In Andean cultural performers circles, it is normalized to see only men and boys playing the instruments and music at community performances. For this same reason, only boys and men get passed down our ancestral knowledge on how to play instruments and create music. Recognizing this as a form of discrimination against girls and women within our culture, we began to challenge this by teaching the girls of our collective how to play the musical instruments of our towns. We hope to continue fighting this discrimination with the girls in Queens. Our work also has our mentoring component, older girls who already learned to play go on to support new younger girls in their learning. By creating a song with girls, women, and men who support our mission, we are creating a storytelling tool that will get passed down too, which will speak about the contributions and struggles of women and girls in our communities

In 2019 we launched Semillas del Sur (Seeds from the South), an indigenous, Ecuadorian music band composed of first-generation Andean girls. This project creates access to free music education for girls and families in Corona. In the past 3 years, we worked with about 10 girls and families, and are now starting the second generation of girls musicians.

In our project we want to see the older girls mentoring the younger ones, men passing down music knowledge to our girls, and see families stay connected to our collective.

We would be empowering first-generation Andean girls to take leadership in our communities, practice passing down the knowledge of our ancestors through music, and have them and their families have pride in our traditions.