Caramundo and La Familia Ayara exchange in Bogotá, Colombia

In June 2010 Caramundo and La Familia Ayara realized the first capacity building exchange in Bogotá. The main objective of the exchange was to share the knowledge and experience La Familia Ayara has built in the past few years, with the coordinators of Projeto Queto in Rio de Janeiro. The exchange was part of a larger program financed by UN HABITAT who supports both La Familia Ayara and Caramundo in strengthening its youth led programs on grass roots level.

For who has been following Caramundo’s steps and projects since the beginning, some dusty memory might appear from the depths…Memories of Caramundo once starting its plans in close partnership with Jeyffer Renteria – better known as Don Popo. Both our activities in Brazil and Colombia find their origins in Hip Hop culture and have this culture as a guiding philosophy in daily life and projects, when starting Caramundo, back in the days in 2003 /2004, it has always been our idea to realize cultural exchanges and events between youth of the two countries. In June Jeyffer Renteria and Anouk Piket, present in the first hours of Caramundo and today’s directors of La Familia Ayara respectively Caramundo sealed these ideas and dreams in an official Motion of Understanding.

Alexandre Nascimento, partly responsible for the implementation of the new activities of Projeto Queto in Rio de Janeiro, and charged with the job to gather information and knowledge in Colombia to pass it on when back in Rio de Janeiro, was excited to learn about the origins and philosophy of La Familia Ayara.

“The success of the projects of Ayara exploring the four elements of Hip Hop culture as a tool to work with different themes is very obvious here. I am inspired to bring my experiences back to Morro do Queto, where the philosophy is similar, but where we are still in a start up phase. I can see here how Projeto Queto can flourish in two years from now!” Alexandre says.

La Familia Ayara started in 1996 producing Hip Hop clothing. The founders of the label Ayara, then in their late teens, early twenties, found it necessary to produce clothing for Colombian Hip Hoppers, made by Colombian Hip Hoppers. With the dedicated help of Cesar Aguilar’s (aka KasarKrac) mother, Ayara grew fast and became successful selling its own clothes. Part of the profit made from the sales, Ayara reinvested in CD productions or sponsoring of Hip Hop events in Bogotá.

“In Rio de Janeiro we have a very similar approach, but we still need to professionalize our activities. While Ayara started producing its own clothing label on a professional level, Projeto Queto’s commercial approach sprouts from the idea to teach youth of the neighbourhood how to become self sustainable through starting a label. In Ayara they did understand that from the beginning.” Alexandre comments when he visits the atelier in the suburbs of Bogotá. “The quality of our products still needs to be developed in its perfection to be able to sell in Brazil.”

Don Popo and Cesar where proud to show the origins of La Familia Ayara. “This is the machine we started it all with!” they laughed when they saw the old machine and where led back in time through their memories. “Those where the good old days, we used to hang around in Cesar’s house and where unsatisfied with the situation we found ourselves in. One day we decided to start our label! This little machine did all the work!”

Although Ayara has been very successful in producing its clothing label, today most of the attention of the founders goes to coordinating numerous workshops break dance, graffiti and rap in different barrios around Bogotá and other regions in Colombia.

Hip Hop is a powerful educational tool to create opportunities and better life standards for Colombian youth.

The cultural centre of La Familia Ayara - situated on one of the main avenues of Bogotá - shows to be a successful formula offering young Colombian hip hoppers from all over Bogotá a meeting point and excellent hang out every day. The doors are always open and if there aren’t any workshops or activities, groups can use the studio space to practice breakdance moves or new lyrics on a beat.

Freddy Paez, responsible for the La Familia Ayara recording studio shows the ins and outs of his work. “The most important thing for the people of Projeto Queto to know is that it isn’t he sizes that makes the studio, but the acoustic. We don’t have a big studio here, but with these specially developed mobile walls I can make the studio perfect for any type of recording.” Freddy proudly shows the walls he built on wheels. He explains that he can fit a small band with instruments in the studio, only by moving the walls into the right position. “Amazing to see how creative they are with their space, we definitely will implement this in Sampaio” adds Alexandre.

Being responsible for the studio, Freddy is also the main producer of La Familia Ayara. His personal portfolio lists a significant amount of Colombian Hip Hop artists, now known all over Colombia and even Latin America. “We offer upcoming talents free recording time and we produce and launch their first albums for free until they can walk alone. To guarantee an income for our artists and for the studio to be self sustainable, we do commercial assignments for all types of clients who pay the normal price for tracks - produced by Freddy - in our studio with our artists!” Don Popo explains.

“To guarantee an income for our artists and for the studio to be self sustainable, we do commercial assignments.”

Don Popo is proud to show the success La Familia Ayara has in its different layers of social and artistic work. Together with Anouk, he looks back to the days they all but dreamt about this when starting Caramundo. Anouk and Alexandre are determined to take the lessons learnt back to Brazil. “Its is very inspiring to see that the formula really works. Hip Hop isn’t only a youth culture; Hip Hop is a life philosophy that goes way beyond beats and rhymes; it boosts people with pride and self esteem” Anouk states with enthusiasm. “It is an easily accessible way to bring young artists and youth in general in contact with social entrepreneurship through one of the most popular urban cultures worldwide!”.

For pictures click here
More info: www.ayara.org