Vivir Quintana performs with a brass band at the Decididas women’s conference in Oaxaca.
The Mexican songwriter centres women who resisted domestic violence as she prepares to perform with Juanes at the Latin Grammy Awards.
Vivir Quintana is reshaping Mexico’s traditional folk ballads by telling the stories of women who resisted domestic violence. The songwriter has gained recognition across Latin America for bringing those experiences into a genre dominated by men.
Now, she will perform alongside Colombian pop star Juanes at Thursday’s Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas. Their song “Humano” is competing for song of the year, marking Quintana’s second Latin Grammy nomination.
Vivir Quintana puts women at the centre
Corridos traditionally recount the lives of revolutionaries, outlaws and folk heroes, and more recently, drug traffickers. Men typically sing these Mexican ballads about other men, but Quintana’s work centres women who fought back against abuse.
At the Decididas women’s conference in Oaxaca in October, she performed against the backdrop of a centuries-old stone church. A brass band of young Indigenous girls accompanied her with trumpets, trombones and a tuba.
With her hat in hand and fist raised, Quintana sang a corrido based on a woman’s experience. The woman resisted an abusive partner who tried to gouge out her eyes with a knife.
Quintana also told the crowd that her understanding of women’s solidarity had changed. Rather than seeing pain as their shared bond, she now saw love and resistance. Her appeal for women to keep defending themselves drew loud applause.
