Nathaly Ossa Alzate

In Nancy Fraser’s framework, social justice requires both redistribution (economic resources) and recognition (cultural and symbolic status). Symbolic recognition is the validation of one’s identity, dignity, and self-worth within a broader socio-cultural context. And in 1990s Medellín—our time—young people faced material deprivation and severe symbolic misrecognition, viewed solely through the lens of urban violence, stigma, and invisibility. 

Acción Social por la Música was founded in Madrid, Spain in 2013.  Our dream was to put music in the service of our most vulnerable people—following in the footsteps of Maestro José Antonio Abreu, whose conviction was that “music transforms adversity into hope.”  This dream began two years earlier when María Guerrero, our founder, discovered the documentary film “Dudamel: El sonido de los niños.”