Old Ways, New Sounds

The music of Edna Vazquez can send shivers to your soul. When Vasquez performs, she closes her eyes and each of her facial muscles crinkles with concentration. She whistles and taps on her guitar’s body with an intimate familiarity, and when she opens her mouth to sing or speak, it’s a bellow straight from her heart.

“I want to share something with everyone,” she says. “Whatever you do that is in a form to ease our hardcore journeys as humans, bring it out.”

Vazquez has been playing guitar and composing songs about the human experience for 20 years, and her journey began in an all-male mariachi band. The group wasn’t keen on her joining, but hot damn, could she play guitar. Her intricate strumming and soulful voice were enough to land her the gig, though she found herself being faced with sexism from yesteryear’s traditional male-female roles — her ideas were often disregarded and she was punished by group members for “being a bitch.”

Her former bandmates wouldn’t book Vazquez for weeks on end as a result of her outspoken nature, but she took the time off as an opportunity to reinvent her art. “I would dream the music,” Vazquez says, who explains that often she would wake up with songs in her head — songs that came to her as colors and stories.

“It’s very subjective,” she laughs.

Vazquez refers to her sound as an abstract genre, though at its core it is traditional Mexican folk with Cuban, Venezuelan and jazz influences. She sings in Spanish but says she believes that emotional frequencies trump possible language barriers.

When you watch Vazquez perform, it’s like being in an art exhibit where you are the subject necessary to make the work come alive.

Vazquez’s next performance is at the Día de Hispanidad celebration at 11 am Saturday, Sept. 17, at Capitol Rotunda in Salem, 900 Court Street N.E.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

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None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

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Thank you for standing with us!