‘Transmitting a feeling’ at ‘Union Unplugged’

A UTRGV graduate student performed live original music Nov. 14 at the Student Union on the Brownsville campus as part of the “Union Unplugged” music series.

Gilberto Capistran, a Port Isabel High School English teacher, is pursuing a Master of Arts in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in English and is the second artist to take part in the series.

Capistran hopes the audience creates their own experience while listening to his music and resonates with the various feelings he is trying to convey.

“I hope that when I play a song, the audience isn’t getting my experience because I feel like that’s too subjective,” he said. “I hope that they misinterpret my lyrics as much as they want because I wrote it for one reason, but I hope that when you guys hear it or somebody hears it, it hits them for a completely different reason.”

His main musical inspiration comes from American singer- songwriter and guitarist John Mayer and describes his own genre of music as “cheesy love songs.”

“I’m like a mixtape,” Capistran said. “I’ll do a candy pop song and then I’ll do something influenced by Mexican rhythms. I get bored of genres really [easily].”

He performed “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse, “Devuelveme a Mi Chica” by Hombres G, “Stop This Train” by John Mayer, and his original compositions “Alguien Como Tu,” “Chicago” and “Stars” among others to an audience of more than 100 people.

Student Union Associate Director Sergio Martinez said “Union Unplugged” started as nothing more than an idea to engage the student body.

Martinez said the main goal of the series is to create opportunities that share positive experiences and events that form part of the student experience

The segment is meant to be a more relaxed event compared to others hosted by the Student Union, where students can take a break from classes and spend time with friends without having to participate in games.

“We wanted to do something where we would bring in, ideally, local artists who would do something more intimate and give us a more of a private vibe,” Martinez said. “It gives you a very cool, chill kind of environment.”

He said the process of choosing an artist to be showcased in the series depends mostly on students and their musical interests, which in the past have been indie pop and latin rock.

Along with research and student employee feedback, the Student Union asks students what their current favorite music genre is through a board posted in the Game Room.

Martinez said the series has also been looking at UTRGV students in the School of Music, who have composed original music, as potential performers.

“We’ve found some people that are writing their own songs and doing their own work that can maybe share their experience to students who are interested in that,” he said. “Hopefully, we can continue finding other kinds of artists out in the community that are local that can kind of shine and show off the amount of talent that we have in our community.”

The first “Union Unplugged” featured Lizzie Astorga in October and the next one, featuring Stephen Hughes, will be on Dec. 5.

“What we want to do is get to a point where the series is set to a year so students know that ‘Union Unplugged’ is gonna happen [on] these dates,” Martinez said.

Ximena De Los Santos, an interdisciplinary studies junior, said hearing Capistran’s original music inspired her because he does not only write about heartbreak.

She said it is significant to host events similar to this to prioritize artists that could come out of the Valley.

“It is important because, to a point, it represents the music that will come out of the Valley,” De Los Santos said. “And if Gilberto ever becomes a big artist, we saw him at school and that’s really cool.”

Gilberto Capistran’s original music is available on Spotify.