Manuel Rodriguez Gallery

Music making in Edinburgh. The Manuel Rodriguez group (1978 onwards)

When I arrived in Edinburgh from Glasgow where I had arrived in September of 1974, there was already a vibrant community of exiles and among them dancers, singers and musicians performing in Edinburgh (The Figueroa sisters, Gabriel, Angelica and others).

I formed a group with Zunilda, Ramiro, Gabriel, and Giovanna, we called our group Manuel Rodriguez and together we did a lot of solidarity work in Scotland and England in the areas of Newcastle and Durham.

Teresa was our magnificent driver and was she who used to take us to our destinations using her own car packed with instruments. Teresa was from Treviso in Italy. One member of our group, Gabriel, built his own charango. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

When the Manuel Rodriguez group disbanded I began to sing alone and I did it for a long time. Since the 80s I began to play music with Chilean guitarist Galvarino Ceron and since then we have done many things together.