Artwalk – Camino del Arte, celebrated one more date in Mazatlán, this time it expanded its route to the SECTUR facilities (Venus #1, Centro) where indigenous artisans from Sinaloa A.C., Women Artisans from La Noria, Concordia, Copala, Aguacaliente de Gárate and El Rosario, and artists from Mazatlán exhibited their gastronomy, their crafts, their art and their music.
The musical part was represented by Marimbatlán, a very versatile musical group where the saxophone, drums, bass and guitar accompany the marimba, an instrument that consists of a series of wooden sheets of different sizes, arranged from largest to smallest, each with a different pitch of sound, which are hit with mallets to produce musical notes. Each key has its own sound box and is fixed on a frame with legs.
The attendees, mostly international tourists, were happy and surprised to admire and listen to the marimba interpretations, songs such as La llorona, Veracruz, Mazatlán, La Tortuga del Arenal, they set the tone for dancing and taking selfies in which the marimba was the decorative background for your images.
Max Carreón is a percussionist professor at the Municipal Arts Center of the Instituto de Cultura, Turismo y Artes de Mazatlán, and heads this musical project in which he integrates a repertoire of pieces that are an emblematic part of Mexican popular culture.
About Marimbatlán, its creator explained: “It is the concern of several fellow musicians around the marimba, a 100% Mexican instrument because it is a Mexican invention, so we want to promote it, it is not a well-known instrument, it is not very popular, so we try to make adaptations, compositions, interpretations and it attracts a lot of attention.”
In Marimbatlán, students and former students of the CMA participate and we have had different participations here in the cultural offering of Mazatlán for 10 years, this year we celebrate 10 years since we started the project and now we are in many presentations because we are being supported by the Program of Stimulus for Artistic Creation and Development, PECDA, this year 2023, so we hope to make a lot of noise.
Participating in events like Artwalk-Camino del Arte is very significant because it is very connected, these expressions, these workshop leaders, these artisans are a small sample that bring the deepest part of our region, highlighted teacher Max Carreon.
Elisa Ramírez Bojórquez, head of the Department of Historical and Cultural Tourism, commented: “It is the first time that SECTUR, the Secretary of Tourism of the State of Sinaloa, has participated in Artwalk-Camino al Arte, Artwalk is an activity that has been taking place here in Mazatlán for 14 years, it began at the initiative of the foreign artistic community that lived here in Mazatlán, then they began to promote this activity so that on the first Friday of each month people could visit all the galleries and spaces for the expression of art and crafts , this year is the first time that SECTUR has participated in Artwalk and the patio was set up to give space to Sinaloan artisans.
In music, maestro Max Carreón came with Marimbatlán and I see that he attracted a lot of attention, we invited him because we wanted to bring the foreign community closer so that they can learn about the proposals of the musicians of Mazatlán, the marimba is associated with the Mexican tradition and it is evident that Foreigners are called to come and see all the cultural wealth that exists in Mazatlán.
