Social educator, Gestalt therapist and founder of the Xiula group
Jan Garrido is the vocalist of Xiula, the music group that has captivated the children’s audience. After eleven years on stage, Garrido says that they have filled a family need and that their songs make you think and move.
From 2013 to now 2024, what has happened?
We have evolved and grown as a group, in tune with our personal lives. In the beginning we sounded like children’s animation and now we sing about harsh realities, becoming a group that makes you think. We filled a need that was there.
For me Xiula is…
The possibility of opening the heart through music. Could you live without WHISTLE? No, because it gives me human contact. Also a sense of service and food for work. I work with my friends.
“A thousand reasons to love you, you are my first reason.”
When I was little with my parents, we traveled in the summer in the caravan and the car. They were very brave, living new adventures. This song was how I lived music and love with my family.
Is bullying a chronic disease?
Mirror of our society. A reflection of how we are as adults. We do not come to give recipes, but to ask questions about human singularities.
“Respect”. To whom and how?
We want to work on people’s capacity for respect so that they investigate their own lives.
What do you think is missing from today’s schools?
Too much curricular content. Our hearts are very wounded and in schools we should talk about emotions, dedicate two or three days a week to it. Fewer numbers and more emotions.
Could we make changes in social networks?
Of couse. Cell phone before 16 no please. From Xiula we have decided to win in identity. We are leaving X (Twitter), we opened Telegram and we post less on Instagram. The right one to be able to pay our salaries.
‘Babynova’, what does it mean?
We wanted to create a new tailor-made life, with AI, but is it legitimate to create everything at any price? Are we four straight, white, CIS men looking to create a life? How? It shouldn’t be possible, as life is imperfect.
Concert on March 2 in Barcelona. Afraid? Desire for success?
I’m a little afraid. The world is wrong, and that’s not cool, but I’m more hopeful than afraid of everything we live. We do workshops in schools, from the songs we make, and sometimes we meet each other, what a shame.
How have you changed after training in Gestalt Therapy?
I am more present. I used to get you a guitar and come on let’s sing and have fun. Now I found myself accompanying the pain, from the ability to be present.
And after becoming a father?
With much love Gestalt has put me on my feet, and my son has changed everything else for me, with a lot of nutrition.
How do we take care of ourselves more emotionally speaking?
Obviously doing therapy, looking inward. It’s a good thing that the therapeutic world is being stereotyped as a good thing. We must make silence within us. Meditate and contact the emotion, find the silence.
Referring to the song ‘My body is mine’. How to explain to children that they must empower themselves?
The percentage of abuse of power is very high. This song cost us. Explain to the women, to the little ones, that we need to set bodily limits, from us to others or from others to us. We have to talk about it, ventilate it, sing about it, as if they were the mats.