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Alejandro
Je suis... Personne à la une
Mon profil
Bio
Alejandro is a guitarist and a high school teacher living in Montreal. He grew up in Ottawa with his sister and parents, who settled in the capital after leaving Chile in 1974 after a political coup. Alejandro’s connection with his Latino background remained elusive until he moved to Montreal to study. The openness and solidarity of the city’s culture facilitated his choice to turn Montreal into his home base. His interests in music and education remained exclusive for quite sometime. They eventually began converging, when he started a degree in Education at McGill. In the master’s program, there were several projects underway that related to Hip-Hop and the department took an interest in studying Nomadic Massive as a cultural exposé of Montreal’s unique mosaic.
Through these experiences, Alejandro has had the opportunity to explore Hip-Hop from two different standpoints; from a performer’s perspective and from an outsider’s point of view as an academic. Finding a balance between the two has required effort and vulnerability, but through this, Alejandro has strengthened his ties with his students by integrating his passion for music into his classroom.
Through these experiences, Alejandro has had the opportunity to explore Hip-Hop from two different standpoints; from a performer’s perspective and from an outsider’s point of view as an academic. Finding a balance between the two has required effort and vulnerability, but through this, Alejandro has strengthened his ties with his students by integrating his passion for music into his classroom.
Interview
What music are you listening to these days?
I think I am the least offended by pop in the group, not to say that I love it but it doesn’t bother me when it’s playing. I think it’s necessary to keep one ear to that music because it somehow influences the trends. And if you want to gain some sort of legitimacy and interest from the industry, you need to play that game a little bit, not be swallowed by it, but acknowledge what it is and then find your way, so that you can present what it is that you are actually doing. The things that I listen to are really obscure relative to pop; I listen to a lot of old music, Cuban, Brazilian, Chilean music.
I don’t discriminate against anything, the more ambiguous, the better it is for me; it influences my playing, it opens my mind and then sometimes I hear pop music that borrows from the obscure. But I still listen to the radio, top 40 and I think that music has its place beyond my own eccentric taste, and that’s a change from when I was a kid. When I was younger, I was more exclusive about my tastes.
Why should people, especially youth, vote?
Personally, I am not convinced that changing the voting power is going to change the way present governments are acting. I think that there’s more than voting that needs to be inculcated as a value for kids. A lot of it has to do with understanding the reality in which they live, and not only in terms of rules, but also understanding the situation they are presented with. If you want kids to vote that’s one thing but they have to understand the weight that comes with that and this involves the whole issue of consciousness that surrounds voting. If you are not informed then you shouldn’t vote and I think there is way more work that needs to be done in terms of educating our citizens as to what the whole process involves.
For you, is there a connection between art and democracy? What is it?
I think there is a definite connection; right now artists are taking the power of the spotlight in order influence the democratic decisions, especially in the States during the last campaign. The thing about art is that it inspires discussion and dialogue is at the center of politics in a free society; the ability to work through things and come to new realizations after having digested those facts. So if art, at its best, allows people to have dialogue, then it’s completely connected to democracy. And art is also free expression in many ways, and in that sense it resembles a democracy in ideal terms.
Why do care about the community when it’s so easy not to?
As a child I freeloaded a lot off of the community because I didn’t feel identified in the community where I grew up. And then once I felt identified in the community, I found a role, and I realized how much community is at the center of social change. If you look at the way governments behave (generally), there is often a disconnect between the money that is spent on social programs and the accountability. And I think there is a huge problem with blanket solutions, for example, solutions that are province wide, because communities have identities and those identities need to be acknowledged in order to work effectively with those communities.
It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be working in communities that are different from their own, but it means that those individuals have to learn where those people in those communities are coming from. So many things can be misinterpreted when different cultures come together, especially if there is a perceived hierarchy relative to race, language or educational background. There’s always going to be differences and you need to work through those because it’s like a microcosm of the global society. Nomadic Massive becomes a mini-experiment of that, where we try to work through things, and at times we clash but there is a way of functioning that has been built collectively so it’s respected and reinforced collectively. It’s a very organic thing, not to paint a picture of a utopia, but I think we resolve conflicts really well and the fact that we’ve been together for five years now, shows that it is possible.
It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be working in communities that are different from their own, but it means that those individuals have to learn where those people in those communities are coming from. So many things can be misinterpreted when different cultures come together, especially if there is a perceived hierarchy relative to race, language or educational background. There’s always going to be differences and you need to work through those because it’s like a microcosm of the global society. Nomadic Massive becomes a mini-experiment of that, where we try to work through things, and at times we clash but there is a way of functioning that has been built collectively so it’s respected and reinforced collectively. It’s a very organic thing, not to paint a picture of a utopia, but I think we resolve conflicts really well and the fact that we’ve been together for five years now, shows that it is possible.
What do you look for in a politician? What do you expect from your MP?
I think it’s probably one of the hardest jobs you can do because you have to balance professionalism with realism and we all have our flaws. When you’re a politician you can’t always show those flaws, people are never as sympathetic to those things as when you’re not a politician. You have the absolute responsibility of maintaining order and you represent the people that voted for you, then they let you go, you have to represent them until you are out of there and you are not going to be voted out over some trivial thing. Usually once the MP is there; it has to be very scandalous for them to leave. Nevertheless, you have to maintain a certain identity. That’s probably one of the reasons why I would never get involved in politics, as much as I like it, because of that lack of freedom to be who you are.
Politicians need a certain amount of conviction in the way they do things and definitely the ability to step back when things haven’t worked. I think the most hated politicians are the ones that have been stubborn beyond any logic. To continue with a plan that isn’t working and to continue to spend billions of dollars without trying something else, that type of stubbornness is very frustrating in a politician because we all understand that it’s life that is moving forward, no one knows exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow, of course some of these things are going to catch you off guard. For some, it can be perceived as strength but to me that is stubbornness. And people’s reactions are stubborn as well, for example, Harper, I don’t know anyone that likes him, yet he is the Prime Minister so some people must like him, but from the moment that we hated him, we’ve always maintained that hatred to a point where he’s not human anymore, he’s just an enemy. But imagine, this guy’s job and what he wakes up with and the things he has to deal with everyday. I am less likely to demonize but I get frustrated with stubbornness.
I was raised with the idea that Trudeau was amazing, On the other hand, Trudeau is perceived as the enemy in other areas of Canada. However, I like Jean Chrétien; I thought that he was real and to the point. People were often offended by his frankness, and I can fully understand people that didn’t like him at all, but he had a character that really stood out.
Politicians need a certain amount of conviction in the way they do things and definitely the ability to step back when things haven’t worked. I think the most hated politicians are the ones that have been stubborn beyond any logic. To continue with a plan that isn’t working and to continue to spend billions of dollars without trying something else, that type of stubbornness is very frustrating in a politician because we all understand that it’s life that is moving forward, no one knows exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow, of course some of these things are going to catch you off guard. For some, it can be perceived as strength but to me that is stubbornness. And people’s reactions are stubborn as well, for example, Harper, I don’t know anyone that likes him, yet he is the Prime Minister so some people must like him, but from the moment that we hated him, we’ve always maintained that hatred to a point where he’s not human anymore, he’s just an enemy. But imagine, this guy’s job and what he wakes up with and the things he has to deal with everyday. I am less likely to demonize but I get frustrated with stubbornness.
I was raised with the idea that Trudeau was amazing, On the other hand, Trudeau is perceived as the enemy in other areas of Canada. However, I like Jean Chrétien; I thought that he was real and to the point. People were often offended by his frankness, and I can fully understand people that didn’t like him at all, but he had a character that really stood out.
