"El Girón" campus in the university's branch campus of Quito welcomed eleven talented Guatemalan women who at the sound of the marimba, cheered the audience with their performance.

The Latin American tour of this group takes place as part of the celebration for the 127 years of diplomatic relations with Ecuador and the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Literature of Miguel Ángel Asturias.

In his welcoming speech, the vice president of UPS's branch campus in Quito José Juncosa, thanked the Guatemalan government for choosing UPS to showcase the best of its art. "It is a privilege to enjoy the talent of this group made up by Guatemalan women. Aesthetic sensibility is essential for people's education, I want our students to cultivate that artistic sensitivity in these academic spaces," he said.

"Guatemala and the marimba are almost the same thing," said the Minister of Culture and Sports of Guatemala, José Chea, who said that the Marimba from Guatemala has been declared by the Organization of American States (OAS) as Cultural Heritage of the Americas.

The first part of the cultural event was for the exhibition of the work done by Patricia Santizo, Monica Lou and Heidi Corzo, who presented the history, structure and records of the marimba. Later, the group performed songs from Guatemala, popular music and academic music from several authors, displaying the evolution of music and the versatility of marimba.

One of the works was the Indigenous Ritual of Jesús Castillo, the first academic composer to use vernacular instruments and combine folkloric elements in the Guatemalan sound environment. The members of the "Marimba Femenina de Concierto" are Xiomara Castellanos, Viviana Arana, Claudia Segura, Mirna Gómez, Waleska Siekavizza Rojas, Patricia Santizo, Evelyn Godínez, Clara Luz Juárez, Miriam Girón, Monica Lou and its director Heidi Corzo.

This event was held on July 20th and was attended by Alicia Castro, vice minister of foreign affairs from Guatemala; Jenny Alvarado, director of culture and tourism from Guatemala; Luigui Ixchot, ambassador of Guatemala, and Cyndy Paz, consul of Ecuador.