Celebrating 10 Years of Resistance with Beautiful Handmade Jaranas

Freedom University held our first class of the Fall 2021 semester today, on the 10th anniversary of the implementation of Georgia Board of Regents’ Policy 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 in 2011. While this year marks ten years of exclusion, it also marks ten years of resistance by undocumented youth at Freedom University!

Meanwhile, in the town of Playa Vicente, Mexico, a luthier named Diego Almazan finished the second of three jaranas commissioned by Freedom University’s son jarocho ensemble, Son de Sueños.

Since 2014, music and arts education have been a cornerstone of our curriculum. While some may think music is insignificant in face of segregationist educational policies in Georgia, we know that it is actually the core of our community. When we practice together - singing decimas, dancing zapateado, and strumming jaranas - we are actually practicing how to work together and how our individual voices can come together to create something more beautiful as a collective. There is truth behind the saying, “Mi jarana es mi fusil/My jarana is my weapon.”

Our son jarocho ensemble will be taught by Professor Eduardo Garcia, who is moving to Atlanta from San Diego to share this music tradition with Freedom University.

We are so excited to welcome Eduardo and to add these beautiful handmade instruments to our small but growing ensemble. Next week, they will make the journey to the United States, crossing the same border that many of our students crossed years ago.