Many musicians have migrated to Chile from different parts of South America, bringing new sounds and talent with them. What are their stories? Why did they decide to settle here? How have they developed their interest in music? What are their projects about? As South Plug, we have been interested in answering these questions for years, aiming to discover the contribution of musicians from different countries in South and Center America. Recent statistics reveal that approximately 1.5 million people not originally from Chile, live, and work in the country. During the last couple of years, numbers have grown exponentially. Today, Chile is becoming more of a multicultural country, and we believe it is important to visualize this reality and the opportunities it brings.
As the South Plug team, our interest is to be a platform to make artists visible. Artists we find exciting because of their way of raising and blending sounds from Latin America and the world. In this context, and hoping to share their projects and connect with their experiences, we interviewed musicians from México, Venezuela, Cuba, Panamá, Argentina, Colombia, and Haiti, who are now based in Chile. These artists are Gina de la Hoz Alejov, O.S.O 507, Lino Borbolla, Warhol Oliveira, Erika Needs, Alonso Casual, and Cajuste Dieveut.
Gina Paola de la Hoz Quintana is originally from México and has been living in Chile for twelve years. Though she graduated from International Relations and her work experience revolved around business administration, production, and artistic and cultural management, now she has been working mainly in the gastronomic sector. She plays the drums in the band Makina Kandela, which plays Colombian Caribbean covers, also in la Ceiba and Cumbiambé. With Chilombiana, a Colombian group, she toured around seven European countries in 2011. Since 2019 she conducts the radio program Hilos de Paz, broadcasted at Revista Sur radio station. In the program, she interviews people from foreign countries to discuss issues regarding peace in migration situations.
Alejandro Villanueva Martínez – known as Alejov in the electronic music scene – is a Dj/Producer originally from Bogotá, Colombia. Ten years ago, he decided to immigrate to Chile, attracted by its growing native local scene. Characterized for his profound conscience on musical origins and connection with the dancefloor, Alejandro is continuously investigating and developing a broad auditory perception, which he transmits through a neat mixing technique.
His musical project aims to enhance the roots of his culture and search for new sounds that are born from a mixture of Afro and Latin sounds. Combined with house and techno, this results in psychedelic Dj sets charged with percussions. He is part of the Frenesí collective, which was formed years ago and constitutes a platform for different tutorials for mixing, and displays recorded Dj sets that show each guest’s technique. He also organizes Domingo Máquinas, an event that shares its goals with the tutorials, but focuses on musical creation and use of hardware (Drum Machines, Synthesizers, Samplers, effects, etc.). The event usually gathers people interested in networking and sharing their shared knowledge of equipment. Today, Alejov cultivates his deep interest in investigating and mixing sounds from different places and times and sharing and creating music through the Frenesí platform.
Rodolfo Edwin Downie Lewis came from Panamá City seven years ago. In Chile, he has worked in diverse areas, such as hourly handyman, conversational English teacher, simultaneous translator, butler, and customs assistant. However, his passion is music. As a solo artist, he is known as O.S.O. 507, and he also participates in a Chilean – small Panamanian band called The Royal González. He tells us his primary motivation for coming to Chile was the freedom of speech and the possibility to show the other side of urban music. Edgardo Franco, A.K.A. El General, Panamanian musician, was the one that encouraged him at a meeting arranged by his manager of the time. Jimmy Fernández, a member of La Pozze Latina, was also a referent that motivated him to come to Chile after they met in Panamá in 1999. Today, Rodolfo works as an actor in the audiovisual project “El Cartel de Los Andes.” During the pandemic, he has been able to collaborate with various artists and bands from different places, which previously were stopped due to a lack of time.
Lino Borbolla lives in Chile for 28 years and is originally from Manzanillo, Cuba. Since the year 2008, he has been working as a saxophone and flute professor in the Escuela Moderna de Música. He has played the saxophone with Maxi Vargas and has been the arranging director in the Pachuco Orchestra and la Cubanacan. He has also participated in several Latin American jazz projects with El negro Hernández, Las Estrellas de Washington, and others. In Chile, he has been able to work alongside great musicians such as Cristian Cuturrufo and De Kiruza.
Five years ago, Warhol Oliveira came to Chile from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was initially motivated by coinciding with his idol, Alejandro Jodorowsky, who was filming a movie in Santiago at the time. This inspired him to present his record Wharhol Oliveira sings Alejandro Jodorowsky. A musician, entrepreneur, and rock and roll producer, he plays as a soloist and also in a band with three Chilean musicians. He has released for albums for now. After recording his second album in a studio in London, where he lived, he decided to present it in Buenos Aires, Santiago, and México City. During those trips, he met Barry Sage, legendary English engineer that worked with The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and New Order. With him, he recorded his last two albums in Santiago.
Erika Needs has been living in Chile for 15 years. Her father, who had a Chilean nationality, decided it was best to migrate due to the difficulties they were facing in Venezuela. At the time, working conditions were more promising in Chile. Erika has worked as a freelance English teacher, but her great passion is music. She started showing her sounds in 2008 through Myspace. After acquiring the artistic name of Erika Needs, she started working on an indie-pop style that, in 2019, led her to release an E.P. called Universos Paralelos, produced by Andrés Nusser and available in every music platform.
Carlos Alonso Silva Casal is also from Venezuela and has been living in Chile for over two years. He migrated looking for new opportunities with his brother after a series of protests that, in 2017, had the Venezuelan youth in a delicate place socially, emotionally, and regarding their working possibilities. According to Carlos, it was exciting to get to Chile and get to know new people and places. Like many other immigrants, he worked various jobs: from selling fruit to cleaning bathrooms, but he never let go of his passion for music and kept playing, recording and rehearsing. Today, he is a waiter at a bar and writes creative articles to maintain his social communicator skills. He has a personal project called Alonso Casual, made of Lo-Fi music, Soul, and Latin rhythms. Though at the start of his path as a musician, he played mostly drums – an instrument he studied- today, he is more involved in composition and production.
From Puerto Principe, Haití, Cajuste Dieveut migrated to Chile four years ago. He had studied computer science but struggled to find work in his country, so he came looking for opportunities. In Chile, he studied industrial electrics. Hip Hop and Afro-Creole influence his music. Eleven years ago, he founded the Makalata Klan band, which recently turned into a nonprofit foundation and a football club in Santiago.
We invite you to get to know these artists’ musical projects and show us new ones. Our platform and social media are open to contributions from our community. We thank the artists that shared their stories with us. We hope to help in making the emerging and migrating musicians’ networks grow stronger in our country.
