The PAPP-UIS teaching artist, Miguel Ángel Durán Garzón, was invited to give a TEDx talk due to his trajectory as a singer-songwriter and for his album “El Regreso.”
For the teaching artist—or “profe” Miguel Ángel Durán Garzón, as his students call him—music changed his life. One of those life changes is closely linked to the Artes para la Paz Program and the rural community of La Purnia Chiquita, in Los Santos, Santander. It was there that Durán Garzón arrived to teach traditional rural music to dozens of young students from Colegio Mesa de Jéridas, located in the Chicamocha Canyon. He managed to share those rhythms not only with the students but also with parents and residents of the community, which partly led to the invitation he received to participate in a talk on the TEDx platform.
“Profe” Miguel recalls that when he was contacted by TEDx—whose talks highlight ideas and social initiatives aimed at creating change in society—to speak about his experience as a singer-songwriter and about his album “El Regreso,” he said: “I told them I would like to talk about something that was happening in my life, which was that I was being a ‘profe’ in a rural school within the Sonidos para la Construcción de Paz Program, which is now Artes para la Paz. I started talking about La Purnia and what we were doing there, and they said that definitely had to be included in the talk.”
Since 2024, Miguel Ángel has led a musical training process with more than 141 students at Colegio Mesa de Jéridas, Purnia Chiquita campus. This campus is about two hours by car from Bucaramanga, but according to the “profe,” “fortunately” the Program decided to send him to a “rural” school. There he began learning about the stories of his students and noticed they were similar to those of his grandmother, aunts, and cousins. “That started to transform me. More than a job, it became part of my life. It was more than teaching classes—it was going to La Purnia Chiquita to sing rural music,” Miguel Ángel explained.
The music lessons did not only positively impact the children and young people of the school, but also the parents and the community in the village. One student remembers that about two years ago “the school felt lonely,” but with the arrival of “profe” Miguel “we have learned sounds, songs, music, and talent.” Another student thanked him “for arriving and teaching us to value music.”
Meanwhile, Marisol Tarazona Ayala, a parent at Colegio Mesa de Jéridas, said the Program’s arrival has been an opportunity for students to build a better future. “In their free time they spend it playing instruments and practicing. It’s something new for them, and thanks to God my son, through music, is an excellent son and an excellent student.”
The TEDx Talk
For his participation in the TEDx talk, “profe” Miguel arrived with his band, some excitement, but also nerves. “When they told me the platform had 44 million subscribers, the nerves started—what will I say? But it was great, and the happiest thing was that La Purnia Chiquita came along,” the young artist recalled.
Once on stage, after sharing his experience as a singer-songwriter and teacher—with the sound ready, guitars and voices tuned—the students entered the stage to perform part of the repertoire they had learned with Miguel. The applause quickly followed, and with it the nerves disappeared.
“Participating in the talk meant a lot to me because a few months earlier I had started a Facebook page where I sang, and this inspires me to keep going,” said Jennifer Ayala Jurado, a student at the school. Meanwhile, Dina Luz Jiménez Ayala, another student, said that being on stage and singing was “something beautiful and special.”
Being part of the talk and sharing his story was an “exciting” moment for “profe” Miguel. He explained that through the Artes para la Paz Program he has been able to take students to perform on different stages. He emphasized that “it is an important program that should reach more territories to transform through art and must continue,” adding that public education should be present everywhere.
Miguel’s TEDx talk will be available in the coming days on the TEDx platform, through which the world will learn his story—and also how the Artes para la Paz Program changed his life, the lives of a group of young students, and that of a rural community that now experiences and feels music in a different way.
Artes para la Paz in Colombia
To date, Artes para la Paz reaches 32 departments and 726 municipalities across the country, covering 66% of the national territory. More than 538,332 people have found in art a voice, a space, and an opportunity to transform their lives. Today, the program is present in two out of every three municipalities in Colombia, bringing training, creation, and community-building processes that strengthen communities and make art a tangible force for coexistence, memory, and peace in the territories.
For more information and to follow this initiative, visit www.artesparalapaz.mincultura.gov.co and the Instagram profile @artesparalapaz.
