Zapotec rapper Mare Advertencia Lirika began rapping at the age of 16 as a way to channel her frustration about the treatment of Mexican women and gender inequality. She honed her act into a way to raise consciousness, and she’s bringing her message to the UO in a performance Thursday, Oct. 16.

Now known simply as Mare, she will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. at Beall Concert Hall in the Frohnmayer Music Building. As a Zapotec rapper, Mare uses poetry and hip-hop as a way to illustrate the struggle of women and indigenous people in Mexico.

Mare grew up in Oaxaca with her siblings, grandmother and aunts, but she was teased as a young girl because there were no males in her family. The singer began writing poetry at an early age but quit in seventh grade because a teacher told her she was useless.

The documentary “When a Woman Steps Forward” is a personal history of Mare’s life and what it was like growing up without her father. Her father was assassinated when his truck was shot at because he was mistaken for someone else.

In the film, which Mare narrates, she said women in magazines were light skinned and indigenous women with darker skin were never represented in the media.

NPR named Mare’s work “Best Alternative Music of the Year” in June 2012. In 2013, Mare toured America and worked with Chicana and Latina immigration groups.

On this tour, she will also be performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago and at Oregon State University. Several of Mare’s songs are available on SoundCloud.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies and co-sponsored by the Center for Study of Women in Society and the School of Music and Dance. For more information, visit the Center for Latino/a Studies here.

—By Corinne Boyer, Public Affairs Communications intern