Faces Of Nantucket: Daniel Rodriguez & Santos Hernandez

Santos A. Hernandez
Years on the island: 23 years
Favorite things about Nantucket: The neighborhood, security, and culture.

Daniel Ronoldi Rodriguez
Years on the island: 9 years
Favorite things about Nantucket: The peace and safety, the island’s opportunities and security.

Daniel Rodriguez and Santos Hernandez, two carpenters by trade, have found an unexpected but rewarding passion on Nantucket. While they spend their days working on construction projects around the island, their evenings and weekends are dedicated to creating the soundtrack for countless gatherings, parties, weddings, and other celebrations. Their DJ group, Discomovil Tsunami, has been in high demand.

Rodriguez is from the small city of Agua Caliente in Chalatenango, El Salvador - where many of Nantucket’s Salvadoran residents hail from - and found his way to the island through friends who came before him. A carpenter for more than nine years, Rodriguez now runs his own business, Dar Custom Carpentry. He learned how to DJ after high school in El Salvador. 

“I started studying. By six months I understood everything. How to play, how to make the beats, how to go in and out of each track, each song. I learned to pitch with the bar and the turntables,” Rodriguez said.

He reminisced about the discomovils in El Salvador, where speakers cover the streets from side to side, usually with 20 or more at a time, and over 500 people there dancing, which helped spark his love for sharing music with the community.

Hernandez, also a native of El Salvador, came to Nantucket in pursuit of better opportunities and a more promising future. For 13 years, he worked with Cross Rip Builders, and now owns his own business, ST Builders Inc. A lover of techno and electronic music, Hernandez has spent the last eight years as a DJ. After meeting Rodriguez, the pair knew they wanted to explore their shared passion for music and DJing, leading to the creation of Discomovil Tsunami.

“I find this place like home,” Hernandez says of his love for the island. “It’s kind of the same where I came from… so I feel home.”

After years honing their craft on Nantucket, Discomovil Tsunami has grown in popularity, especially within the island’s Hispanic community. Hernandez is the group’s “DJ Power,” Rodriguez is known as “DJ Explod,” and the pair is assisted by Jose Chinchilla and Javier Lara, who help with the technical side of things, including lights, effects, and sound.

“He was mixing some tracks, and he was looking just “wow,” right? And after that… I put all the speakers together, and we started to make the bigger connections,” Hernandez explained. “And from that day, we are still here and everything’s going up. We rise every day.”

The group books 20 to 25 gigs every year at a minimum, sometimes DJing every weekend of a month. Besides private events, the group has spent time DJing at Fairgrounds Restaurant, and hope to expand into playing more public and community events.

“I do it because you’re feeling a lot. When I see everyone dancing and when I say “Make some noise everyone,” you’re feeling like “I’m the king over here.” So it’s very fun,” Rodriguez said.

Although they are working on establishing a social media presence and website for their DJ group, Discomovil Tsunami is well-known on the island through word of mouth. Their reputation precedes them, as people recommend them to friends and family.

“Everybody knows… plenty of people know. If you ask for us, everyone’s gonna say 'yeah I know them',” Rodriguez explains.

In the future, Rodriguez and Hernandez hope to continue growing Discomovil Tsunami, maybe even passing their love of music onto the next generation. They speak proudly about their sons, who have shown an interest in both DJing and social media – even at just two and nine years old.

“The thing is, I would like to get bigger, you know, bigger and bigger. But the situation right now is we have family, right? We play for a group of islanders. So we decided to keep an eye just on the island,” Hernandez said.