DES MOINES, Iowa — Filling his home with Latin music, the calm moment between shows is where Fernando Aveiga Alcivar pours his heart into his guitar, in the state he calls home.
“I only like two states,” he said, laughing fondly. “I like Iowa and Wisconsin. Iowa is my favorite state. I like everything about Iowa.”
Listening to Alcivar, a musician in Parranderos Latin Combo, you can feel his pride of living in Iowa.
“Even though I always speak Spanish everywhere I go, I always know that I am an Iowan," he said.
He grew up in Ecuador and came to Iowa on a soccer scholarship when he was 18. He then went to Iowa State University in Ames.
In college, he honed another passion.
“Music is a way of life, but it’s also a key to open doors,” he said.
Aveiga Alcivar's cultural upbringing in Ecuador opened the door to joining Parranderos Latin Combo.
“Growing up in Ecuador helps because you are kind of in the middle and you get influence from the east, west, the north, the south,” he said.
The band is made up of musicians from around the world.
“I’m very proud to be in this band," Aveiga Alcivar said. "It has a lineup of fantastic musicians. When I say fantastic, it’s not enough.”
And they come together to write and compose their music in Des Moines.
“The goal is to unite people,” he explained. “To reduce the power of things that divide people. To break barriers.”
To Aveiga Alcivar, music helps people see each other past differences.
“People are always talking about, ‘oh that person has an accent, that person speaks a different language, that person has a different skin color’," he said. "But when the music is played, it seems like if music is really good, people forget about those differences and they start understanding differently.”
He says the band's music “creates community.”
And when people listen to their songs, “What I want them to feel is this urge to go to the dance floor to just hit it hard and give their all in the dance floor,” he said.
The band tells a story through each song.
“Every turn we take in the composition is a specific in reference to some inspiration we had when we were kids or in reference to today – it’s a mixture,” Aveiga Alcivar said.
It’s a team of musicians that not only want to put on a good show, but also show people a fusion of music and talent. But the Aveiga Alcivar says it’s the listeners that makes the songs sing.
“Really, the people decide how well the band plays. If people are loving it, we are loving it even more”
The band hopes to expand their tour to more cities across the U.S.