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Quetzal quetzanimales

Quetzanimales

In this, their sixth album release Quetzal turns to the matter of animals in urban space—including roosters, ants, owls, geese, squirrels, coyotes, pigeons, spiders, dogs, and butterflies—to imagine a world not merely from the animal’s perspective but that shatters the colonial distinctions between persons, things, and animals. The animals in Quetzanimales come to life through the sounds of funky cumbia beats, bluesy melodies, and country inflected soulful ballads.

Quetzanimales is situated at the intersection of space, human life, and animal existence, thereby channeling the spirit of a world Gloria Anzáldua once theorized as “un mundo surdo” (a left-handed world) which she intentionally spelled with an “s” to symbolize the radical power held in thinking and imagining wrongly, in other words, refusing to accept our world as it is. Quetzanimales creates un mundo surdo, a world cultivated through souls thriving and surviving that offer teachings that may allow us to recover our own souls. Quetzanimales offers us what feminist theorists would call a “posthuman” praxis for appreciating the offerings of the rooster’s awakenings and the coyote’s hunger. Such offerings assembled in this album call us to imagine life relationally across different beings rather than across the same beings. As Martha Gonzalez explains, the project configures “an animal world that can give us insight into our own humanity.”

Rooster

HormiGuitas Divinas

Hollenbeck Ganso

ARDILLA

Coyote Hustle

PAlomo Vagabundo

Spiders's Lament

city Bridge Cacoon

Tecolote

Perro Caliente

QUetzanimales MAsks

Thank you to our community and fundraising contributors! This album could not have happened without you. Finally, thank you to our parents and families. Your patience and love continue to propel us forward.

Produced by Quetzal (Quetzal Flores, Martha González, Tylana Enomoto, Juan Pérez, Peter Jacobson and Alberto López)

Recorded by Joel Soyffer at Coney Island Studios (Glendale, CA)

Vocals recorded by John Avila at Brando’s Paradise

Additional vocals recorded by Quetzal Flores at Padawan Studios

Mixed by Joel Soyffer at Coney Island Studios (Glendale, CA)

Mastered by Robert Hadley at The Mastering Lab (Ojai, CA)

Record design by Tylana Enomoto and Ranei Lopez

Cover Photo by Cynthia Perez

Web Story by Scott Macklin