24 + Gabriela Badillo

68 Voices 68 Hearts

We are joined by Gabriela Badillo, the creator of Sesenta y Ocho Voces Sesenta y Ocho Corazones. Gabriela is also a co-founder of Hola Combo, a creative studio with a focus on animation, brand identity, and storytelling.  

Initiated in 2013, 68 voices 68 hearts is an animated series of Mexican indigenous stories told in their native language. These animated shorts are based on the philosophy that "No one can love what they don't know."

We speak with Gabriela about how she first conceived of the idea for 68 voices and how the project has developed over the past 8 years. She explains the creative process, logistics, and obstacles they face in producing each one minute short. We like to think of these animations as historical time capsules, each one preserving a story from an indigenous community in their native language, many of which are in danger of becoming extinct.

Mexico is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse nations. Within Mexico, there are 364 indigenous language subsets belonging to 68 distinct languages, which branch off from 11 language families! Nahuatl is one of the most widely-spoken indigenous languages of the Americas with approximately 1.5 million speakers in central Mexico.

We are excited to announce that a portion of the proceeds from our Cosmovision Collection will be donated to 68 Voices. However, because we are a small company and our sales are modest we encourage you to give directly if you can!

It costs $7000 USD to produce one animated short. How amazing would it be if we all contribute and help to produce one episode?! 

+ Make sure to mark your donation in USD (not MXN) and write hey hey agave in the notes +

Please note: you can change the language captions to English using the CC button on the lower right hand side of each video.

68 Voces: Mixteco. La Muerte from Hola Combo on Vimeo.

68 Voces: Seri. El origen de la tierra from Hola Combo on Vimeo.

68 Voces: Totonaco. Muere mi rostro from Hola Combo on Vimeo.

1. Marcelino López Cruz and his wife in the 68 voices workshop in Ocotlán, Oaxaca with Gabriela Badillo

2. Drawings from the children of the Q’anjob’al community for the Q’anjob’al 68 voices story

3. Children drawing  at the 68 voices workshop in San Lorenzo, Chiapas, with the Q’anjob’al community in 2017

4. Drawings from the children of the Q’anjob’al community for the Q’anjob’al 68 voices story

5. Art from the Chuj story created by Ximena Ruiz del Rio, inspired by the drawings of the children of the Q’anjob’al community

6. Hola Combo (2019)  from left to riqht: Enrique Sañudo, Melissa Lopez Ley, Tamara Cruz, Gabriela Badillo, Adriana Arvizu, Cristina Lugo

68 Voces: Náhuatl. Cuando muere una lengua from Hola Combo on Vimeo.

All photos and videos courtesy of Gabriela Badillo and Hola Combo