04/06/2023
Rasta
Bio
Chan Santa Roots started in 2007 as a Spanish language reggae band in our town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Although our musical base was and is reggae -- we are still playing reggae music festivals in the Yucatan -- we have also brought in rock, jazz, pre-hispanic music, and rap influences for a high-energy reggae fusion sound. You can see these influences in our band, as we have brass, winds, and traditional Mayan instruments as well as traditional rock and reggae guitars, bass, and drums.
We always knew that reggae music talks about your roots, and getting grounded, so it was logical for us to begin exploring our own roots. Although we already spoke Mayan as well as English and Spanish, our music motivated us to dig deeper into our historical Mayan culture.
What we discovered is that our Mayan culture and language has a lot to offer in our music, and to our fans, as we try to communicate the Mayan and Hispanic ideas of love, history, and struggle. We’ve lately been playing not simply normal band venues like concerts and clubs, but local cultural concerts as well as international festivals. In all these performances we communicate our hispanic and Maya language and culture through our lyrics combined with our musical fusion of western rhythms such reggae, jazz, rap, rock and metal.
Because of these divergent sources, our music is probably pretty difficult to classify. Our music is a fusion of genres such as: Prehispanic music, Maya paax (traditional maya music), jarana (mestizo music), and more western influences such as acid rock, ska, reggae, jazz, rap, and metal. This fusion is the platform for our lyrics based on Mayan culture and other topics such as mystical encounters, love, history, having fun and being someone different.
We are excited because our fan base continues to grow, allowing us to play more and larger venues. We stay close to our roots, though, and each year we throw an anniversary gig in our hometown of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in Quintana Roo, which is generally attended by 300 to 400 people -- about the population of the town.
Over the last year we have performed 25 shows, the largest of which was at the Chetumal Reggaefest, where we played for for 8,000 people opening for Ky-Mani Marley. At the 43rd Festival Internacional Cervantino, we played for 4000 people. At Vibes festival in Playa del Carmen we played for a crowd of 3000 people opening for Panteón Rococó (a popular Mexican ska band). Most recently, in May 2016, we performed again in México City at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture and the Museo de Mexico. That venue was in the main plaza of Mexico City, a great honor for Chan Santa Roots.
The goal of Chan Santa roots is to not only preserve and spread our language and culture, but to show the world that everyone has something to contribute, no matter what their background. So we are excited to be attaining a wider audience outside Mexico. And besides, we love our music and we have a great time writing and performing it. In the end, I think we want to introduce others to our lives, because we enjoy our lives and culture so much.
Plus, we think we have some pretty good music to share.
