You probably don’t think much about the management team behind some of your favorite artists, but there’s one manager who deserves a special spotlight for her work for her culture and her community: Doris Muñoz. 25-year-old Doris Muñoz is the founder and CEO of mija mgmt, an management agency that manages musicians such as the band, Inner Wave and Chicano superstar, Cuco.
I met Doris briefly at the 2019 LEAD Conference hosted at Harvard as one of the panelists of the Media and Entertainment Panel I facilitated. She shared her story and how her Chicana identity has shaped her experiences in the music industry. Doris started Mija Mgmt in 2017 after listening to Cuco at a backyard show in L.A. During the LEAD panel she mentioned how she hadn’t even bought the domain name for mija mgmt’s website until the day she met Cuco and invited him to work with her. She highlighted this as a way to show how pursuing the gut feeling she got after seeing Cuco perform was a big risk, but one she knew she had to take.
In under a year, Doris was able to take Cuco from playing backyard shows in L.A. to performing at big venues and festivals including the one and only Coachella Music and Arts Festival. Her and Cuco’s most recent success is getting Cuco signed to Interscope records with a multimillion deal, according to Billboard.
During the panel, Doris attributed much of her success to her family and emphasized her experience as one of the only documented members in her family as a privilege she didn’t take for granted. Her personal connection to the immigrant rights movement led her to start Solidarity for Sanctuary, a concert series that benefits immigrant rights groups and provides immigration clinics to attendees. The aim of Solidarity for Sanctuary is to be:
“A benefit event series to aid undocumented families that are at high risk of deportation due to the new immigration policies introduced by the Trump administration. All proceeds will go to the legal fees necessary for the immigration process.” – Solidarity for Sanctuary Facebook
Past Solidarity for Sanctuary events featured artists such as Cuco, August Eve, Honey Power, and Nice Life. The 2017 Solidarty for Sanctuary event called “Selena for Sanctuary” was a Selena-themed event that raised money to pay various families’ legal fees.
By taking her family’s personal situation as motivation and using her platform to highlight Chicanx, Latinx, and immigrant voices and issues, Doris has connected an amazing network of artists and facilitated spaces for Latinx culture to grow. Cheers to you mija!
For more info, head over to Solidarity for Sanctuary’s Facebook page and check out mija mgmt on twitter @mijamgmt and follow Doris on twitter and insta @dorismija.