MUMBAI: Diamanté Anthony Blackmon — better known to those in the house music world as GORDO, or previously Carnage — has once again made good on his promise to help communities like those he grew up in. Today, the doors open to the second school in Central America, spearheaded by the artist who is committed to helping children and young people overcome disadvantages and create far brighter opportunities for tomorrow than they have today.
Again working alongside established partner organisation Seeds of Learning, a non-profit dedicated to improving prospects for young people living in rural areas of Central America, EDIFICIO TARAKA is the latest learning center the US-based, Guatemalan-raised DJ and producer has funded since his campaign of giving back began in 2014. Situated in Nuevo Eden, a locality in Guatemala’s San Marcos region, the facility’s impact on students will be profound once construction completes.
“My childhood in Guatemala shaped who I am today and I am honored to give back to the generation of tomorrow in my home country. I dedicate this school to my aunt, my uncle and my late cousin Catherine who I grew up with in Guatemala.”
– Diamanté Anthony Blackmon (GORDO)
GORDO’s appreciation for the importance of education stems directly from personal experience — his “second mother”, also known as ‘Auntie’, drove both private and public school students around Guatemala City. This, and his own upbringing in Guatemala, laid bare the disparities between those born into relative privilege and abject poverty. Even before the family relocated to the US in the hope of finding a better life, GORDO’s childhood was defined by caring parental figures, and marked by the sheer desperation of a world in which so many are forced to sacrifice their potential to earn money, lessons abandoned to necessity.
Hence education being so highly valued by those who understand what it looks like to have none. Regularly playing in many of the world’s most prestigious venues — touching down in spots from London and Ibiza, to Tulum, Miami, San Francisco, and New York in the past 12 months alone — this is the latest example of socially responsible investment from a man who, by his own admission, is blessed with high profile bookings and chart topping tracks, and remains determined to ensure the associated trappings are used to make a real difference.
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