Composers of America in the Wind Quintet perform at the Cenart

▲ Julie Rochus, with a French horn; Uriel Vélez, on the oboe; flutist Rocío Varela, clarinetist Erick Rivas, and bassoonist Griselda Herrera, members of the Quinteto Saturnino. Photo courtesy of Cenart

Merry MacMasters

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, August 17, 2025, p. 5

The Quinteto Saturnino, in addition to promoting music written specifically for wind quintet, focuses on promoting works by Mexican female composers "with a diverse range of styles, from new music with extended techniques to experimental music, as well as very traditional approaches with common tonalities."

Today they conclude a tour of several cities across the country with the concert "Compositoras de América" (Women Composers of the Americas) in the Wind Quintet at the National Center for the Arts (Cenart).

The program will consist of six pieces, three from her album Cinco al viento : Áporo by Nathalie Gutiérrez; Gestus by Gabriela Maravilla; and Río arriba Viento abajo by Jimena Contreras. The other three are Qwindtet by Katerine Hoover and Tzigane by Valerie Coleman, both from the United States; and Suite para quintero de viento by Canadian Elizabeth Raum.

The Quinteto Saturnino is originally from Aguascalientes and is made up of bassoonist Griselda Herrera, flautist Rocío Varela, Uriel Vélez on oboe, clarinetist Erick Rivas, and Julie Rochus on French horn.

The group was founded in 2017 with the intention of promoting music written specifically for wind quintets, "because it's often the case that groups play arrangements," Herrera said. The idea came from the clarinetist, "who called each of us and told us what his intention was." The quintet's name refers to the well-known Aguascalientes painter Saturnino Herrán.

Emerging artists

Over the years, the quintet has been fortunate to have “emerging female composers give us music,” including Nubia Jaime Donjuan in 2019. “That sparked our interest in seeking out other female composers. We decided to apply for a co-investment grant from Fonca, during which we launched a call for emerging female composers. We thought there would be few responses; however, we received many proposals. We chose five and from there we released an album of Mexican women.”

It was then that the itch struck them, so Herrera began investigating and was surprised to find "a lot of music written by women for wind quintet." That's when the idea of a tour featuring new music, not only by Mexican women but also from across the Americas, was born. This tour became the project "Women Composers of America in the Wind Quintet," sponsored by the Fonca (National Fund for the Promotion of Women Composers of the Americas). The tour began in Cancún and took them to cities such as Mérida, Guadalajara, Querétaro, Celaya, León, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and Xalapa.

Promoting the work of female composers will continue because it's "part of our philosophy," says Griselda Herrera. "There will always be a work by a female composer in our concerts because there are so many available, but with a twist. We're going to go back a bit in history and return to the quintets that gave rise to the wind quintet. Purely by chance, we have a couple of women who are part of these early works written in the Classical period, although they have more relevance in the Romantic period. This is our project for 2026," she concluded.

The Composers of the Americas concert with the Wind Quintet will be held today at 1:30 p.m. in the Blas Galindo Auditorium at Cenart (79 Río Churubusco Avenue, Country Club neighborhood). Admission is free.

The Baja California Journey

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, August 17, 2025, p. 5

Tijuana, BC., The U.S. branch of Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) in San Diego, California, has closed its doors by decision of the Mexican federal government in response to the drastic decline in physical book sales in that country in recent years.

This was clarified by Ezra Alcázar, International Relations Manager for the publishing house, following the uproar generated on social media by images of boxes containing hundreds of copies placed in the parking lot of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, where the public could freely take them.

The FCE facilities in that city, located on Verus Street, have operated as a distribution center since 1990. Over the past six months, thousands of books have been redistributed to institutions, consulates, and civil organizations on both sides of the border, the official explained.

In this regard, the Mexican state publishing house reported yesterday in a statement that the closure of those offices "involved disposing of 90,400 copies," which "were not destroyed or abandoned, but rather donated to 27 institutions and civil associations in the United States and five in Mexico."

He detailed that 70,000 dollars were donated to the San Diego Country Library to strengthen the collection of its 33 branches, mobile libraries, and social reentry programs in prisons and detention centers.

"Of that number, 63,000 copies have already been delivered to the community," and the remaining 7,000 are "temporarily stored in a parking lot, awaiting repackaging and redistribution next week," the document states, also stating that the information circulating online "is incomplete and, at times, alarmist."

Ezra Alcázar added that the images were not from the publisher's offices, but rather from a space donated by the county to the San Diego Council on Literacy to house donations.

He explained that the decision to close was made at the end of 2024 due to the drastic decline in physical book sales in the United States in recent years.

The subsidiary, he added, operated primarily as a distributor, not a bookstore or cultural center, concentrating on administrative activities from expensively maintained offices in an increasingly expensive area.

Alcázar noted that, paradoxically, while physical sales plummeted, e-book distribution has performed excellently.

The subsidiary will maintain its presence in the United States, focusing on its digital business. FCE authorities plan to open a different space in the near future, more oriented toward cultural promotion and reading than commercial sales, similar to the model the publisher maintains in other countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Spain.

The donation process benefited multiple organizations: Mexican consulates, migrant associations, book clubs, community reading rooms, and various civil organizations working with the Spanish-speaking population in the border region.

The administration of FCE, under the direction of Paco Ignacio Taibo II, was confirmed to continue during Claudia Sheinbaum's six-year term, so it is expected that the plans to restructure the publishing house's international presence will materialize in the coming years.

From the editorial staff

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, August 17, 2025, p. 5

The exhibition Libertarias: Mujeres Anarquistas , presented at the National Museum of the Revolution, seeks to rescue and make visible the legacy of women who confronted political, economic, and patriarchal power in revolutionary Mexico, opening a historical window for the audience at the Media Luna Gallery.

The exhibition focuses on figures such as Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza, a pioneer of revolutionary feminism in Mexico, and Emma Goldman, an icon of international anarchism. Both articulated the struggle against capitalist exploitation and the subordination of women.

In the context of the Revolution, and alongside icons such as Ricardo Flores Magón and Emiliano Zapata, women were fundamental in the construction of the emancipatory project: “Anarchism in Mexico had a radical feminist component that questioned domination in all its forms: the State, the Church, and marriage as oppressive institutions.”

Curated by Liliana Nava Diosdado, the exhibition is structured along two axes: on the one hand, it sheds light on Mexican women associated with anarchism between the late 19th and early 20th centuries from a perspective removed from the contemporary distortions of the term "libertarian," analyzing their role as agitators, educators, and organizers; on the other, it interweaves libertarian internationalism and the mutual support networks they built around the world.

One of the most notable pieces is "Echoes of Rebellion," by Marilia Castillejos Meléndrez, who rescued woven images of key women from that movement. The exhibition is comprised of videos, photos, historical texts, and artwork that transports the audience back in time.

The exhibition can be visited until August 30 at the National Museum of the Revolution (Plaza de la República, Tabacalera, Cuauhtémoc City Hall). Free admission.