Maya, Maiz and Maizales are some of the key words that you will hear, see and experience in Guatemala. The name Mayzales is a result of the mixture of those three words and was founded by two indigenous brothers, William and César, self-taught musicians from the southwest of Guatemala.
Their passion for music started in 2001, with a very limited access to any kind of instruments, least of all instruments appropriate to the genre of music they wanted to play.
Their eagerness however had no limits and they worked hard to acquire specific and beautiful instruments from South America such as a charango, sampoña and quena that gave a shape to their music and matched with their distinctive harmonized voices. That is the origin of the Andean group Mayzales from Guatemala.
Mayzales has played in a wide variety of events in Guatemala and abroad, among the most prominent: In 2006 Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Peace Accords, Peace Secretariat. In December 19th the same year, for the Cultural day of Japan at the University of San Carlos de Guatemala. In 2008, Miami, Florida. They were part of the International Mayan Leaders, organized by the Ajaw Kab’awil, Indian Town, Florida. The same year at the Art Contest for Youth Center Waq’xaq’i E, El Tablon Solola. In 2010 they were invited for the 10th anniversary of friendship between Guatemala and Norway, celebrated in Aal, Norway. In 2014 they participated with Takane Kochihira from Japan in Casa Kaqchikel, Panajachel.
Mayzales
Whenever William and César get together, they enjoy their time crafting, tuning and playing wind instruments such as: sampoñas, sankas, toyos, quenas, quenachos and of course weaving together those sweet and acoustic sounds with string and percussion instruments like, guitar, charango, charchas, bombo and more.