Musica Viva Australia - Untold Stories: César's Journey

César Marin is a musician and member of El Camino, one of Musica Viva Australia In Schools latest shows. El Camino features César alongside fellow musicians Marco Antonio Carvajal and Eduardo Rodriguez, and their lively show celebrates the music of the performers’ Latin American heritage alongside musical influences from their home in culturally vibrant Western Sydney. Harriet Cunningham talked to César Marin about music, migration and making a home through community.

For all the right and wrong reasons, 11 September 1973 is a day Oscar and Lucy Marin will never forget.

That Tuesday in early Spring was their wedding day – but while they were exchanging their vows their homeland, Chile, was in the grip of a coup d’etat. By that evening, President Salvador Allende was dead and the army, under the command of General Augusto Pinochet, had seized power.

Four years later the Marins, with their infant son in tow, became part of the largest flow of emigration in Chile's history, joining an estimated 200,000 Chileans fleeing the brutal regime. Their destination: Australia.

César doesn’t remember much of this: he was only 3 at the time. But he does remember the importance of music for his family as they made a new life in Australia.

‘Sonido de los Andes commenced in 1977,’ says César. ‘My father, Oscar Marin, was one of the founders. That was only a few months after arriving from Chile. Both my parents used to sing and play guitar; they met through music, so it was a natural evolution for him.

‘The band had a lot of success in those first years. They were the go-to band for that explosion of Latin American culture. Even though it was Andean, initially, it was embraced by all Latin American communities -- Chilean, Bolivian, Peruvian.’

With music as such a central part of their social community, it was almost inevitable that César would join in. He was 11 when he first picked up the charango, a small ten-string guitar found in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, originally made from the shell of an armadillo.

‘It was the first thing I ever played’, says César, ‘and to say it was an obsession doesn’t do it justice. It was beyond that!’

From there he mastered traditional instruments like the quena (South American flute), zampoña (pan flutes), and bombo (South American drum), and Western instruments like the guitar and double bass. He plays many of these in El Camino, his show for Musica Viva Australia In Schools. But the charango has a special place in his heart.

‘I’m always going to a feel a sense of gratitude and almost a sense of healing,’ he says. ‘Every time I play it I go back to that feeling of gratitude. I can’t help it. It’s my number one instrument, as a musical and life experience connection.’

Almost 50 years later the music is still a central part of César’s life. His father’s band has morphed from its strictly traditional origins into Sonido, a group which explores many South American instruments and styles alongside other contemporary styles of music. Sonido describes its sound as ‘traditional music of a place on no map, a folklore in search of a country’.

For César, it’s a vivid musical depiction of the immigrant experience.

‘When I go back to Chile they refer to me as Australian, and people here, even though I’m pretty Aussie, will forever refer to me as a Latino because of the way I look. So you end up with a double identity.

‘Our music is similar. It can belong to anywhere, and sometimes it’s in search of a place to belong. We can play a Joropo [a party dance like a fandango, from Venezuela] the way we think a Joropo should be, and show it to a Venezuelan musician, and he says, ‘This is really different! You have done something traditionally Venezuelan but you’ve added all these other colours.

‘And so we realise our music belongs to everywhere and nowhere.’

With the music comes striking lyrics from band member and singer-songwriter Stephen Aguilera-Mendoza, which explore, with great eloquence, themes of exile and social justice. César admits that the political fervour of the younger band has morphed into something more pragmatic, but it’s still very much part of the band’s identity.

‘We have one or two love songs in our catalogue of over 80 songs,’ he says with a wry smile, ‘but the rest all have profound meaning. Deep down we are all revolutionaries. It’s a strong word but it’s not lost on us because we all still ask why were we forced to leave the country we were born in. We should have left because we chose to, not because we had to.’

That said, it is because of the Chilean diaspora, of musicians leaving home for other lands, that Sonido’s music has come to represent a mix of the world – and that is part of its power.

‘I believe it’s why when people hear Latin American music they find something that makes them want to smile, to dance, because it has elements of the whole world.’

El Camino. L-R César Marin, Marco Antonio Carvajal and Eduardo Rodriguez Photo credit: Teniola Komolafe

When he’s not performing or being a revolutionary, César Marin delivers music programs in socio-economically challenged areas at schools that can’t afford music teachers.

He’s proud to be walking, once again, in his parents’ footsteps. In 2020 his mother, Lucy Marin, received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her work as a counsellor and project officer at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors.

‘We all actively took a role in human rights, which in my case led towards youth development, and being part of wellbeing programs that are connected with the arts, music and dance,’ he says.

El Camino, the new show César is developing for Musica Viva Australia In Schools, is generously supported by Ensemble Patrons Ray Wilson OAM and Raymond Camillire in memory of James Agapitos OAM.

César says his work with Marco and Eduardo on El Camino is greatly enriched by his years of experience as a youth worker.

The 50-minute show and its accompanying digital learning resource is full of joyful music and creative activities.

‘Be the change you want to see’ is a key theme: students are invited to reflect on experiences of children in countries where life is much harder than in Australia, and to learn about opportunities to advocate for social change themselves.

‘Part of it is straight-up educational experience but it also comes with the responsibility of cultural awareness and individual wellbeing of students,’ César says of the show.

‘You can’t affect what kids and teachers take away from it, but we deliver it with a much more comprehensive mindset and experience. We’re able to contribute a lot more.’

El Camino – the Journey begins performances in Term 2, 2025 and will tour across Australia.

This is part of a series of Untold Stories, about the people behind the music at Musica Viva Australia. Play your part in the future story of Musica Viva Australia by making a gift in our 80th anniversary year. To discuss making a gift, please contact Zoe Cobden-Jewitt, zcobden-jewitt@musicaviva.com.au