The Lived Dreams of World Hood

Estrella Hood and Anand Parmar, partners in life and music, are the love behind World Hood. 

I caught up with Estrella Wood, once her voice had recovered from the mayhem of SXSW where Estrella and her partner performed under World Hood at a community venue. They are also the founding members of the Sol Collective, an arts, culture and activist centre in Sacramento. The centre offers everything from music production classes to graphic design to silk screening. They also provide a space where different groups can come in and host cultural activities. They are right near the state capital and run an activist school making sure people are aware of different issues.

- Marika Swan: The discussion about identity is always interesting and I find that this is sometimes different with the Indigenous folks down south. How do you talk about your roots?

Estrella Hood: Yeah it's definitely interesting and it's always different in different places and it really hit home when I was in Canada just in the different ways that people do identify. You know growing up, we're Mexican, so we're Mestizo or Mestiz. I always knew about our Indigenous roots. My grandpa on my mother's side is Matlazinca, Indigenous people from Mexico and he made it a point to let us know where we came from. My dad's side of the family was always proud that their bloodline was Spanish, mainly because of the racism created due to the hacienda system in Mexico. Growing up, I would hear family members on that side say things like she’s the “daughter of the Indian”. I don’t think they meant it in a good way, but I was always proud of that, and I’m glad that they did not allow me to forget. On my mom’s side of the family, her eldest brother still spoke the Indigenous language. They still had their traditions. As I got older and many of them came to California it became less and less throughout the years, with assimilation. Definitely as I got older I wanted to look into that and really get a good grasp of who we were. I had a lot of conversations later with my grandfather.

In California there’s a lot of politics around being Native. A lot have to do with the politics around casinos, specifically where I live. There is a bit of a divide in the community around folks that are Mestiz and folks that are full-blooded Indian, who can say they are Native and who can’t. I think some of these tensions have risen because some people have right to money from casinos and some people don’t. So even though we’re not Native from California, I still felt that tension around cultural identity.

When I went to Canada to see Indigenous people from all over the place and Mestiz people from all over the place it was very interesting to learn about the politics of cultural identity outside of my own community.

MS: When did music become a big part of the work that you do?

EH: I think I've always had that as an outlet. When I dropped out of high school and I hadn't told my parents yet - I would take off and go to my friends place  and we would record music. Its always been a way of expressing myself and getting my thoughts and my ideas and my energy out. Recently with the World Hood project it's the first time I've really put it out there and allowed other people to hear it.

MS: And this is a music project with your partner? It sounds so romantic.

EH: (laughs) Yeah, he's a producer and an amazing beat-maker so it's convenient because we have a studio set up in the house. We have two children so when they go to sleep we can work on a project together. He's East Indian, his family is from India and he was born in Africa so he brings a whole different cultural element. We go back and forth with the sound, adding different elements of who we are. It's been fun working with him.

MS: How did your show go at SXSW?

EH: It was cool, it was a little difficult 'cause we were organizing the event. As a band, it was difficult because we were doing way too much as usual. We were on the sound and hosting the guests. So that part was hard to put myself in the role of now I am going to perform because I was running around but as far as the show itself it was a wonderful experience. We got to invite all of the different artists who's music we really respect. It was nice to meet face to face with people who have similar music or similar ideas around activism. And represent some kind of cultural element in their music. That we're not trying to assimilate, we're trying to keep our culture intact out here. So everyone had some kind of cultural element to their music which I think is really important.

Especially for us, physically we’re outside of Mexico and going into the next generation. My kids are the second generation. They say that by the third generation children will completely assimilate and there is basically no trace of where we’re from. So the cultural centre is a way for me to combat that. To try and keep our culture intact as much as possible for our generations to come.

MS: Was there any other music that just blew your mind out there?

EH: One show that I just loved was 3BallMTY from Mexico. It's three DJs that are super young, like 17-19 years old and they mixed a lot of different styles of music. From traditional to Indigenous sounds and electronic so its just such a great mix of music. It totally blew me away. It was amazing to to see them. I really feel like they are a good representation of Mexico today, of who we are from our roots until now. Who we are as a people and how we are continuing to move forward and evolve as a people.

MS: What's coming up for you?

EH: We have a new EP with 5 tracks coming out in the next month and dropping a full length album in the summer.

MS: Wow you are a such a busy woman!

EH: Yeah we are always doing too much. Life is short so you have to live out all your dreams and everything that you feel inspired to do. Everything that you visualize, move forward on it.

MS: I think it's so key to mix the activism with the arts and music. It's so important to have that balance.

EH: Music and art are such powerful tools to communicate with people across culture or boundary or gender. Images and sound are able to move people in a way that words aren't. They are such an integral part of our culture anyways.

You can check out World Hood on Bandcamp here.

Here is Indigenous 808 by World Hood:

and hey why not? Here's Inténtalo ft. El Bebeto, América Sierra from 3BallMTY

Eternal Love: Hip-Hop Artist and Cacique Mestizo

Mayan hip-hop artist David Ernesto Gutierrez-Guevara, aka Eternal Love, creates work inspired by politics, poverty, religion and social class. He’s worked with Diabolic, Hassan Salam and The Circle, Prince E. and Chino XL making a name for himself as a producer, collaborator and solo-artist.

RPM talked with him about education, connection, discovering his Indigenous identity and becoming the Mixed King.

RPM:  Let’s start with an introduction, Indigenous style.

Eternal Love:  Technically I’m Matagalpian, Granadino and Leones from Nicaragua, so that would be my nation. From what I know we’re a Maya nation, and I don’t have a traditional name, unfortunately. David, or Eternal Love, is good to go. That’s pretty much my heritage right there, other than the colonist mix and the Celtic mix in me.

RPM: How has your Mayan Indigenous culture influenced your music creation?

Eternal Love:   Honestly I didn’t start knowing much about it until the last year to two years. So it’s helped in the fact that for my new album I’m going back home. I’m trying to go to my roots and do an all Latin album based on the fact that I’m Indigenous from there, so the album is actually called Cacique Mestizo. Mestizo is the mix of Native with colonist and Cacique is the word for king in our native language. So, I’d be the mixed king essentially.

RPM: Mestizo and Métis are kind of like the same thing - that mixed blood is now a categorization of Indigenous culture.

Eternal Love:   Yes same kind o concept. But with us more central American Indigenous. And it’s not the French mix, we’re the Spanish mix, technically.

RPM: When you were growing up what were your main influences from Indigenous culture?

Eternal Love:   My mom was a traditional dancer - folklore dances - so I grew up seeing that. My family is also all musicians, back home they were a very well known band, so I grew up with all the different arts that we have in our country. I grew up very Afro-Caribbean as well. My love affair with music started with Reggae and more Afro beats as opposed to your traditional Rock or Hip-hop that you would hear now. It also started with the Latin side of stuff - salsa, meringue and bachata - all that, mixed with the Afro-Caribbean side and the more Afro beats.

RPM: I know now you working with Songweavers and a lot of the Indigenous community here in Vancouver, can you tell us what that’s been like?

Eternal Love:   It’s been awesome actually. It helps me. I wanted to know more about my roots and since I come from a meso-American culture, I figured getting into knowing the different cultures out here would help me discover more about mine, and the similarities we have. It was an awesome experience, meeting everybody and seeing all the different cultures, just from around this area in BC, all together as one. It’s really inspiring to see, and I hope the rest of the world can get to see stuff like that so we can actually connect more as a people, as opposed to just seeing that they’re separate nations.

RPM: There is a lot of political separation between our people here and a kind of constant rediscovery of our culture as well as the rest of the world discovering our culture.

Eternal Love:   That’s what I thought was so dope, it was all so awesome to see how the community embraces outsiders, non-Aboriginals. I thought that was really cool. I was very accepted and I just loved it, the people, everything. It was like being back home to me, honestly, minus al the Spanish.

RPM: What other work do you do other than music?

Eternal Love:   Music is the main thing right now. Just trying to promote the new album and get my name out. The Indigenous Holiday project that I’m working on right now actually is trying to unite Indigenous nations from around the world and bring an awareness of colonization and the effects, the negative effects it had on us. And the effects it still has today, which people seem to like think that it disappeared, or that we’re not still effected from what happened back then, which is definitely wrong. You can see the effect in reservations  - the loss of our own individualism, our own culture and our roots.

RPM: We use Hip-hop as catalyst for a new type of culture because of our cultural disconnect.

Eternal Love:   I like that.  Hip-hop is definitely a widespread culture that I guarantee anthropologists years from now are going go be like” whoa that was crazy subculture”. It unifies so many people around the world.

RPM: What other future music plans do you have?

Eternal Love:   Going back home to do the next album, get a tour going. I want to go Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, everywhere. I want to travel. So my plan basically is just to spread out as much as I can, starting with Latin America as the next move. Then hopefully Europe, Asia, Australia, keep going from there.

RPM: Space!

Eternal Love:   Ya! The universe. Other planets! If I can get beings on other plants listening I’m so there.

RPM: The technology is almost there man.

Eternal Love:   For sure.

RPM: Tell us about your crew.

Eternal Love:  Guardians of the Earth Third World Order, is kind of spread out all over the place. it’s a conscious Hip-hop movement that features a lot of talent from Vancouver and around the world. We’ve got talent out in Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, as well as the states, Canada, some in Europe as well, Spain, and it’s a movement to bring about change, positive change for the world and for the people. Education is the main basis. And positive vibes, just trying to keep everybody moving on up.

RPM: What’s the one thing an artist should never do on stage?

Eternal Love:   Don’t stop if you mess up. If you mess up a lot of times people will not know. So stopping the show is an no no, and apologizing for your mistakes is a no-no because more than likely nobody noticed.

RPM: Is there anything else you want to share with the world of Indigenous Music Culture.

Eternal Love:   A couple words is definitely just stay strong, ‘cause the system was meant to keep us down and to not let us rise up. So stay strong, do what you always do and keep doing it – always move with your heart forward. It’s your life and you are the one walking in your shoes.

Connect with Eternal Love on Facebook, Bandcamp and thirdworldorder.com.