César López Giraldo (born 1973) is a classically trained musician, composer, producer guitarist and pianist from Bogota, Colombia. In 2003, López founded the Battalion of Immediate Artistic Reaction which involves various musicians and activists seeking alternatives to the ever-present violence that has plagued Colombia over many years. The group mainly concentrates its efforts on the capital city of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

. When advised, the group is widely known to immediately convene together to play for the victims directly impacted by the violence within the country. Cesar Lopez is officially a 'Non Violence Messenger' of the United Nations and an 'Emissary of Consciousness' for Amnesty International. López is the creator of the Escopetarra, a largely symbolic musical instrument which is an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

converted into a guitar. In 2010, he and his Audio Engineer,

Julio Monroy Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

, recorded the album " Las voces del Salado", the álbum was recorded at the " Montes de Maria" with the people from the town

El Salado El Salado is a town in the municipality of Álamos in the Mexican state of Sonora. It is south southeast of Álamos and northwest of El Fuerte, in Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico Ci ...

who were involved in the .

Escopetarra

López's most well-known achievement is the Escopetarra, which are decommissioned

s converted into guitars. So far, only a few dozen of these guitars have been produced, but upon completion, López intends to give the guitars to high-profile musicians across the world, such as

Juanes Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 1972), known professionally as Juanes, is a Colombian musician who was a member of the Rock music, rock band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. Since releasing his solo debut album ''Fíjate B ...

Fito Páez Rodolfo Páez, popularly known as Fito Páez (; born 13 March 1963), is an Argentine rock and roll musician and filmmaker. He was member of the "Trova Rosarina" and is known as "The Troubadour of Argentine Rock", and is considered an important ...

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part ...

and

Manu Chao Manu Chao (; born José Manuel Tomás Arturo Chao Ortega on 21 June 1961) is a French-Spanish musician. He sings in French language, French, Spanish language, Spanish, English language, English, Italian language, Italian, Arabic, Catalan language ...

, and to political and religious leaders such as

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

References

External links

Cesar Lopez official website.
DeltaRecords.net
The escopetarra: a guitar with a violent background
TodaBalaEsperdida.com
Cesar Lopez TODA BALA ES PERDIDA' website.
@CesarLopezMusic
Cesar Lopez' Twitter.
Killer Sound
Kevin Sites, Yahoo! News, 24 April 2006
Colombian musicians organise online
BBC News, 1 June 2006 1973 births Living people Colombian musicians Colombian activists 21st-century Colombian pianists {{Colombia-activist-stub