Photo: Sarah Matusek/The Christian Science Monitor.
Nixon Garcia, a teaching artist at El Sistema Colorado, conducts students at the music school in Denver.
People sometimes forget that we need more immigrants, not fewer. Their contributions to the economy are well documented. In 2021, for example, they contributed more than $500 billion just in taxes (see Forbes here). Not to mention that they willingly apply for necessary jobs that go begging, sometimes for years.
And there are other contributions getting less attention. Consider what this one musician is doing. Sarah Matusek wrote about his work recently at the Christian Science Monitor.
“A few dozen children in Denver settle into seats, violins and violas in hand. With short cropped hair and a focused gaze, Nixon Garcia observes from off to one side. …
“This is a fall show-and-tell for parents at El Sistema Colorado, a free music school that prioritizes kids from low-income families. The Denver program was inspired by the original El Sistema in Venezuela, which since its founding in 1975 has sparked similar projects around the world. …
“With flutters of his hands and flicks of his wrists, the 22-year-old conjures up simple songs that he learned as a boy in the Venezuelan program. He’s brought that same sheet music to students in the United States, along with hopes for asylum. Working as a teaching artist at the Colorado program, he’s come full circle.
“ ‘El Sistema has been my second home throughout my whole life,’ says Mr. Garcia, who teaches in Spanish and English.
“The original program’s catchphrase, ‘tocar y luchar‘ – or ‘play and fight’ in English – has evolved into a personal mantra of perseverance for the young conductor who can’t imagine returning home. By the time he left Venezuela, in 2022, says Mr. Garcia, he’d been kidnapped three times.
“Backdropped by mountains in northwest Venezuela, the town of La Fría sits near the Colombian border. Mr. Garcia’s family, who ran a poultry farm there, enrolled their son in the popular music program at a young age. …
“At age 5, he began learning the Venezuelan cuatro, which has four strings. Later on came the clarinet. As a teenager, Mr. Garcia began teaching other El Sistema students – a key mentorship feature of the program – and developed a love of conducting. But basic needs were stark; some students he taught sat on the floor, because there weren’t enough chairs. And beyond the solace of class, violence lurked.
“When he was a young teenager, in 2015, a criminal group, called a colectivo, kidnapped him and his family at a gas station. The group held them for several hours, his family says, and demanded thousands of dollars for their release.
“Venezuela, meanwhile, devolved into further economic, political, and human rights crises under President Nicolás Maduro, causing millions to flee. Mr. Garcia began attending pro-democracy protests. …
‘You can see how everything is terrible. But in the end, you still love your country,’ he says. ‘You don’t want to leave.’ …
“Mr. Garcia was captured again by an insurgent group on his family farm in La Fría. Yet neither was he safe at college in another city, Mérida, where he studied engineering. … Although his family had arranged private security for him in La Fría, they decided that he had to leave. …
“A tourist visa that his family had secured some years prior still hadn’t expired. That became his ticket to the U.S. last year. Yet even as he moved into his cousin’s home in Monument, Colorado, an hour south of Denver, the adjustment was isolating. … A family member suggested he retreat to nature, take a moment to breathe. A prayerful hike in the nearby mountains, Mr. Garcia says, helped right his course.
“Inspiration struck, tuning-fork clear: Why not return to music? A Google search for nearby orchestras yielded a name he knew. The young conductor, in awe, reached out to El Sistema Colorado. …
“Mr. Garcia started out as a volunteer at El Sistema Colorado before the federal government issued the asylum-seeker his work authorization. That allows him to work legally while his asylum case moves forward. Now paid, he teaches groups of strings-learning students in an orchestra group called Allegro.
“The teaching artist is a ‘positive light’ at the music school, says Ingrid Larragoity-Martin, executive director of El Sistema Colorado. ‘He’s passionate about kids, and he knows how to work with them.’ …
“Meanwhile, he awaits the outcome of his asylum application, which may take years. Mr. Garcia says he wants to ‘work, make a life, and try to share as many things as we can from our country.’ ”
More at the Monitor, here.
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