Son[i]a #270 DJ Riobamba

Ni de aquí ni de allá. First-generation Yankee daughter of an Ecuadorian mother and a Lithuanian father, in the DJ booth Sara Skolnick plays the sounds of the Latin diaspora, convinced of their power to generate community and soothe wounds that never fully heal due to systemic racism and classism. For DJ Riobamba, pleasure and partying are spaces of political resistance, and music is a key means for the self-representation and visibility of Latin culture, opening up the possibility of other narratives.

Now that reggaeton and dembow are a fixture of mainstream culture and summer playlists, legitimised by the whitewashing and cultural appropriation processes of the music industry, DJ Riobamba has turned to perreo and lives with the hyper-sexualised (and sexist) lyrics, totally at ease with the shift and ambiguity that takes place when a woman is in the booth.

We talk to Sara Skolnick about organising parties for almost ten years, about multiple identities, the traumas of migration, processes of assimilation, music, catharsis and activism, the queer space that opens up in the underground scene, her social intervention projects, the origins of dembow and reggaeton, Justin Bieber, y… toda esa vaina.