Silvana Estrada is drawing from the traditional to develop a style of her own - The Washington Post

For Mexican singer Silvana Estrada, songwriting doesn’t come as easy as composing. “I try to write always, and every day, to not lose the creative muscle,” she says, speaking via Zoom from Mexico City. “Whenever I find something I want to say, and say it in an honest way, it’s wonderful. That’s how the best songs happen.”

Borrowing from Latin American poets she admires, such as Alejandra Pizarnik and Idea Vilariño, Estrada, who has a background in jazz and comes from a musical family, focuses on creating lyrics with moving, all-encompassing images. “I wanted to try out what they both did so well: saying a lot with very little,” she says. “The power of synthesis, in songwriting, is very important.”

Her second album, “Marchita,” captures her lyrical strengths along with her impeccable vocals. Estrada’s voice evokes the solemnity of Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, the tenderness of Mexican soprano Natalia Lafourcade, and the assertive delivery of Venezuelan protest singer Soledad Bravo. On tracks such as “La Corriente” and “Sabré Olvidar,” delicate arrangements of plucky piano notes and minimal strings help elevate her performance front and center. In “Tristeza,” Estrada’s birdlike soprano speaks of a feeling of pervading sadness.

“Marchita” is, unmistakably, an album about heartbreak and longing. “I’m aware that I’m not inventing anything new,” says Estrada. “I sing about love, and my circumstances, which are that of many other women.”

Refining a repertoire that started in 2017 with her first album, “Lo Sagrado,” Estrada says she tries to “create images beautiful enough for everyone to identify with.” Following the steps of trailblazing Latin artists such as Argentine guitarist Atahualpa Yupanqui and Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, Estrada draws from traditional music to develop her own style, which she calls “musica de raíz.” Directly translated: music of the root.

“What I do is not folklore, specifically, because while folklore evolves, it also has a conservative side,” Estrada explains. “My music is not conservative at all. It’s very experimental in many ways, but I think it’s musica de raíz because while it contemplates the [musical] roots of where I come from, it mostly deals with narrating one’s story in a truthful way.” Accompanied by the austere sounds of her cuatro, a four-stringed guitar, Estrada effortlessly honors that desire throughout “Marchita.”

“Latin America always had a history of songsmiths who gave voice to a lot of different movements,” says Estrada. “The human need to make our surroundings beautiful is one of the most valuable things we have.”

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Silvana Estrada is drawing from the traditional to develop a style of her own - The Washington Post
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