By Eugenio Amézquita Velasco
Translation: Metro News Mx
-The "Casa de la Guitarra Popular" in Celaya launches the first state-wide workshop for instrument manufacturing.
-Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez secures agreements with masters from Paracho to professionalize young people.
-The project seeks to combat violence through art under the slogan: "One more guitar, one less gun."
-Rotarians from Celaya and California, along with local businesses, boost the workshop's infrastructure.
-The Ministry of the New Beginning provided the center with a vehicle to bring teaching to remote communities.
In the heart of Celaya, where the din of daily life sometimes tries to overshadow hope, a project emerges that harmonizes culture with social transformation. Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez, director of the Casa de la Guitarra Popular (House of the Popular Guitar), has announced an unprecedented milestone for the state's cultural sector: the creation of the first School of Luthierie in the state of Guanajuato. This effort represents not only the opening of a technical space but the consolidation of a refuge where art becomes the primary tool against crime.
The news was released in a talk with journalist Eugenio Amézquita Velasco, where Serrano Sánchez detailed that the starting point will be a keynote lecture next Friday, February 6. The guest of honor is Master Irving Zavala, from Paracho, Michoacán—the guitar capital of the world. Zavala, an internationally prestigious luthier, will share the secrets of handcrafted instrument construction, thus marking the formal start of work at the facility located at 116 Allende Street, in downtown Celaya.
The luthierie project is ambitious and has required tireless management. Setting up a workshop of this nature, with specialized tools, suitable woods, and workbenches, is neither simple nor inexpensive. However, the Casa de la Guitarra Popular has managed to weave a solid support network. Rotary Groups from Celaya, in collaboration with their peers in California, USA, have been key pieces in equipping the space that will soon welcome dozens of aspiring luthiers.
Serrano Sánchez emphasized that this workshop is the result of a strategic agreement with the municipality of Paracho. Thanks to this bond, masters such as Carlos Piña and Irving Saavedra himself will join as teachers, ensuring that students from Guanajuato receive world-class training. The vision is clear: that young people not only learn to play the guitar but also possess the trade of creating it, repairing it, and understanding its wooden soul.
Beyond technique, the school has a deeply human core. The institution's director was blunt in mentioning that the ultimate goal is to abate the causes that generate violence in the region. The program operates under a powerful premise: "One more guitar, one less gun." Currently, the Casa de la Guitarra Popular has more than 200 students, who have demonstrated exemplary discipline, even getting involved in the maintenance and order of the premises, breaking the stigmas that weigh on today's youth.
The expansion of the project is already a tangible reality. Thanks to the "Touching Hearts" (Tocando Corazones) call for projects by the Ministry of the New Beginning of the State of Guanajuato, the institution received a 17-passenger van. This vehicle will allow the teaching of guitar and luthierie to not stay locked within four walls, but to travel to the most remote communities. Localities such as El Cerrito de las Hierbas in Villagrán and San Isidro de la Concepción have already begun to receive these benefits, supported by the Deacero Foundation and the Cuadritos Industrial Group.
The support of private initiatives and the municipal government has been fundamental to cover operational expenses such as rent and teacher fees. Figures such as Dr. Angélica Fuentes, known as "La Catrina de Guanajuato," have also joined this cause that today positions Celaya as the state reference in luthier training.
The Casa de la Guitarra Popular thus stands as an authentic multidisciplinary cultural center. In its halls, one not only hears the strumming of strings but also the promotion of poetry, fine arts, and now, the millennial trade of luthierie. With the opening of this school, Guanajuato opens a door to artisanal professionalization, offering its youth a dignified, creative life alternative, far from the streets.
Transcript of the interview with Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
On the phone line, we have a good friend, Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez, director of the Casa de la Guitarra Popular; an institution that is doing a lot of good for the city of Celaya, mainly for the youth. I want to congratulate you, Dagoberto, for this great effort. I believe there is an activity coming up in February; if you would like to share it with me, Dagoberto. Thank you very much for granting me the interview.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
With great pleasure, dear Eugenio. Well, we are informing you that at the Casa de la Guitarra Popular we are going to present the first conference on the luthierie workshop on Friday, February 6, at six in the evening, at our facilities located at 116 Allende Street, downtown Celaya. For this, Master Irving Zavala will come from Paracho, Michoacán, and will give a lecture on how a guitar is built in an artisanal way. We are inviting guitar teachers from the whole region, guitar students from the entire area, and also the general public who wants to find out about this activity of how a guitar is built. The master who builds the guitar artisanally is called a "luthier" or "laudero." And well, we are going to have Master Irving Zavala, who will come to give this conference totally free for anyone who wants to learn; and to announce to them also, taking advantage of the moment, that very soon we are going to start with our guitar construction workshop, the luthierie workshop, there at our facilities.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
So, practically this conference is the kickoff and the inauguration for this luthierie workshop that you had already told us something about, that you had taken some steps towards. Obviously, setting up a luthierie workshop doesn't cost three pesos. I believe, and I would like you to share this with me, that obviously it has been achieved thanks to the effort of someone or some people. If you could tell me if I am correct and who they are, in case what I am saying is positive.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Yes, well, you are right. We are starting the workshop; we are already setting up the tool boards and the first work tables with management support from the Rotarians of Rotary International, especially Celaya Rotarians united with Rotarians from California, United States.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
I also remember that a few months ago you made a personal trip to Paracho, Michoacán. I think you were very well received. I would like you to share a bit of that with me and if this management is already bearing these fruits that you are telling me and the public reading us, Dagoberto.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Yes, exactly, I was visiting Paracho last year and we achieved an agreement and support with the municipal president of Paracho. In such a way, Master Irving Saavedra will come to give the lecture, but we are also going to introduce him because he is going to be one of the teachers we will have here, at the Casa de la Guitarra Popular in Celaya, in our luthierie workshop. So, we will also be supported by masters of the caliber of Carlos Piña, among others who are very renowned in Paracho, Michoacán, and at an international level.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
Dagoberto, perhaps because of the workload we have had at Metro News and Guanajuato Desconocido, we have neglected the Casa de la Guitarra Popular a little bit; it is not intentional, it is the workload. But I know that in these weeks you have done very interesting things, to the point that you already have a transport vehicle for the kids at the school. I know you are giving workshops over there in the Villagrán area in coordination with a company, and I don't know how many other things. I would like you to share those great achievements you have made. You do it in a quiet way—obviously you also make it known, but step by step, concrete, slowly but with a good pace and good results. Share with me, please, what is this that you have been doing, Dagoberto.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Well, there was a call for projects from "Touching Hearts" (Tocando Corazones), which is a program of the state ministry of Guanajuato, and we were beneficiaries of that call. We managed to have the Ministry of the New Beginning of the State of Guanajuato, through the Touching Hearts program, make us beneficiaries of a 17-passenger van with which we will be going out to take free teaching to the communities. Supported by the Deacero Foundation, who were kind enough to support us with the purchase of guitars, chairs, and payment of fees for teachers, we are already working in a community called El Cerrito de las Hierbas, in the municipality of Villagrán. Also, supported by the Cuadritos industrial group, shortly we will be in the community of San Isidro de la Concepción making a cultural center; we will also be taking that free teaching service to that community as well as to the surrounding communities, such as Presa Blanca, for example, San Juan de la Vega, among others.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
What is really catching my attention—and also because, I insist, we haven't stopped by the Casa de la Guitarra Popular for a little while—is that the last time I was there, there was a book presentation, if I remember correctly, about Japanese poetry. I told you on that occasion what I am observing: the Casa de la Guitarra Popular is becoming an authentic cultural center where all artists, all currents, all thoughts, the different forms of fine arts fit; and now this, teaching young people to build their own guitar. Where are you going to get with all this effort you are making? That is, what is the ultimate goal of all this?
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Well, to remind all your audience, dear Eugenio, from Metro News and Guanajuato Desconocido, that the project is to have a free teaching center for young people. It is a project that intends to remove young people from criminal acts: one more guitar, one less gun. It is a free teaching center; we are working to abate the causes that generate violence in our city and in the region.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
What catches my attention as well is the trust that the city's businesspeople have in you. And when I say businesspeople, I am talking about people, some of whom do not even want to say their name, they simply help you in a very cool, very human way, precisely seeking to recompose the social fabric. How much of this is there? Because the rent of the house, bringing teachers, managing, moving... all that requires resources and you have had the facility to achieve it. How many people are behind this? It is clear to me that there is also the Catrina de Guanajuato, an excellent collaborator of yours who is also a Rotarian, Dr. Angélica Fuentes, an excellent cultural promoter and host of a radio program on Radio Tecnológico. But you are there, how have you achieved all this and the response from the people of Celaya, Dagoberto?
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Well, exactly as you say, dear Eugenio, it is by intertwining hands. We are also working at a government level: the municipal presidency also makes a contribution to the payment of the rent. The companies, the professional groups... we have a board of trustees as well that supports and manages educational and financial matters so that this project can march forward as we are doing. We already have more than 200 students and we are also starting in the communities: in El Cerrito de las Hierbas, in the first session, we had 21 students just in the first class, and surely we will increase the enrollment.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
Well, I have nothing left but to congratulate you. You know that, although we have been a little busy because there is a lot of information and the city moves with many events, you know that Metro News and Guanajuato Desconocido are with you; we have demonstrated it from the beginning and we will continue to do so. Congratulating you, Dagoberto, is a duty, because you do it with your time and with your effort; you don't charge, you do it for free. The truth is that it is very laudable, and I am the one saying it, not you. Congratulations on this effort and for the response of the kids as well. It amazes me when I go that the kids are disciplined, they help clean the house and, if there is an event, they help pick up or they assist. It is incredible in an era in which people think that young people are rebellious; you have known how to make them see that there has to be discipline, but at the same time there is a lot of respect and a lot of work. Congratulations for all this.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Well, thank you very much. We invite everyone so that we continue supporting this project to achieve a youth free of crime and addictions, to achieve social peace; only together can we do it.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
I thank you for taking my call. Well, there is the excellent news: the first luthierie school in Celaya where the kids are going to learn to make their own guitar.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
And the first luthierie school also in the state of Guanajuato.
Eugenio Amézquita Velasco:
Ah, sorry, so the "plus": the first luthierie school in the entire state of Guanajuato. I thank you, Dagoberto.
Dagoberto Serrano Sánchez:
Yes, a pleasure. And well, thank you very much.
