News from Latin America

It’s my great pleasure to be in touch with all of you from Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, at the South of Latin America. Despite the cold winter down here, we can feel the heat of music therapy activity happening throughout the continent. This is primarily because between July 18th -23rd, the Sixth Latin American Congress of Music Therapy took place in Florianopolis, Brazil at the Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina.A few days ago, I took the opportunity to speak with Juanita Eslava, current president of the Music Therapy Latin American Committee (CLAM). When asked about the conference she said:“As always, the CLAM congress represented the possibility of dialogue between a multitude of diverse voices. A growing interest in research and innovative practices in the fields of medical music therapy, mental health, music therapy education, social music therapy, community building, and human rights was observed. Our region’s strong interest in the field of interaction of politics, policies and music therapy continues to be a characteristic of the Latin American path towards the development of the profession and the discipline. To this end, the CLAM country delegates deliberated on current issues during the conference.” She also shared these facts about the conference:

• 8 countries of the region gathered for the event
• More than 400 Music Therapists attended
• 21 pre-conference workshops were offered (including 3 free workshops)
• 4 keynote speakers: Music Therapist (MT) Nuria Escude (Spain), Doctor Diego Schapira (Argentina), MT Teresa Fernández (Cuba), and Doctor Rafael Hernández (Spain)
• 5 roundtables, 96 oral presentations, and 13 posters
• 3 music therapy networks were presented: Intergenerational music therapy, music therapy in Early Childhood, and Community music therapy

On the last day of the conference, the Brazilian National Music Therapy Research meeting (ENPEMT) also took place.Here is some additional information related to the CLAM. The Committee was created in 1993. Currently, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela are the country members of the CLAM. Its primary mission is to support music therapy development, research, and public awareness. The Latin American Congress of Music Therapy occurs every three years towards achieving this. If you would like to know more about it, visit the CLAM wordpress site.Before reaching the end of this post, I would like to invite you to take a look at the regional publications. Currently, there are two journals edited and published in the Latin American region.

• ECOS is the biannual online scientific journal published by the Argentinean Music Therapy Association (ASAM). The journal is in Spanish, and the first volume was published last June in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Association. Through the journal, the Association shares knowledge with allied disciplines related to health, education and the arts. Read more here.

• “Revista Brasileira de Musicoterapia” is the biannual journal published by the UBAM (União Brasileira das Associações de Musicoterapia). It is written primarily in Portuguese. Throughout the 19 volumes already printed, you can find original scientific articles related to music therapy and allied disciplines in the categories of theory studies, reviews, and research. Read more here.

Looking forward to hearing from you and to sharing with you more information in the next blog post.Marcela Lichtensztejn, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaWFMT Regional Liaison, Latin AmericaSave