From Mexico, by way of North Carolina, Eastie’s own J. Andrés Ballesteros has been making music professionally since 2007. He has taught at Boston Arts Academy, served as community director with the White Snake Projects, and works today as a freelance composer and producer. This month, he has raised more than $11,000 for his latest endeavor, “Five Suns,” an animated symphonic short film retelling the Aztec myth of creation, destruction, and rebirth.

“Five Suns,” in Aztec mythology, explains the creation of our world. The gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Tláloc, and Chalchiuhtlicue each take a turn as the sun, before a calamity ends the world and they begin anew. 

Ballesteros likened the project to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” “It is a piece for essentially a mini orchestra, what we call a chamber ensemble, and a narrator, so that the storytelling happens in tandem with the music,” he explained. 

Every character has an epithet to make the unfamiliar, often difficult-to-pronounce Mesoamerican names easier to remember for new audiences. “So it’s not just Tezcatlipoca – It’s Tricky Tezcatlipoca. So even if you can’t say Tezcatlipoca, you know he’s the tricky one,” Ballesteros said.

Each god is also given a theme that evolves to reflect how the characters feel at each stage of their journey.

Ballesteros was originally contracted by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA) in 2022 for a retelling of the sundering of the Aztec moon goddess Coyolxāuhqui, accompanied by the writings of Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldua. MIFA Victory Players Director Tianhui Ng requested a 40-minute version to be used in their educational shows. 

“I could not find a way to make this weirdo abstract, reflective, multilingual thing appropriate for kids,” he said, instead creating an original piece that reinvented the story with writings from Anzaluda, but found that his modern take did not garner the same excitement from others familiar with the story.

“I realized it had the potential to become a cultural artifact in Mexico and for people of Mexican descent. It couldn’t be that if it was such a Mexican-American focused remix, as opposed to going back to the actual roots,” he said.

Mexican visual artist Mario Martinez was brought on to animate the project, with Veronica Robles Culture Center’s (VROCC) eponymous executive director serving as narrator. 

“As a proud Mexican, telling an ancient Aztec myth through music by fellow Mexican artist Andrés Ballesteros, performed by the world-class MIFA Victory Ensemble, and brought to life with animation by Mario Martinez, was pure joy and pride,” Robles said in a post to Instagram.

“I believe the show found me. I was making an Aztec-inspired craft when ‘Five Suns’ appeared to me on my social media. I thought it was no coincidence, the gods were calling,” Martinez said.

“[‘Five Suns’ is] baby, and I’ve been really excited about it. Every time I’ve added a collaborator, it’s been great to see that they are also equally excited about it, Veronica and Mario in particular,” Ballesteros said. “To see that there is enough of an audience out there who not only are interested in watching it, but are actually willing to put their money where their mouth is and help provide the funding to make it possible is just incredible.” 

Ballesteros described the timeline of the project’s future as “ambitious.” He and Robles are starting to record voice-over this week, with Marinez aiming to have a new round of animations completed by the end of April. Ballesteros said the goal is to begin submitting to film festivals in early May.

Donations to the project are still being accepted and will fund submissions to additional festivals, the creation of educational materials, and support for local artists.