Mexican composer turns fire and ritual into a musical journey of renewal

Mexican Composer Transforms Ancient Ritual into Modern Musical Renewal

MEXICO CITY — Mexican composer María Leonora approaches her performances with the solemnity of a warrior preparing for battle. Her ritual begins backstage as she applies tribal-inspired makeup, arranges layered clothing she’ll shed throughout the show, and places a protective amulet over her navel.

“I look into the mirror and I sort of go to war,” Leonora explained before a recent Mexico City performance. “I brace myself to walk through the fire and whatever happens happens.”

Her 2025 concert series, aptly titled “Through All the Fire,” connects individual performances through a unifying theme of transformation. Leonora believes music and flames share a powerful regenerative quality that forms the conceptual foundation of her work.

“A fire can burn and destroy,” she said. “But if you make it through, you can be reborn.”

This philosophy of heat-induced renewal draws direct inspiration from the temazcal, a pre-Hispanic steam bath that held profound importance in Mesoamerican society and religious practices. These stone or adobe structures, which could accommodate dozens of participants, generated steam by pouring water over heated stones.

“You may suffer as you enter a temazcal, but you put up with it,” Leonora noted. “You sweat and your ego cracks. Even if you don’t want to, heat breaks you.”

Archaeologist Agustín Ortiz, in research published by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, explained that temazcales transcended mere physical cleansing. “The temazcal was seen as the Earth’s interior and as a passageway between the world of the living and the underworld,” Ortiz wrote. “It was conceived as an entrance to the ‘beyond.'”

Archaeological evidence shows these ceremonial steam baths were typically positioned near ritual ballcourts, emphasizing their connection to sacred activities. While temazcales remain in use today, their earliest forms have been discovered at Maya sites like Chichén Itzá and Palenque, as well as Tlatelolco and Teotihuacán in central Mexico.

Leonora’s own path to musical healing began at age 16 during a difficult period in her life. She found salvation in punk rock, learning to play drums and eventually performing on stage.

“I was able to transform so many things just by playing and standing in front of an audience,” she recalled. “I can honestly say it saved my life.”

After years of musical exploration across different genres and collaborations, Leonora created “Through All the Fire” as a carefully curated journey. The performance guides audiences from darkness toward renewal through a diverse repertoire of songs.

“Music is a powerful tool that can connect you to Earth, to life, to the universe and to other people,” she said. “It’s a means for you to dig up and find things about yourself.”

Producer Diego Cristian Saldaña describes these events as “immersive concerts” where sound, lighting, and visuals work in harmony to envelop attendees in a multisensory experience.

“We want the audience to feel enveloped in the experience of each song,” Saldaña explained. “In the emotions and specific sensations the music triggers and that we’re intentionally seeking.”

The impact of this approach is evident in audience testimonials. In a video released by Mexico City’s Ministry of Culture last November, one young man who attended multiple performances described each as “deeply gratifying.” Another woman reported arriving exhausted but leaving energized and motivated.

“We constantly encourage people to actively participate,” Leonora said. “To dive into an internal journey.”

The performance structure itself mirrors the temazcal ritual. It begins with Leonora inviting attendees to cross a metaphorical “salt circle,” leaving the outside world behind. Early songs explore themes of love under subtle, warm lighting, before progressing through relationship dissolution and deeper emotional terrain.

As the performance evolves, Leonora gradually removes her makeup and sheds layers of clothing, physically embodying the stripping away of emotional barriers. The show builds toward a cathartic climax.

“As my character is exhausted, to the ground, it starts to breathe again,” she explained. “The moment comes to walk through the fire, as you would do in a temazcal.”

During this peak moment, audience members are encouraged to howl, scream, or engage in personal rituals of release. The final song emerges like “a first ray of light,” offering perspective and forward momentum.

“You can look back into your life and move forward toward luminosity,” Leonora said, completing the cycle of destruction and renewal that has defined sacred fire rituals in this region for millennia.