Cateura’s Melodious Mess Inspires Change

In the 1976 jazz number, “There’s Music in the Air,” Letta Mbulu’s sultry voice delivers the words: “There’s music in the air/ It makes the sorrow go/ Let the music take you there/ Far from the world you know.” These words, simple as they are, give the most earnest testament to the power of the universal language that is music. It holds a power that few other things in the world do. It is no wonder then that the community of Cateura has committed themselves to using music as a vehicle for inspiring change across the world. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="3" ] Cateura, which is a town in Paraguay, is unfortunately situated, and much of the community’s problems stem from this fact. Its proximity to Asunción, the state’s capital city, has resulted in the little town being subsumed into the mess of the city’s landfill. Created in 1984, the landfill has been a constant factor in the development of Cateura – or the lack thereof. As happens with overlooked areas, social ills such as poverty and pollution comprised a slew of challenges facing the community of about 40,000 people. Noticing the looming demise of hope in the community, Luis Szarán took the opportunity to merge recycling – the primary means of making a living in Cateura – and music education. In 2006, Szarán created the Sonidos de la Tierra music school whose maiden project in 2007 focused on building musical instruments using materials sourced from the nearby landfill. Guitars, flutes, cellos, clarinets, violins and even saxophones have since been fashioned out of knick-knacks such as toothbrushes, spoons and forks, oil drums and furniture. With the community already adept at repurposing materials, venturing into the world of music was a novel departure from the norm. Szarán’s lead was followed by Favio Chávez under whose directorship the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura has risen to see much success and receive acclaim. “In Cateura, most families don’t have their basic necessities met.” says Chávez. “So it’s incredible that they’ve aspired to learn music.” According to Inside Flow, 2,500 of the poorest families in the country live in the Cateura area. These families eke out their living by sorting through the approximate 1,500 tonnes of garbage that is deposited in the landfill on a daily basis. However, this does not position them favourably to tap into the USD 60.41 billion value attributed to the global waste and recycling market, as valued by Statista. It will take greater infrastructural support than is presently available. The orchestra’s intervention does, however, go the distance to raise consciousness about the quality of life accessible in Cateura, and also to flip the narrative of worthlessness often shrouding impoverished communities. WWF Paraguay reports that in the Asunción area, “it is estimated that only 2 percent of recyclable waste is actually recycled”, thus making the efforts of initiatives like the recycled orchestra all the more important in mapping a sustainable future for the South American country at large. With the climate crisis continuously rising in importance on the global political stage, innovation is being promulgated as the means of getting greater buy-in at the grassroots levels. Initiatives such as the orchestra also offer alternative methods of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals such as No Poverty, Quality Education, Good Health and Wellbeing, Reduced Inequalities and Climate Action. Such efforts deserve to be praised for their intention and execution. The orchestra has given some of the youth growing up in dire poverty access to stages and audiences across the globe, and seems to be an apt way of actualising Mbulu’s sentiments. [/ihc-hide-content]

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Cateura’s Melodious Mess Inspires Change

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