Atlantic roots popular music
Created by Manuel González in 1980 and centred on Olga Cerpa’s voice, Mestisay has developed contemporary Canarian music in dialogue with Cape Verde, Portugal, Africa and the Latin American songbook.
Mestisay was created in 1980 by Manuel González. Over time, Olga Cerpa’s voice moved to the centre of a project combining performance, songwriting and stage production. The group describes its career as one of the most prolific adventures in Canarian popular music; its recordings and productions offer a contemporary reading of the islands, more interested in connecting shores than fixing folklore in place.
Mestisay matters because it places Canarian identity within a broad Atlantic geography. Africa, Portugal, Cape Verde and Latin America are not external decoration but musical partners for islands shaped by travel, migration and cultural crossings. This outlook has also produced thirty years of stage works about Canarian figures and stories, from Totoyo Millares and Néstor to César Manrique and Valentina de Sabinosa.
Olga Cerpa’s expressive voice is supported by timples, guitars, accordions and percussion, with arrangements changing for each project. Jallos brings together maritime colours, choruses, timple and African percussion; Atlántico Radio links the Canaries with Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau; Pequeño fado and Estación Lisboa bring Latin American songs close to Portuguese instrumentation; Palosanto pares the sound back to voice and seventeen guitarists.
Mestisay transmits its work through recordings, concerts and large cultural productions. Its catalogue includes tributes, musicals, symphonic concerts and staged narratives such as En busca de Valentina, Totoyo Millares, la leyenda del timple and César Manrique, el musical. By reinterpreting repertories and biographies through contemporary forms, the group makes Canarian musical memory accessible to different audiences.
Manuel González launches the project on Gran Canaria.
The CD and DVD production revisits songbooks from their early albums.
Atlántico Radio, Pequeño fado and Estación Lisboa connect the Canaries with Africa and Portugal.
The group brings together three decades of musicals, tributes and stage projects on Canarian culture.
A production with symphonic bands from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Mexico City and Havana revisits 1940s and 1950s Latin American repertories.
