Mary Beth Bjork
Equinox Staff
Paul Baker-Hernandez sang and strummed guitar from the heart of Nicaragua in the Night Owl Café on March 8.
Margaret Walsh, professor of sociology, director of the honors program, and organizer of the event said, “I met Paul in 2007 on my trip to Nicaragua and our meeting led to him serving as one of the translators and guides when I brought students the following year.”
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She also said, “The students bonded with him so closely from that trip that they wanted to bring him to the United States to perform. It turned out the work that Paul was doing with the ‘Echoes for Silence’ a not-for-profit organization meant that he would try to come to the U.S. to do these kinds of events where he educates people and brings his music on almost an annual basis.”
Students in the audience munched on chips and salsa while listening to Hernandez play a guitar, which he said was made from “an old table and toilet seat.”
He also said that it was “pure mahogany” and the materials were found in the “garbage can.”
“The guitar taught me how we are destroying the world we depend on,” Hernandez said. “How many times can a man turn his head?” Hernandez sang regarding consumerism and mindlessness.
“Our style of life affects so many people,” Velvet Young, a sophomore, said.
The audience primarily consisted of Global Engagement students who were either going on a trip to Bosnia or Nicaragua this spring. “A key component of fulfilling the honors programs requirement is to study away,” Walsh said.
Hernandez sang a story about coffee at Starbucks, which got students on the edge of their seats.
Becca Brady said, “The Starbucks song was a surprise to me. I figured that they were up there with fair trade. I guess not. It’s not right that our big corporations are making so much money while kids get the coffee to make the money, to give it to the companies so that they can make money.”
She went on to say, “It just does not make sense to me.” Also adding, “Hopefully it will bring awareness about other countries especially Chile, I know I was unaware of all their problems,” Brady said. “It was about how there are so many options, the venti, grande, tall, [different sized drinks] we pay so much money for it. The kids who actually raise the coffee beans are exploited… making us question what we are buying [and] where we put our money, how we support. When we pay for something, we are supporting it with our money. So we are… supporting that exploitation,” sophomore Alex Kirk said, Along with Hernandez’s coffee song, he also sang about women’s rights.
Hernandez asked the crowd “Why?” to the idea that “women are impoverished.” He also sang “What do we do about it?” concerning the chemicals released from cell phone production and the negative effects on the environment and people living in that area.
He went on to say, how we overuse cell phones and how our government needs to do more and have more women role models because the world is primarily made up of women. “We aren’t separate, we are all one,” Hernandez said.
“It is refreshing to hear someone, a man being such a feminist and especially in this day and age, right now, politics, all the issues of women being put down and I think it is really good to have someone like that, to see, it is empowering,” Brady said.
Mary Beth Bjork can be contacted at
mbjork@ksc.mailcruiser.com