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Mylin Obiedo Mesco was a student of Musical Arts and Sciences at the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) when in 2010 he began volunteer work, organized by that institution, in two of the city’s famous neighborhoods, Under the flowers and Villa Soldati.
He started with four or five companions, summoned by Gustavo Carrara, who was then parish priest Mother of the peoplein Villa 1-11-14. The idea was to organize a “meeting place: play the guitar a little, sing.” They wanted to provide arts activities for youth and children in those locations.
He became a workaholic and identified needs. Thus, he decided to form a civil society association called: Technical Center of Argentine Solidarity (CASA)which is now celebrating its five-year anniversary, and like any other plan, continues to grow according to its ideals and dreams. The name is not random: “The idea is that it is A second home for the children“, he confirms.
These spaces were transformed into schools where opera workshops were taught: music, drama, costumes and acting. How was the process? “I came from academics and wanted to create something like a conservatory, so I could teach everything, so they could learn to read sheet music, Who can play in an orchestra?“I give concerts and courses,” he says.
The center in Bajo Flores, in Madre del Pueblo Parish, welcomes all children who want to go. In Soldati, it is located at the Institute Our Lady of Fatima“A huge school,” but because there are so many students, they can’t open it to the neighborhood. Currently they are attending Total 150 students.
Of these four or five volunteers, there are now more than twenty. The first problem that arose was a financial one: “We started out needing more money, but since it was a social commitment project for one of UCA’s departments, we couldn’t go out and ask for it. So We suggest forming a civil society association And we open ourselves from the original project.
It took them two years to obtain legal status, which now allows them to apply for financial assistance. Before they were part of the city’s cultural programme, Art in biology. This provided free training in various cultural centers and paid teachers’ wages. In this way he was able to establish a permanent factory while continuing to volunteer. But since 2024, the same government has made budget cuts based on reduced teaching hours and shorter contracts:They took everything from us “What we had that helped us move, they took from us.”
In Bajo Flores, he first met A “completely different reality” from yours. “I came out in shock, especially the first few times. It was nothing like it is today. That parish on 1-11-14 was there, but it had another structure, two sheds with metal sheets and a dirt floor. But It was like a shelter that we had. In fact, there was a small place, part of the same parish, that was the dining room, and it was called El Rescate. “It now looks like a school, with good classrooms and bathrooms,” he recalls.
There is, around them, a bias that Misko considers “quite common”: Opera was made, usually an elite genre, in popular neighborhoods. For this reason, they have workshops, where they offer orchestral training – vocals and instruments – and with Filera Opera Festivalwhere “boys engage fully in academic and classical music and sometimes opera.”
Regarding this bias, he says: “It is generally associated with other types of spaces, but since I have dedicated myself to it, writing operas, and having a company, and knowing the neighborhood kids a lot, I said okay, This could certainly be of interest“.
– How did you take this approach?
– We presented it not as “I came to do an opera”, but as: we have design workshops, it will be scenographic, you will be able to put it together and we will do it in the theatre. I came to meet a group of friends, eat something delicious in the afternoon, and learn to draw in perspective and use other materials, all for free. I came to design new costumes for the actors and actresses for a play for which we will be composing music. And those who are more experienced, yes, they come and write operas.
To obtain tools they rely on help through social networks. Many people donate inexpensive instruments, such as keyboards, guitars and violins. Others, members of orchestras with whom Misko has connections, provide them with the most expensive orchestrations, such as cellos and trumpets. The most “original” of them are obtained thanks to the sponsorship program, which the Government of Buenos Aires promotes for the development of artistic projects through private financing from those registered in the gross income tax.
Companies or people choose the project to which they will contribute. “We write it down With this you can purchase more complex toolssuch as clarinets, trumpets, trombones. And now we’re going to buy a drum and some plates, which are like a xylophone, but smaller, called a Glockenspiel.
Today there are 17 volunteers, joining the regular staff of teachers, but everything is free.
For Misko, his job goes beyond the hours he devotes to it. During the epidemic, for example, he detained a girl. “You want to leave things out there and say, ‘Okay, this is my job,’ but that doesn’t happen, it never happens. Because it’s something more than that. And when you meet people, Another human being passes through you. When one sees the weakness of another and knows that he can, or believes that he can avoid some kind of suffering, then he does it.
– Was there a situation that affected you?
-All the time. One is moved by stories. Some academic achievements. For example, the girl who won a record deal for a Netflix reality show (Nashi-Nashay, who won Companya talent show in Latin America). And other kinds of achievements: boys with selective mutism who, by attending the orchestra, begin to speak; Children who were not able to establish a good relationship with their peers or within the family, who suddenly, thanks to our intervention as teachers and conversations with families, are able to solve the problem and make that child’s life more enjoyable. This is moving too.
– In your opinion, what is the effect of music on children?
– In general, it is about linking on the other hand. The mission of a band, orchestra or ensemble means that one cannot function without the other. You always need a little of each other. And sometimes it happens that, through music, these children find a different way to talk or say something, and also to be recognized. Some team members are so grouped together that they gain an idea of self-esteem and value to me. For this reason, musical education is of great value, because it awakens another type of intelligence that is sometimes different from what is taught in school, and they discover that they have that value.
The festival appeared in parallel with CASA. They usually organize it at the end of the year to commemorate the conclusion of the workshops in different neighborhoods. They create traditional repertoire, opera scenes, and more.
By calling it a “village opera,” Mieszko sought to deviate a little and, at the same time, benefit from this bias that he had spoken about before. “Why do they call it that if opera can be performed anywhere?” People asked.
“This is just one part of the festival, the other is That opera appears in the same neighborhoods. The boys are composing a new opera, which is interesting, because it is not performed in Cologne. So, for a group of teenagers to suddenly do this… I don’t know, it’s interesting, isn’t it? The fact is that we had students who entered higher institutes after the first festival. They did the first workshops and said:I want to devote myself to this“”.
They had to suspend it this year because, among other plans, tours and presentations, They were on their way to travel to the Vatican To play in St. Peter’s Square. This was an arrangement made while Bergoglio was still in charge of the church, and this collapsed after his death.
It was an opportunity that came after they recorded a documentary about the first festival for YouTube. The same people they filmed with told them that if they got an interview with Bergoglio, they could produce a miniseries culminating in the Vatican. “Since I work with the village priests, they got it for me within 15 days Invitation handwritten by Bergoglio “He asked us to go see him and play in the arena when he spoke to the audience.”
Pope Leo XIV supported that call. Misko began making arrangements for the minors’ travel, but a month before production on the documentary itself was backed off. “The kids were very excited. But, we made a lot of contacts, found a place to stay, and are talking to the ambassadors there. Almost everything is there, tickets are missing“, he laments. And thus the campaign was born One company, one ticketwhich seeks to attract companies or self-organized groups that can contribute to purchasing those tickets.
– What do you consider to be the most rewarding part of this project?
-The nice thing is that the people who work with me really do it from the heart. It’s very rare to find someone who doesn’t want to be there. The same thing happens with the children who come, no one comes forced. So, there is a very smooth and enjoyable process when it comes to all moving forward. Everyone here is very grateful for the management we do for and with the children, because it is a free space, and one receives a lot of love.
-And the hardest thing?
-It is clear that when cases of rights violations arise, children are coming from bad situations. It’s unsettling, even scary at times. But it is compensated by the love one receives, which is very enjoyable. We do it for pure fun, because we’re having fun, because we’re having a good time with them.
He also highlights that among these difficulties are state bureaucracy and the lack of aid to support teachers. Today they are supported through a program they created themselves, on the Mi Pago platform, through which people can subscribe and donate. “With this we can restore the number of teachers,” he explains. “This has been ensured today thanks to the contribution of the community and the people.”
– What do you hope or dream for the future of CASA?
– We have a dream of buying a warehouse, there is a lot for sale, the square meter is very cheap in front of the neighborhood, but hey, it is a number, from 200 thousand US dollars and above. We want a safe space to work, with good classrooms. Where we are there are few, this is our limit. I can’t add more children. I would like a venue with vocal classrooms, a large orchestra rehearsal space, and a piano for concert series. It should be a room that the neighborhood makes itself, and it can be used for many things: it should contain a dining room, it should have university housing, it should have work spaces open to people with disabilities, and it should be a cultural center for solidarity. This is our dream.