Guadalupe represents the soul of Costa Rica for her people with these many dimensions of creativity!
The Costa Rican Guadalupe Urbina was born in the province of Guanacaste. From her early childhood, being the youngest of 10 children, she remembers her mother, Angelita Juárez, being her main source of inspiration. It was Angelita who introduced Guadalupe to traditional stories, songs and rhythms that later in life became her basis for her professional career. As an adult Guadalupe became a world traveler. She represented her country’s musical tradition performing throughout Latin America and Europe, in South Africa, the USA and Canada.
Guadalupe’s songs find root in her life experiences, memories and dreams of her early childhood in the province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica. She understands the hardships of agricultural life, remembering how hard her mother worked to take care of her 10 children, her home and her land. It is therefore no surprise that Guadalupe can be found present in events that are about World Peace, Amnesty International, Women’s Liberation and Human Rights. In 1988, she performed at the National Stadium in Costa Rica with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel and Youssou N’Dour.
Guadalupe loves to work creatively with children and has developed several projects with socially challenged youth creating musicals that are performed throughout Costa Rica. She is so known and respected throughout Costa Rica and neighboring countries that every where she goes people recognize her and call her the “soul of Costa Rica”. Guadalupe is not egotistical about this, but she takes seriously her responsibility as a teacher and representative of her people.
Guadalupe Urbina is also a painter and writer. She paints with acrylics and oils using paper made from natural fibers in tropical countries. Several of her paintings are available in limited edition museum quality Giclee prints. The biggest source of inspiration for her paintings are the creation myths of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. She paints images that have deep philosophical meaning within rural indigenous or mestizo peoples such as quetzals, butterflies, snakes and trees in both distant and present time. Her stories and songs are based on the myths and imagery of the peoples of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican. Sequences reflect the story of creation found in cosmogonist Costa Rican thought (including Bri-Bri, Boruca and Guaymi cultures, a living examples of centuries-old resistance to assimilation who have a love for nature), the Pop Vuh, the Book of Wisdom, and ancient Mayan, Aztecan and Mayan codices.
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