María Zardoya is the front woman of the indie band, The Marías, and began making music from an early age. She first was taught how to play the guitar by her father and then gravitated towards writing lyrics to make her own songs. Coming from a Puerto Rican background, Latin culture has had a large influence in her music, and many of her songs are in Spanish. Her song “Cariño” originated from a nickname that her father would call her, a term of endearment and love.
Much of her creative process comes from immersing herself into nature and living in the moment. Recently, she has come out with a solo project called "Not for Radio" and she talks about her inspiration coming from a creek for her song "Puddles". She also draws her inspiration from her film studies and uses this background to create her aesthetics. In The Marías first album, Cinema, María structured the main color to be red, which is the color of passion and love, since the album was inspired by the band members love for film. My personal favorite is her song "Swan" which was inspired by the animals, which are known to mate for life showing passion and simplicity for love. Swans were also significant elements to the branding of Cinema, so this song plays homage to the band as well.
In my focus book, "Culture Care" by Makoto Fujimura, the main question was "is beauty essential to life?" and at the end he finally answers it and says yes. Beauty is the root of human nature, and it is at the root of our cultures as humans. Beauty is everything around us; in nature, in music, in art, but it is up to us whether we accept this beauty in our lives and value it. Connecting to María, I think she does value beauty and lives it. Whether it is through nature or her Puerto Rican culture, María finds beauty within even the simplest things and shapes it into her art. She allows herself to feel things and live in the moment, along with re-introducing those feelings into nostalgia within her music.
I fell in love with Maria's voice first in 2022 when I heard her for the first time along with Bad Bunny in the song "Otro Atardecer," and I thought it was so pretty and soothing. I wanna get more into listening to her and her band's songs, and her being a Latina makes me even more attracted to her genres and singing in both English and Spanish. Plus, your connection to the Focus Book was great, Maria definetly finds beauty in music in a similar way Fujimura mentions it is something essential to life.
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