'Like new life' — Grupo Renacer musicians find rebirth in music and song

Take the love of 16 grandmas and grandpas, add music and song, and you have Grupo Renacer.

It’s music from Beethoven to the Latin American classics; from Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee to Guantanamera and the Beer Barrel Polka — all sung in Spanish by this ensemble of abuelitas and abuelitos whose name translates to “Reborn.”

“I was barely walking at the time,” says vocalist Dora Paniagua, 72, who joined Grupo Renacer about two years ago.

Now Paniagua — whose 83-year-old husband, Antonio, plays guitar with the group — sidesteps for sustained sets to the guitar-laced lyrics that fuel her renditions.

“Singing is like eating food,” she says.

“Grupo Renacer is like new life.”

Ranging in age from 55 to 83, Grupo Renacer has a vocal section and a guitar section but also employs bells, maracas and a güiro.

The joy group members feel during performances at Senior Fest, the Milwaukee Public Library, local schools or the United Community Center is obvious, as though squeezed through a collective heart.

With the enthusiasm of children, they strum beautiful guitar chords with arthritic fingers, sidestep gracefully on weakened knees and croon sweet boleros through lips that quiver. 

“I feel so much emotion when l see the lyrics I sing,” says Virginia Aruz, 65.

“It’s like I’ve lived those songs.”

They rehearse twice a week at the United Community Center’s senior center on Milwaukee’s near south side, under the direction of guitarist and mariachi musician Alberto Cardenas.

Before Grupo Renacer, Cardenas, an instructor with the Latino Arts Strings Program, occasionally performed at the senior center, much to the delight of its members.

“Alberto could see the enjoyment the seniors had when his mariachi musicians visited,” says Margarita Sandoval Skare, 70, an original member of the group.

Skare never played a musical instrument before retiring as a teacher and librarian for Milwaukee Public Schools.

“My father worked in tanneries and factories,” she says.

“But he was also a musician and had two guitars.”

After retiring, she took guitar lessons from Cardenas and helped him launch Grupo Renacer with a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board in 2013. 

Members have varying degrees of musical experience, from seasoned church choir members to novices, to simple lifelong "house singers." 

“In Puerto Rico when I was 5, my mother used to find me singing on the balcony,” Aruz says. “Sometimes I even cry because I love the music so much.”

Vocalist Rosa Rodriguez, 80, has two grandchildren —  Francisco Jose Rodriguez, 14, and Anna Gabriela Rodriguez, 11 — who play guitar and stand-up bass with the UCC’s Mariachi Juvenil.

“We sing together at home,” she says.

“I say, ‘Frank, come on,' and he starts looking at his notes and playing his guitar.”

Grupo Renacer is more like a family than a musical ensemble.

They celebrate birthdays with song and poetry, watch over members with medical conditions like diabetes and playfully tease one another during rehearsals and memory exercises.

"We get energy from one another," Paniagua says.

As winter passes, Grupo Renacer has taken on a special meaning for singer Sara Alvarez as she approaches her 69th spring.

“This is very important to my future,” Alvarez says through an interpreter.

“This brings a lot of joy to my life, and the joy will continue through the years.”