My name is Rocío Yamila Rodríguez Paz. I am from Argentina. I was born in Mendoza, the wine and sun region, but I lived for 12 years in Buenos Aires before coming here. I’m 29 years old. In my home, we listened to a lot of music, especially when we cleaned the house on the weekend. We listened to Brazilian music, Arabic and flamenco, because my mom loved Spanish music. With my sister, we danced a lot to Spanish music. My mother’s family is from Syria and my father is from Andalusia, Spain, but he was born in Argentina. We all have a connection to Spain, even my mother and her mother love Spain and Spanish music.

My dad was a petroleum engineer, so we moved to a very small town, Rada Tilly in Patagonia, when I was very young until I was 12 years old. It was very little and the only artistic thing to do was dance, so my mother put me in a dance academy when I was little. I learned Spanish dance because my teacher’s mother was from Spain.

When we moved to Buenos Aries, I started singing classes and theater classes. I acted in all the theater productions in high school. I like to sing, but I don’t like musicals! Then in university, I studied technical voice classes and theater. I had a band in university that played some tango but mostly traditional folkloric music of Argentina from the north, which is very old. I was the singer. I love this music. Just people singing in the mountains or working in the fields. We also played some contemporary and more modern folkloric music, too. I used to sing a lot in English, but then I fell in love with the folkloric music. I could feel this music from the land, very primary. I felt it a lot – singing in my language. I traveled to the north of Argentina, and I saw all that music live and I became very inspired. There are native words in the songs. The band was just 2 or 3 years because I was studying theater so much that I couldn’t keep both because there was not enough time for both.

I always wanted to dedicate more time to music, but I stopped because I was very involved in theater, and I had a company, and we always had a lot of plays during these years. Our company did everything together – the writing, lighting, set design, a live band – everything. It was very serious, but of course everyone had some other jobs, too. Mostly my other jobs were all related to acting. I worked in events as a clown to go to parties or companies that had some promotion, like at a bank to attract people in a funny way to open new accounts. I was at a high level in the theater, and producers were writing me to contract me. I was about to have a break, but then everything stopped. I got a little depressed and very disappointed when the pandemic came. Everything stopped radically from one day to another, and it never came back the same. It was a strong hit for that art. It was very difficult to continue with the theater. There was no money to afford the entrance for the people. I got a little tired. It was a lot of effort. We won some awards, but it was very hard.

So, then I started the opportunity to travel because I didn’t have anything. I couldn’t do the events, either. First, I wanted to go to Spain because my sister was living there, but Spain was closed. I already had a visa for the US because I traveled once with my parents to New York. I saw Phantom of the Opera and Lion King. I wouldn’t live there, but I loved New York. The United States was open, so I went to the United States to meet a friend. The plan was to work and save money and then continue traveling. It was another dream to finish the university and travel. I wasn’t going to do it because I was very committed to my place and the theater company, but the pandemic changed this. I ended up in California with my friend and worked in a marijuana farm near Sacramento. This was a crazy experience, and we almost didn’t get paid in the end, and then it got weird, so we just wanted to get out of there. We went to San Francisco and stayed for a week in this junkie hostel. We didn’t feel safe there and there were drug users everywhere. It was horrible. Then I went to LA for a couple days, and then I went to San Diego with a friend. It was almost Christmas, 2021. I worked for UberEATS there with my friend Yuri from the marijuana farm. We stayed together in his van. We didn’t have a home. It wasn’t a very prepared van. We joined a gym to use the shower and the bathroom and stay at the pool! We slept in the van and in the morning went to the front seats and turned on the UberEATS app. We spent a few nights in a hotel and couch surfing. In some ways I was looking for that adventure, but I didn’t expect all of this. We stayed in San Diego like 2 ½ months. I liked to live that, but I don’t want to do it again!

When I was in San Diego, I started seeing other musicians, and every day I was about to buy some equipment and sing, but I didn’t feel I have the courage to do it. I didn’t have a lot of money to buy this equipment and maybe not make much money. There was not a lot of time, but I felt, “Oh, I want to do this,” but I just couldn’t. I decided to earn as much money as I could. I worked in an Italian pizzeria as a busser, the person who picks up the dirty dishes. That time I felt the worst. I felt dead inside. I felt like dying like, “I was not made for this.” I prefer being a waitress talking with people, but I was just returning dirty dishes and not talking to anyone. I just watched people having fun. I’m very social and have that spirit, and I wasn’t giving people anything that I could give. It was horrible, but that experience really encouraged me to go right to what I want, to never do anything else. I always did what I loved, but not in California. In California, I experienced what it was not doing that, so I came back with more strength. It gave me also some understanding for the others, to think about the people who work this job every day. I felt empathy. I learned many things. I realized a lot of people work in things they don’t like. I don’t know how they do it. At that time, I needed to do that, but I felt very lucky that I had other things. I felt very thankful that I could live with my singing and theater. I wasn’t very conscious about the luck I had before.

I felt that I didn’t experience the travel thing because I was working so much. I was not prepared to come back to Buenos Aires without living all I wanted to live, so I thought it was a better idea to continue traveling. So, I went to Mexico hoping I could sing there. They gave me a visa for one month. My plan was to finally sing. I was asking a lot of people who had done this before, but it was the same thing. For one month, it wasn’t long enough, so I relaxed and recovered from the stressful situations in the USA. In Mexico, I met my sister, who was living in Spain. I thought after Mexico I would come back to Argentina, but then I was thinking about my dream and traveling, and I didn’t want to go back to Argentina. My sister said, “I’m going to Madrid now. Come with me and do the papers.” I had this opportunity because my grandmother was born in Spain. So, I said, “OK. I go there. I do the papers, and when I feel the time, I will go back to Argentina.”

So, I came to Spain in June, 2022. I stayed in Madrid for two weeks, but I wasn’t comfortable staying with her and all the people in the apartment. So, I said, “I have to find my place, and I have to find a job. I have to do the papers. I have to do something with me life.” Málaga was one of the places to do the papers faster, so I came here and waited for the papers. And in the meanwhile, the first place I stayed in Málaga was in the home of a musician that I met in Argentina. I met him in Argentina at these house events I hosted for trying out music. I had him in Instagram, and I saw that he was in Málaga. He told me he was staying in a home that is from a musician and there was a free room. He played on the street and showed me everything. I joined him one day to sing on the street. I thought I would be nervous, but I was really excited. I was waiting for it. When I did it, I felt very natural. I think my theater experiences helped me, and I was really enjoying that moment. When I did it, I thought, “Oh I can do this!” Then I started buying my own equipment.

I started singing with another guy I met, but he didn’t treat me very well. He didn’t like this playing in the street very much. He was only doing it for money. He hated to go with the hat to people. That experience wasn’t great for me. Then, I found another pianist, but I didn’t feel secure in that situation, either. I felt a little trapped. I went back to Argentina to visit my family, and I came back to Spain with more energy, more decided to live here and do what I’m doing.

So, I downloaded all the backing tracks and prepared the songs in two weeks, and I said, “I’m going to try it alone.” At first, a friend joined me to support me and watch me. I was at first a little insecure alone about what people would think, but I did it and it went very well. It was a very big step, and I felt free. It made me free and stronger and made me trust myself and made me feel that I had these connections, and I can give something. The first time I did it, I finished, and I cried a lot. I was thinking, “Oh my god, I did it!” My friend was going with the hat while I was singing. It was great. I could sing whatever I wanted. I felt so free. I loved it. I wanted to buy an iPhone and travel, so I was playing almost every day. I would play for maybe 3 hours moving from place to place in the terrazas. I made maybe 100 Euros each day when I played alone. I think because I am a woman singer, it helps. When I play alone, actually people give me more. I don’t know why. Maybe they feel, “Oh she is alone and needs money!”

I can’t do music without spirit and desire, and I felt my first partners here were not in this mind. I love my energy when I go alone. And the energy I get is amazing, too. Sometimes when I don’t want to go out to play, these are the better days. If someone comes and tells me beautiful things or texts me something or sometimes write very nice notes on my Instagram that it makes someone miss somebody special, that’s the best. One day, I didn’t really want to play, and I played in the beach and some woman gave me 20 Euros to play Happy Birthday. And the same day, I met a French guy who played amazing jazz guitar. We made friends from that day, and the same night we got to play together at a restaurant at the beach. It was a day of connections. Another day I was singing at the port, and some guys from Finland saw me and told me they wanted to contract me for a private show in their home. I was a little afraid, so I called a friend, and he joined me. I wanted to do it because I like the adventure. I arrived and it was a little weird with 10 people in a small house, these guys with their wives. They started just watching. It was very random, but we ended all dancing, and I loved it.

There are weird days, too. Somedays I feel exposed a lot. People come and talk to me because I am alone, or they are bored, or they feel lonely. Sometimes I don’t like this. I’m working, and I like my space and finish my songs and rest a little in silence. I feel sometimes I come home and want to wash and take a shower. It’s very intense with people just watching me. Somedays there are drunk guys. It’s too much. Sometimes I know it’s because I’m a woman, too. There was also a day when one guy was yelling at me that I was ruining his lunch. He wanted to eat quietly, and he didn’t like my music. I felt very vulnerable and started crying and I thought, “Oh, he’s right. He didn’t ask for my music.” Most of the time it’s good, but there are these experiences, too.

For a while I stopped singing in the street because I found myself doing it sometimes kind of for the money, not exactly just for money, but I felt like I was doing the same music, and it was taking a lot of time, and I couldn’t practice to make new things. I also missed my folkloric and Argentinian music. When I tried to play this music, people liked it, but it wasn’t the same as when I sing Amy Winehouse. And I thought, “Why do I have to play the same 5 songs?” Sometimes I went out just to do these songs for the money, and I started not wanting to do this. Now, I have a lot more songs to choose, and it’s easier for me to learn new songs. I like the street, but I also do private events now in hotels and private parties. I see myself here doing both. Sometimes I have to find ways to motivate myself. Learn a new song and be willing to try it in the street. Or I need goals, like I want to save money for traveling. Sometimes it’s hard when I don’t feel like it. It’s like going to the gym. I don’t want to go sometimes, but when I get there, I feel better.

I also had a desire to play with a woman because of some of the negative experiences I had playing with men here. And then she appeared. She plays guitar, and she’s amazing. She loves Argentinian music, so we felt very connected, and she learned some of my songs. She is from the conservatory, and she doesn’t want to play in the street. Most musicians from here don’t play in the street, and most street musicians aren’t from Málaga and don’t know the clubs. The worlds are very separate.

I haven’t thought so much about the theater because I’m giving all my time for the music. I miss the theater, but I am very excited about doing music when I came here. I’m missing it, but there aren’t a lot of opportunities here. I’m very happy in Málaga. I work as a singer. I’m surrounded by other musicians who live from this, and it inspires me. I always wanted to try to make a living from music, but I didn’t think I could pay the rent and live, but I can. I ask myself about the future. Should I have more ambition? But also, I enjoy this step-by-step process. Everything is still new for me here. Sure, I’d like to do bigger concerts and do my music and people come and hear this, but for the moment I’m happy playing music from others and interpreting it. I write some songs too, but I haven’t started singing them on the street yet. Soon!

I love seeing people’s faces on the street. I feel very open, and I feel like I am giving people something and people giving back. I feel my heart opening when I am playing on the street. I feel very grateful when I do this, giving people something that I love. It’s related to that feeling when I couldn’t give people the things that I could when I was cleaning dishes in the pizzeria. It’s the opposite of that feeling. It just feels right. Singing on the street feels like me doing what I love and taking the opportunity and not waiting in my home. That’s one thing I love. I can choose to do it whenever I can or want. Just go do it and I always feel better. This is another thing I love. It’s like free therapy.

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