He began his career writing more traditional Western classical music. In 1997, he wrote Ome Acatl, a symphony on based on the proportions and symbolism of the Aztec calendars, for the OFUNAM orchestra. His work
Trade Routes was performed by the
Oakland East Bay Symphony in 2005, taking inspiration from the streets of Oakland, California. In 2006, began composing experimental music. According to
Art in America, Galindo also began, “building his own instruments, performing compositions on them himself or improvising with them,” including audience participation in his pieces. The publication stated further that in created his instruments, he “redefines the borders set by musical convention … [and] listens to found objects and, in effect, lets them speak as they will.” His work
Remote Control was commissioned by the Kronos Fifty for the Future Composers project. He also composed
Sonic Re-Activation: Unearthing Public Square’s Forgotten Pasts while serving as a visiting artist-in-residence at Vanderbilt’s University Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of Art. Among his instruments is the "Angel Exterminador/Exterminating Angel", which is a gong made from a heavy, rusty, discarded sheet of twisted metal that resembles a set of angel wings, which he has played during performances at locations including
Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York,
Amon Carter Museum of American Art and
Schrin Kunsthtalle in Germany. The "Angel Exterminador/Exterminating Angel" is now part of the permanent collection at the
National Gallery, Washington, DC. His version of John Cage's chance score Variations II for Mariachi Band, was performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on 2012, at the de Young Museum and at the San Francisco Conservatory on 2013. In 2016 his instruments were first exhibited at the
San Jose Museum of Art, in a collaboration with photographer
Richard Misrach, Bentonville, Arkansas and the
Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York. The exhibitions paired Misrach’s own photographs, with Galindo’s instruments and sound installations by Galindo. A photographic book by the two entitled
Border Cantos was published by Aperture that year as well, which is also the name of a set of his ensemble pieces. In 2016, he performed with his instruments at the
Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Later, the two developed an exhibition of his instruments have also been displayed at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery made from objects left behind by immigrants making US-Mexico border crossings. Others were derived from found objects he discovered in Germany and Greece. During his exhibition there, Galindo also performed his piece
Sonic Borders III. He has also exhibited at the
documenta 14 biennial and Pacific Standard Time. ==Teaching career==