Street roots., June 21, 2013, Page 9, Image 9

Street roots
June 21, 2013
P H O T O : C O U R T E S Y O F H E C H O EN B U E N O S A IR E S
In Cateura, an area close to Asuncion, the capital o f Paraguay, a group o f young people play Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi or “Yesterday” by The Beatles with instrum ents manufactured with
recycled material.
One man’s trash...
Children’s orchestra learn music, perform worldwide, on instruments made from salvaged garbage
BY ROMINA RESUCHE
S T R E E T N E W S S E R V IC E
n old oil can has been transformed
into a cello, a fork rescued from
rubbish supports strings on a violin
and spoon handles act as keys on a
saxophone.
This is not a description of a fantasy
world or a tale from a children’s story.
These are instruments played for real by the
Recycled Instruments Orchestra in Cateura,
Paraguay, an area some six kilometres from
the capital city of Asunción and almost
entirely built on a landfill site where the
majority of inhabitants work in recycling.
For five years, a group of some 40 young
people have been part of a project that aims
to make music by constructing alternative
string instruments made from resources
A
found in a landfill. They are now the subject
of a documentary, Landfill Harmonic,
released in Europe and expected to come to
the United States in 2014.
The orchestra plays both classical and
pop music at venues where they are often
given standing ovations. They have already
played in Panama, Brazil, Germany and
Switzerland, and in Colombia they played
the same theater as Lady Gaga. The bass
player from Megadeth, David Ellefson, is a
confessed fan and recently gave them signed
guitar plectrums as a gift while René from
Puerto Rican band Calle 13 is another
devotee.
When you search for Cateura in Google,
the first thing that appears is information
about the orchestra. The story of this group
of children, teachers and mentors highlights
the new life they all lead since taking
advantage of waste and making music from
recycled materials.
It was Favio Sanchez who, while working
as an environmental technician at the
Cateura landfill site, gave up his free time to
teach local youngsters how to play music,
one of his passions.
During his teenage years, Sanchez chose
to get an engineering degree in human
ecology and he later went on to study
philosophy. When he began teaching music
to the children of Cateura, he said it was “a
way to establish relationships and earn the
trust of the families of the recyclers”, with
whom he worked on the recycling project.
Previously, Cateura was known for its
rubbish tip, uncleanliness and prevailing
marginalisation but today the area is famous
for its orchestra and for music changing the
lives of almost 40 people.
According to Sanchez, music creates
empathy, confidence and cooperation
amongst children and, in turn, their parents.
Once his group started on the landfill site,
friends and neighbours also became involved
in fine-tuning the project. Along the way, the
eco-development organisation Sánchez
worked for, Alter Vida — dedicated to a
sustainable Paraguay — considered teaching
music to landfill children as part of their
technical work, which led to classes being
held within its centre for waste collection.
Teachers were then brought in and
instruments donated.
Then one day, Nicolás Gómez, alias El
See TRASH, page 11
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