Rivers of Resistance

Through polyrhythms and harmonies, Queen of the Marimba de Chonta Eryen Korath Ortiz Garcés (Buenaventura, Colombia) and Neblinas del Pacífico (La Mission, San Francisco) sonically navigate the rivers and mangroves of the Colombian Pacific Coast. Together, their musical journey honors the region's Afro-Colombian spirituality, traditions, everyday life, celebrations, ancestors and long history of resistance. Featuring instruments like marimba de chonta, bombos, cununos, and guasás, their performance is a vibrant celebration of Colombia's Pacific Coast heritage.

Neblinas del Pacifico

Neblinas del Pacifico is a band of marimba de chonta music practitioners based in the Mission District of San Francisco and London, with half of the band's founders relocating there in January 2026. The marimba de chonta musical tradition is born and rooted among the Black and Indigenous communities nestled along the rivers and mangroves on the Pacific Coast of Colombia and Ecuador. It’s music of spirituality and everyday life, roots and tradition, celebration and resistance. The members of Neblinas have ancestry in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Indonesia and beyond. They partner with numerous other Afro-Colombian musicians and organizers to support grassroots community initiatives in Buenaventura, Guapi, Timbiquí, Tumaco, and Quibdó as well as Bay Area organization like People’s Kitchen Collective, Acción Latina, Youth Speaks.  Neblinas del Pacífico play and share this music in the spirit of respect and solidarity with the maestres and communities who are its originators and keepers. Neblinas's original 45 single "Fandango, Arrullo y Batey" with Eryen Korath (la Reina de la Marimba) was released on That's Love Records and named one of Planet Ilunga's favorite releases of 2025.

Guest Artist Biography

Eryen Korath Ortiz Garces

The Queen of the Marimba de Chonta, ERYEN KORATH ORTIZ GARCES, is a native of Buenaventura, the main port city of the predominantly Afro-Colombian Pacific Coast. She has earned international recognition as a marimba de chonta performer and interpreter of numerous folk styles from Colombia’s Pacific Coast. She is a tireless student and promoter of the tradition of her ancestors, having performed their music in the US, Ghana, Senegal, Netherlands, Panamá, Ecuador, and all over Colombia. Currently, Eryen serves as musical director and lead performer in the group Cantares del Pacífico (@cantaresdelpacifico), nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2024. She is also a lawyer, and a member of Jóvenes Unidos por Buenaventura, a social advocacy platform empowering young leaders . Eryen is the marimba player in Petrona Martinez's album "Ancestras" which won a Latin Grammy in 2022. She has won numerous honors and awards, including the National Sonar Contest of Marimba and Cali’s Queen of the Marimba Festival. In 2025, she was the youngest person to ever serve as a judge at the Festival de Músicas del Pacífico Petronio Álvarez. Her work advocating for rights women's rights and for her home city of Buenaventura, as well as her continued support for female percussionists was recognized by the Black Women Disrupt movement in Brazil.