Maria Reyna was born on December 12, 1990. She has sung in the school choir since she was 8, but she really established herself as an artist in 2012, when she was identified as Mixed Soprano and he started the Ópera Mixe project together with his teacher and mentor Joaquín Garzón. His dream come true: live from music.
She is the fourth and last daughter of a peasant couple from Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, nestled in the Sierra Mixe. At 15, without speaking Spanish, she left Tlahui in search of what was behind the mist, the philharmonics and the mountains of her town.
His first mentor was the maestro Marcos Díaz Jiménez, with whom he sang in a versatile group at the age of 12. “He told me: ‘This is for you, don’t give it up, follow your dreams, it’s what you like: do it’”.
Before him, her mother already encouraged her: “Behind this great mountain, there is another life, there are things to see, things that you will discover for yourself; do not stay here, where I am because I did not have the opportunity. I didn’t go out, but you can.”
María Reyna migrates to the city
She matured quickly and as a child she knew that singing would be her destiny. Her cousin had gone to Guadalajara and offered to receive her. Maria accepted, wrote the name of the city on a piece of paper, and went out alone. She took a bus to Oaxaca City, from there to Mexico City, and finally to Guadalajara. She worked cleaning houses, which allowed her to finish high school and, later, a degree in Gregorian Chant.
“I come from a community that is a land of musicians, where you listen to music every day, there are two, three, four, five philharmonic bands, women playing… but there was no voice. There were no singing teachers or instruction to educate the voice. In 2009 I decided to leave to become a professional and look for the path that I could not find in my town”.
Mixed Soprano
Having a voice like hers is a gift; however, study and discipline need to accompany talent in everyday life: music theory, memory, intonation, hearing, repetition, observation.
First, the challenge he faced was learning Spanish; then, survive, and finally fulfill his dream of making a living from music, as a performer and teaching. Little by little the paths opened up and she met his second family, that of Joaquín Garzón and Gabriela Avendaño, with whom she has grown personally and musically. With them she associated to create Ópera Mixe, and to record her first album orgullosa i am root.
The teacher Garzón discovered his talent and suggested:
“You have to be different: there are opera singers, there are popular singers; I want to see a María Reyna who sings in her own language, so that what she is singing reaches her heart ”
Now he lives in Tlaxcala and is working on a project to disseminate and respect native languages. “I have a very solid team; above all here is loyalty, honesty and family. We made a beautiful project, we set up Ópera Mixe. We are in that process and, of course, I want to live from this, but I also want to give my best”.
María Reyna and singing with the public
Despite her young age, María Reyna’s career is long, which is why I ask her where she is in her career. She humbly answers: “I feel like I’m growing up, when one can already be on stage.” After 22 years of singing…
Yes ok I am proud root It is her first album, she has already stepped on the most important theaters in Oaxaca (Teatro Macedonio Alcalá, Auditorio Guelaguetza) and some of the CDMX: the Sala Ponce de Bellas Artes, Esperanza Iris; in addition to various cities in the country such as Tepic, Monterrey, Hermosillo, Cuernavaca and, of course, Guadalajara.
A deep sense of community
What was coming for 2020 was a tour of Europe and then maybe the United States. The health emergency confined us all and she returned to her town. María Reyna took advantage of the pandemic to accept the baton as health manager in the community service in Tlahui.
He spent 2020 at the family shelter, caring for the sick, collecting garbage and seeking the health well-being of his people. Today, she is an active community member and by saying it she proudly sticks to her identity: ayuukjä’äy. We castizos call her mixe, but she speaks ayuuk.
Doing the service “is respecting your people and the land where you were born. Being part of the community is being active in the tequios, is to do the work with the authorities of that year, to open the border to take care of the territory of your people. The tequio is to give your cooperation per year (100 pesos, clarify). I was chasing my dream, but the time also came to fulfill my people, my community”.
“One of my grandparents told me ‘Accept it, daughter, because that way you also earn the respect of your people and your family.’ you are part of… you cannot escape from that, there are people who are in the United States and continue to cooperate to be in the town.”
This strong commitment to its identity gives it a lot of solidity.
The neatness and respect with which he deals with native languages are admirable. If she sings in Mayan, she studies the precise variant and seeks an interpretation in such a way that it strikes a chord with the listeners to the degree that the original people doubt whether she speaks the language in everyday life. That’s how committed she is to her work. That’s how respectful she is of identity.
That rescue work and dedication is perceived in his songs: “The voice is very inside, very emotional. The voice, the music, the singing, is therapy for the soul”.
Inspire and be an example
“I want to reach the indigenous women, the women who are from the communities, the women who want to get out, but they lack that part: a little bit of courage, to push them, I want to tell them: ‘Get out of there, so you can do something different.’”
Mention María Reyna for Unknown Mexico.
“I remember a lot that someone once said to me ‘We want to talk to you. We want to tell you that you are not going to live from music. Singing is not going to get you anywhere, you have to look for another job, study something different’. And it’s not true, I think that when you really want something, you can turn it into something very big”.
Keep going.
“If you take what you have here (points to his heart), in some way it is a way of interpreting. I interpret what the composer did. It is what I love to transmit to the children I teach, I love teaching. The little that I know, well, I give it”.
concludes.
I don’t know if it’s a Oaxacan attribute, but María Reyna’s laughter infects me. It’s not just her lips that show her joy, her eyes also laugh. She tilts her body, her hands “speak” with a gesture that repeatedly reaches her chest, at the level of her heart. It is perhaps the joy of having her roots very deep that gives her those enormous wings to fly and transport us with those high notes, as if her voice were a bird of paradise.
Angelica Navarro Editor-in-chief of the México Desconocido site. I want to spread my passion for Mexico.