Rosalía during her presentation at Festival Ceremonia 2023 on April 2 in Mexico City.QUETZALLI NICTE-HA
Mexico City’s Minister of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, took office in the capital’s administration in February 2022. Just a few months later, in August, the 10,000 seats of the National Auditorium were filled to see the performance of Spanish singer Rosalia. “We were looking for a way to see if he could have a date at the Zócalo after his tour of the auditorium; but in truth we didn’t make it, ”he admits. A year later, the secretary, along with the head of the capital’s executive branch, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced the date of Rosalía’s landing in the mythical square in Mexico City: April 28. With EL PAÍS, Curiel de Icaza addresses how this contract came about, the controversy that arose in networks due to the budget used and the perspective of the capital’s dependence on the show.
“International artists of the Rosalías caliber have many commitments. Reaching the stage to confirm an appointment is highly dependent on working with your representative,” she confirms while seated in an armchair at Mexico City’s museum. Curiel de Icaza (Mexico City, 43 years old) is a casual politician, an outsider with experience in organizing events. He’s insisted on bringing the artist since last year. The project has been cooking over a slow fire with the secretarial team and through contact with the artist agency and management of major festivals. His time at the Ceremonia festival, held in the capital in early April, and the relative proximity of his time at the American event Coachella – last weekend and this weekend – have allowed the agency to set an ideal date.
The singer’s concert in the Zócalo is part of a policy of “access to culture” and “reactivation”. The capital’s executive is trying to bring the music to different points of demarcation and with different presentations: from larger events, like that of Grupo Firme – which the capital’s government says drew more than 280,000 people -; to the Spring Night Festival deployed throughout the demarcation. “[Entre los festivales de primavera y el de Tiempo de Mujeres, celebrado en marzo] We ran 214 free public space activities across 100+ venues. It is part of a work in public space. During the spring night we received around 200,000 people,” he emphasizes.
Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Minister of Culture of Mexico City at the Museum of the City of Aggi Garduño
Curiel de Icaza humorously recalls the video she and Sheinbaum used to announce the event via Tiktok. The secretary appeared next to the prime minister, handed her a phone with the tune of Bizcochito, one of the songs from the album Motomami, the Catalan singer, and Sheinbaum shouted “Rosalía!”. “It was spontaneous, we didn’t have time with the boss [Sheinbaum] and we had agreed that we would meet on the 10th. Suddenly she had a conference. So we said, “Well, we’ll do a TikTok and announce it,” he recalls.
An announcement, a controversy
The news immediately sparked two reactions on the networks: statements of support from users who staunchly defended the singer’s hiring; and a flurry of criticism from those who criticized that the budget for the concert could be reallocated to other areas – like the Metro, a service which has been criticized for delays and incidents in recent months. “I did not expect that [una crítica tan fuerte]. We’ve been doing concerts for 20 years. I think it’s such a good concert that it upset a lot of people a lot. She is an extremely talented fresh artist who appeals to many industries and maybe they thought we were only hiring local Mexicans […] Perhaps betting on another sector they believe belongs to just one group created terror. But we work for everyone.”
The exact cost of hiring Rosalía is not given, as the culture agency team continues to develop the production design: “It is a living monster that is constantly being expanded and updated. We will have the cost if we close well [las cifras]“. The secretary defends that the amount is within the budget for concerts, which is around 50 to 60 million pesos. The figure – which also includes the expenditure of the festivals already held – rotates around 5% and 6% of the 1,000 million annual entries for the Secretariat, according to Curiel de Icaza.
He justifies the decision to bring the fashionable artist to the return of the event with the expected numbers. The Mexico City (Canaco) Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism estimated the economic benefit at 1,000 million pesos, counting the spending of people who came to the event at the capital’s shops and hotels. But it also underscores the importance of the free pass. “It is above all a question of access to culture, that those who could not pay for Rosalía at private festivals can visit them for free.” “[La actuación] Giving Mexico City international visibility, we can’t stay with the scare of only programming Mexicans. We have to program everything, all genres, national and international artists. This also positions the land and spills [económica] That’s almost a year’s culture budget,” he says.
Curiel de Icaza firmly believes that the Spanish artist’s performance will be a success. The State Secretary expects around 200,000 people to arrive, but assures that the security measures for the 300,000 have been prepared. With her performance, Rosalía joins the diverse list of musicians who have walked the iconic square in Mexico City: from Shakira (2007) to Paul McCartney (2012). The Grupo Firme phenomenon was able to gather 280,000 people, a number that surprised the organizers. With the arrival of Rosalía, the Ministry of Culture is preparing for the arrival of a massive flood of an international nature. “We see that they come from Argentina, from Colombia, from here, from there and from all over the country. They are already organized for their trips. We are prepared to receive them and that there is a very high level of production,” concludes the secretary from one of the rooms of the Mexico City Museum.
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