Milestones in Conversation

Between Music Therapy and the Decolonial Perspective

Abstract

The article proposes a dialogue between music therapy and the decolonial perspective based on three “milestones” that guide critical and situated reflection. The first milestone addresses the contributions of Aníbal Quijano and his notion of the coloniality of power to rethink the categories of health, subject, and society from Latin America. The second milestone develops the idea of “landscape as texture,” inspired by Rodolfo Kusch’s American aesthetics, as an analytical tool for music therapy clinics, highlighting the sensitive and cultural dimension of the territory. The third milestone presents experiences in Argentine Patagonia, where the figure of the “paisano” and the “bread-shaped city” reveal tensions between roots, identity, and the effects of the coloniality of power. The text concludes by inviting the music therapy community and health workers to build a critical, sensitive practice situated in Latin American contexts.

Editorial Comment

What are the landscapes we inhabit like? In what ways are they part of our professional practices? How do the spaces in which we are born and raised shape us as individuals? What happens to us, in our most intimate selves, when we are forced to migrate? Guillermo Castelo’s essay leaves us with these questions and allows us to recognize the power of music to express the experiences of the inhabitants of some communities in the northwestern region of Argentine Patagonia in relation to their ancestral knowledge.