as an artist.
Speaker 4: Truly, it took me a while to really have a
Speaker 4: self confidence to be like, Okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah I am I can be a captain of this vote,
Speaker 3: I can be the leader of my project. I can
Speaker 3: understand that there's an artist in me that you know,
Speaker 3: deserves to be heard kind of And then also began
Speaker 3: to eventually see how can I leave Chile, how can
Speaker 3: I make this a project that has the international reach?
Speaker 3: And that's been kind of the path. Which is the
Speaker 3: last and most recent album that came out. I think
Speaker 3: I didn't really have an idea of or a shape
Speaker 3: of the album. Previously, it began to come together maybe
Speaker 3: a year before, like a year in, I want to say,
Speaker 3: the sense that I released them and was the first single,
Speaker 3: and just when Thoma came out, I began to imagine
Speaker 3: what this album was was speaking to and what photo
Speaker 3: it was taking of the moment.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah yeah do momento moment ah yeah yeah,
Speaker 5: ooh yeah yeah yeah doment moment ah yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: There's an inherent difference between this alum and the previous
Speaker 3: just because of course the person I am today not
Speaker 3: the person I was five ten years ago their moment.
Speaker 3: I would say it's a very confessional and emotional album
Speaker 3: that speaks to the process of empowerment and power and
Speaker 3: getting out of the dark place that maybe a lot.
Speaker 4: Of us have been through at times.
Speaker 3: And it's an album that has moments of like self
Speaker 3: realization and insecurity, and it's kind of a conversation with
Speaker 3: myself and also with the world in different dimensions, whether
Speaker 3: as like a woman, whether it's sexists, invisruality, whether it's joy,
Speaker 3: whether it's giving in to someone else, whether it's getting
Speaker 3: over a really damaging relationship.
Speaker 4: I think also especially for women.
Speaker 3: Culturally, we grew up thinking that the hero is someone
Speaker 3: outside of us, someone that comes and rescues us. I
Speaker 3: wanted to illustrate that with the concept of Ita So
Speaker 3: You'll Sit. It is a song that talks about the
Speaker 3: battle that we all may face on a day day basis,
Speaker 3: whether with ourselves, the world, someone something specific and overcoming
Speaker 3: that battle. My idea with the song and the concept
Speaker 3: was defined or resignifying the idea of who a hero is.
Speaker 3: And it also speaks to the fact that sometimes our
Speaker 3: biggest enemy, our biggest villain, is ourselves. If we overcome
Speaker 3: which we're all capable of, we can also be our
Speaker 3: own heroes. It's almost like a cinematic description about what I imagine,
Speaker 3: how strength feels like, what it looks like. It's a
Speaker 3: moment to look at yourself and see who you are
Speaker 3: and accept that and love that and love all the
Speaker 3: pieces in the parts.
Speaker 4: I almost forget sometimes that I wrote that song.
Speaker 3: You know, even in the recent months when things have
Speaker 3: been hard, my friends are.
Speaker 4: Like friend, but you got this. You wrote the song.
Speaker 3: You understand that this is something you can you know
Speaker 3: you can face and you can do, especially for women
Speaker 3: and people that have been marginalized. I think not only
Speaker 3: are many stories and realities made invisible or made to
Speaker 3: feel invalidated, but I think also we're put into boxes.
Speaker 3: And I think the idea of truly freeing yourself from
Speaker 3: whatever chains are holding you back is an invitation that
Speaker 3: is really power horful. This is a song and this
Speaker 3: is an album that talks about this personal journal is
Speaker 3: personal transformation and strength, but it also talks about how.
Speaker 4: We are strong together.
Speaker 3: As is an intersectional, interdisciplinary LATINX feminist festival, community and
Speaker 3: platform and we you know, we seek to empower women
Speaker 3: and marginalized voices and non binary voices in the creative
Speaker 3: industries throughout Latin America and the US, and we do
Speaker 3: that with actual music festivals. I put that together in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen. We've been doing festivals and stuff all over
Speaker 3: the region. We've done stuff in Peru, Argentina, Mexico, here
Speaker 3: in the States as well. We do workshops, we do
Speaker 3: conversation panels, talks, and seminars, and we also do content
Speaker 3: and research. How can there be one girl representing all
Speaker 3: Mexican girls in Mexican music when there's not.
Speaker 4: One type of woman for the succeed in La care.
Speaker 5: We have different stories, and I believe that all of
Speaker 5: our stories should be represented.
Speaker 3: We put together the first study on female participation in
Speaker 3: Latin American music festivals and Latin American award shows and
Speaker 3: awards just to kind of put on the table this
Speaker 3: conversation about the lack of female participation, representation, and just
Speaker 3: just to be able to have identified the problems that
Speaker 3: are within our industry, whether it has to do with stereotypes,
Speaker 3: abusive behavior, the lack of participation, and the barriers that
Speaker 3: to access these opportunities. The fellow, I think that our
Speaker 3: region is a very machista region. It's the place where
Speaker 3: you know, diversity, especially the multi dimensions of women, aren't
Speaker 3: really welcome. And I think to break those stereotypes and
Speaker 3: free you know, whether it's men, women and non binary
Speaker 3: folks from the constructions of gender and the pressure of
Speaker 3: gender is really important because if something I've seen transversally
Speaker 3: in all the Riosa is that the stories of all
Speaker 3: these women and all these creative fields have been you know,
Speaker 3: no one has been exempt of that. And to also
Speaker 3: celebrate and connect the network of women in the region
Speaker 3: and the creative industries, it has been really important because
Speaker 3: that was something that hadn't been mapped out yet.
Speaker 5: Ola Ilma Loyo Sandro de miss West.
Speaker 3: In a personal note, I think it's been an amazing
Speaker 3: thing because I was feeling very alone at the time
Speaker 3: in the music industry in the Latin world, and it
Speaker 3: really also was a response to the desire to make.
Speaker 4: Community, and it's been such a beautiful thing to.
Speaker 3: See how many colleagues and creative voices have been generous
Speaker 3: with their time and have opened up and shared and
Speaker 3: connected with the whole community with the platform with me
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: That was singer songwriter Francisca Balinzuela Latitolino Escant. This episode
Speaker 1: was produced by Oscar de Leon and Gini Montalbo was
Speaker 1: edited by Alexandra. The Latino USA team also includes Victoria Strada,
Speaker 1: Renaldo Leanoz Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Lori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez,
Speaker 1: Benilee Ramirez, Mike Sargent, Nour Saudi, and Nancy Trujillo. Our
Speaker 1: director of engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is
Speaker 1: Julia Caruso. Additional engineering support by Gabriel Lebayez and jj Carubin.
Speaker 1: Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was
Speaker 1: composed by Zeer Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer
Speaker 1: Marino Rosa. Join us again on our next episode. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, look for us on your social media and
Speaker 1: as always, remember note maayes pasta a proxima jao.
Speaker 6: Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment,
Speaker 6: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians.
Speaker 6: The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for
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Speaker 6: and transforming communities. And funding for Latino USA is coverage
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Speaker 6: by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Speaker 3: It's hard with genres, you know that, I would say
Speaker 3: In the main thing is like Latin alternative pop singer
Speaker 3: songwriter confessional vibes.