  New Music with Prehispanic Instruments _________________________________ The ensemble was founded in 1995 in a process in which contrasting ideas in favor of indigenous culture came together through a perspective which being in the United States gives us, that of being strangers in our own land. This was the main impulse, which led to taking up the arduous task of collecting a variety of replicas of the ancient traditional musical instruments made of natural materials such as skin, bone, clay, seeds, stones, sea shells, etc.
Sources of Information about Pre-Hispanic Instruments and Traditions: Books, poetry, videos, lectures. All types of reference material, whether official or alternative, serve as support for us to continue the traditions of our ancestors.
Our objectives as a musical ensemble: To bring to our listeners an understanding of our indigenous cultural legacy, through passages of songs and poetry in Nahuatl, one of the many languages of our ancestors which continues to be used today as the principal manner of communication of some of the Indigenous Nations? It is vital for us, that youth as well as adults understand our history and our traditions and that we are familiar with our indigenous cultural legacy.
Experimentation is an essential part of this mystical encounter with our past, our history, tradition and extensive, thousand-year-old culture.
Raíz Viva continues to search through all parameters to find the unification and identity which is lost when we find ourselves confronting another type of life, in a country whose language, customs and cultures are different that our countries of origin.
This musical ensemble currently consists of 4 members: Rogelio Alcántara, Rodolfo León, Elías Magdaleno & Alberto Moreno who come from diverse states in the Republic of Mexico: Michoacan, Oaxaca, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi and Morelos. This diversity gives a mix of rich sounds and rhythms, passages, and an extensive musical panorama.
In our presentation more than 50 musical instruments are used including: Drums (Huehuetls, Panhuehuetls, Teponaztles), Rain Sticks (Chicahuiztlis, Omechicahuiztlis), simple flutes, double and triple flutes of clay, bamboo, and wood, ocarinas, trumpets and sea shells (Chalchayotes, Conchas).
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"For more than 500 years, they have plucked our fruits, cut our branches, burnt our trunks but they have never been able to kill our roots!!”
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Biography 
