On this day like today, 27 December, 16 years ago, the first concert under the Mapamundi Música brand took place. I have told it many times but I will repeat it. It was a concert of the trio Cherno More, with Wafir Shaikheldin and the brothers Nasco and Ivo Hristov, in Sevilla la Nueva (Madrid province). So it’s our birthday.
What I don’t know if I’ve told you is that I couldn’t go. I registered Mapamundi Música as a brand, taking over the legacy of the radio programme Mapamundi, which Juan Antonio Vázquez had been doing since 2001 (the programme was renamed Mundofonías in 2009 when it joined RNE’s Radio Exterior). I was registered as self-employed and issued the invoices in this way. But I was also working with an employment contract in a training company and I left at 6:15pm. I wouldn’t have been on time for the concert…. It broke my heart.
For a while I was working as an employee in that company and carrying out a lot of activities on the side, as a freelancer, working non-stop. Until I took the not easy decision to leave an indefinite contract with very good conditions, in a very constructive job, in order not to go through more moments like that, to be where my heart was asking me to be and to be able to focus on developing what was already both my passion and my profession. With Juan Antonio’s support, I left that company at the beginning of 2009. The company went bankrupt in 2016. I still have friends from that company.
In September 2015 I created the limited society Mapamundi Cultural, which would allow me to do many more things, such as being a partner in projects for the European Union.
I am still working like a mule but every day I feel that I am going one step further towards my mission. Soon I will announce something very important that I am working on, which will help me to continue on this path with an even firmer step. In the meantime, I invite you to visit my website where you can find information about my artists and the 66 editions of the monthly newsletter, with news and interviews with personalities from the world of music.
I only have left to wish you a good end and beginning of years, may 2024 be generous to you and thank you for reading this far 🥂
Last year in May, when I received Ali Doğan Gönültaş’s digital album, Kiğı, his voice and his music captured me. I felt compelled to talk to him to explore the possibility of a collaboration.
Today, 18th of August, they will play in Dersim, the cultural capital of their homeland. 
The losses caused by the earthquakes that hit eastern Turkey and the border area of Syria last February could hardly ever be estimated. In cases like this, there is also the loss of the unique work that Mehmet Yıldırım (in Turkish), or Memed Desîmî (in Zazakî), could have provided to the world in the years to come, of studying and collecting a culture in such a delicate situation as that of the Zaza people.
Personally, during these years I have been able to meet and befriend professionals whom I greatly admire for their professionalism and commitment and I look forward to welcoming more colleagues and collaborators.