Volume ! La revue des musiques populaires
11 : 2 | 2015 Varia
Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects from Nueva Canción to Colombian Canción Social Les discours dans les projets culturels de música latinoamericana, de la nueva canción à la canción social colombienne
Joshua Katz-Rosene
Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/volume/4500 DOI: 10.4000/volume.4500 ISSN: 1950-568X
Publisher Association Mélanie Seteun
Printed version Date of publication: 15 June 2015 Number of pages: 65-83 ISBN: 978-2-913169-37-1 ISSN: 1634-5495
Electronic reference Joshua Katz-Rosene, “Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects from Nueva Canción to Colombian Canción Social”, Volume ! [Online], 11 : 2 | 2015, Online since 15 June 2017, connection on 08 May 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/volume/4500 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ volume.4500
L'auteur & les Éd. Mélanie Seteun 65
Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects from Nueva Canción to Colombian Canción Social
by Joshua Katz-Rosene
Graduate Center, City University of New York
Abstract: In this article, I follow the discourses However, they later refined claims about the style’s elaborated around música latinoamericana (“Latin significance, its distinctiveness from other musical American music”), a broad musical category encom- genres, and its political symbolism to fit changing passing a wide range of Latin American—but cultural contexts in the cities of the Colombian especially Andean—folk genres within succes- sive, interrelated “cultural projects.” I examine the interior. I argue that the discursive “work” under- extra-musical meanings attributed to this stylistic taken in these cultural projects has ensured that mode in the nueva canción (new song) movements música latinoamericana continues to be equated with of protest music in the Southern Cone, the transna- anti-establishment politics in Colombia, and hence tional nueva canción latinoamericana (Latin Ameri- that it remains closely tied to canción social (social can new song) network to which they gave rise, and
song), the present-day category for socially conscious Volume ! n° 11-2 ultimately focus on música latinoamericana’s devel- opment in Colombia. During the mid-1970s, the music. initial Colombian practitioners of música latinoamer- icana adopted several facets of the discourse pertain- Keywords: discourses – cultural projects – identity – ing to this music—along with the musical models mainstream / commercialism / commodification – poli- themselves—from nueva canción latinoamericana. tics / militantism – transnationality. 66 Joshua Katz-Rosene
Résumé : Dans cet article, j’entends étudier les mêmes, qu’ils trouvèrent au sein de la nueva can- discours qui ont accompagné la música latinoame- ción latinoamericana. Néanmoins, ils affinèrent plus ricana (« musique latino-américaine ») – une caté- tard leur conception de la signification du style, de gorie musicale vaste, qui inclut une grande gamme son originalité et de sa symbolique politique, afin de musiques traditionnelles d’Amérique latine, mais de s’adapter aux contextes culturels changeants des plus particulièrement les genres andins – au sein de villes de la Colombie intérieure. Je soutiens que ce « projets culturels » successifs et interreliés. J’exa- « travail » discursif entrepris au sein de ces projets mine les significations extra-musicales attribuées culturels explique pourquoi cette musique continue à ce style dans les mouvements protestataires de la à être associée en Colombie à l’opposition au système nueva canción (nouvelle chanson) dans le Cône Sud, dominant et qu’ainsi, elle reste liée à la canción social, le réseau de la nueva canción latinoamericana qu’ils la catégorie utilisée actuellement pour dénoter la engendrèrent, et me concentre enfin sur les dévelop- musique engagée. pements de cette musique en Colombie. Au milieu des années 1970, ses premiers interprètes colombiens Mots-clés : discours – projets culturels – identité – adoptèrent plusieurs facettes du discours relatif à mainstream / commerce / marchandisation – politique cette musique, ainsi que les modèles musicaux eux- / militantisme – transnationalité.
history, movements and ing to the concept of folk culture and frame the In recent institutions of progres- ideas they deploy from those discourses in ways sive and conservative stripe, in subordinate as well that fit their broader ideologies. William Roy has as dominant positions, engaged in protest or total- proposed that folk-based musical categories are itarian control, have drawn on cultural resources socially constructed and in some cases politicized labelled as folkloric to advance their political goals. through the discursive “work” undertaken within From the North American perspective, one of the “cultural projects” (2010: 50-1). most comprehensively documented cases of this phenomenon is the appropriation of working-class In this article, I follow the discourses elaborated for folk music from the U.S. South by activists from música latinoamericana (literally, Latin American the American Communist Party during the 1930s music), a broad musical category encompassing Popular Front era and its thorough integration a wide range of Latin American—and especially into leftist culture through the mid-twentieth Andean—folk genres within successive, inter- century. Various types of movements may differ in related cultural projects. I begin with the nueva their motivations for and approaches to enlisting canción (new song) movements of protest music in folk music to their cause. Nevertheless, they must the Southern Cone and continue with the nueva
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume all engage with pre-existing discourses pertain- canción latinoamericana (Latin American new 67 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . . song) network to which they gave rise, ultimately claims about the style’s significance, its distinctive- focusing on música latinoamericana’s development ness from other musical categories, and its politi- in Colombia. The initial Colombian practition- cal symbolism to fit changing cultural contexts in ers of música latinoamericana in the mid-1970s the cities of the Colombian interior. I argue that adopted several facets of the discourse pertaining the ideational framework produced in conjunc- to this music—along with the musical models tion with these cultural projects has ensured that themselves—from nueva canción latinoamericana música latinoamericana continues to be equated (henceforth NCL). However, they later refined with anti-establishment politics in Colombia.
Track Genre Country
1. Los Arados sanjuanito Ecuador
2. Huajra [carnavalito] Argentina
3. Nuestro México, Febrero 23 corrido Mexico
4. Dolencias triste andino [albazo] Ecuador
5. Quiaqueñita canción [carnavalito] Argentina
6. La Petenera son huasteco Mexico
7. Quebrada de Humahuaca folklore quechua y aymará [carnavalito] Argentina
8. Así como hoy matan negros [nueva canción] Chile
9. La mariposa morenada boliviana Bolivia
10. Flor de Sancayo huayno peruano Peru Volume ! n° 11-2
11. Fiesta puneña bailecito Argentina
12. Madrugada llanera joropo Venezuela
Figure 1: Track listing for the 1970 Inti-Illimani LP Cóndores del Sol (EMI LDC-35254). The genre listed in the liner notes is given first (when provided), followed by the author’s precision in square brackets. 68 Joshua Katz-Rosene
Starting in the mid-1960s, Chilean nueva canción ment that together with its counterparts in the ensembles such as Quilapayún and Inti-Illimani Southern Cone began constituting the interna- took up a format that featured Andean instru- tional NCL scene during this period, was increas- ments like the kena (Andean flute), zampoñas (pan- ingly influential. Colombian musicians’ own take pipes), charango (small Andean guitar), and bombo on oppositional music-making was known from (drum), and built up repertoires that prominently the late 1960s on as canción protesta (protest song). featured stylized arrangements of rural mestizo In 1968, a small group of musicians in the capi- and indigenous genres from Peru (huayno), Bolivia tal, Bogotá, founded the Center for Protest Song, (huayño, cueca), northwestern Argentina (bai- which hosted a peña (coffee house) of folk and pro- lecito, carnavalito, zamba), and to a lesser extent, test music (Voz Proletaria, April 25, 1968; Gómez, Ecuador (sanjuanito). However, these ensembles 1973). Among the artists who were involved with also performed folkloric genres from such varied this Center were the singer-songwriter Pablus places as Cuba (son), Venezuela (joropo), Mexico Gallinazo and the duo Ana y Jaime, who would go (son), and Chile itself (Chilean cueca, as well as on to achieve commercial success and become the trote and cachimbo from Chile’s northern Andean most well-known representatives of Colombian region), and they incorporated many of the instru- canción protesta. They appear to have preceded the ments traditionally used to execute them.1 These main surge of musical influence from the South- groups flourished in the late 1960s in tandem with ern Cone by some years, although Ana y Jaime the campaign that brought the socialist Popular later popularized in Colombia songs such as “Ni Unity coalition into power in Chile in 1970. Fol- Chicha ni Limoná,” by Chilean nueva canción lowing the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet icon Víctor Jara, and “A Desalambrar,” by Uru- in 1973, most nueva canción artists were forced guayn canto popular figurehead Daniel Viglietti. into exile and many subsequently spent years trav- Nevertheless, by the late 1970s progressive musi- elling the globe soliciting solidarity for the Chil- cians in Colombia’s highland cities of Bogotá and ean people’s struggle to restore democracy. Medellín, and especially those attending public universities, had gravitated towards the type of As was the case in diverse locales throughout music disseminated by NCL groups that came to Latin America, Chilean nueva canción strongly be known as música latinoamericana. impacted left-leaning artists in Colombia as of the late 1960s (Gómez, 1973). The nuevo cancionero In my search through archival materials, I found argentino (“new Argentine songbook”) initiated that the term canción protesta was replaced by the by Argentine musicians and intellectuals in 1963, moniker canción social (social song) in Colombia along with the Uruguayan variant of protest music over the course of the 1980s and 1990s. Today, that came to be known as canto popular (pop- the canción social category includes the widely ular song), were also on Colombian musicians’ known stars of NCL, Colombian singers of can-
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume radars. Nueva trova (new song), the Cuban move- ción protesta from decades past, and contemporary 69 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . . artists associated with a range of artistic and polit- Música Latinoamericana in Colombia ical sectors. While canción social is thus fairly het- A small number of groups, including Los erogeneous in terms of musical style, a firm link Hermanos Escamilla, which had ties to the persists between música latinoamericana and the Communist Party, began performing música very notion of socially conscious music in Colom- bia, as represented by canción social. latinoamericana in Bogotá in the early 1970s. But it was only in the second half of the decade A note concerning terminology is in order before that a set of musicians, most of them students at proceeding. My use of the term música latinoamer- the capital’s public universities, began to form icana here is intended to reflect its usage by my the ensembles that would become the style’s 2 consultants and in general parlance. In Colom- major exponents in Colombia during the 1980s, bia, this appellative is used interchangeably with including Chimizapagua (ca. 1976), Tikchamaga música andina (Andean music) to denote the broad (ca. 1977), and Alma de los Andes (ca. 1978). musical style, described above, in which folkloric In Colombia’s second largest city, Medellín, the genres and instruments from South America’s cen- Communist Party members who founded the tral Andean region (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and ensemble Quiramaní towards 1975 started out by the northern reaches of Argentina and Chile) are interpreting repertoire from the Argentine nuevo 3 foregrounded. In some cases, though, the scope cancionero and Chilean nueva canción for Party of música latinoamericana surpasses that of música functions in the city (Safira, personal communi- andina to include folkloric styles from other Latin cation). The group that has been the main conduit American countries. The meaning I intend here in Medellín for the musical agenda established is perhaps best captured by the less commonly by NCL ensembles is Grupo Suramérica, created employed phrase música andina latinoamericana by a group of students in 1976. Musicians in the (Andean Latin American music). To confuse the southern-central city of Cali (Waxer, 2001: 235), nomenclature further, the term música andina the nearby town of Sevilla (Ochoa, 1996: 95), and colombiana (Colombian Andean music) designates the southwestern city of Pasto (Broere, 1989: 117) the creole musical forms (e.g. bambuco, pasillo) also experimented with the NCL brand of música that are native to the central highland area of the latinoamericana during the 1970s. country. While a detailed explanation of musical Volume ! n° 11-2 differences betweenmúsica andina and música If música latinoamericana first took hold in Colom- andina colombiana is not possible here, one impor- bia during the 1970s, the 1980s marked its heyday. tant distinction is that Amerindian wind instru- In 1980, Grupo Suramérica hosted the Concert ments such as kena and zampoñas are vital in the for Latin America, an event that brought together former, whereas the latter depends primarily on a dozen ensembles specializing in the latinoameri- various stringed instruments adapted from Euro- cana style and attracted thirty thousand spectators pean models (e.g. tiple and bandola). (El Mundo, July 27, 1980). A few months before 70 Joshua Katz-Rosene
Figure 2: Flyer for the 1981 “Latin American Concert” in Bogotá (from the personal collection of William Morales).
the event had its second iteration in 1981, a head- Towards the end of the 1980s, the socially con- line in a major Medellín newspaper announced, scious stream of música latinoamericana began “Música Latinoamericana Breaks Through Among to cede ground to a more conventional emphasis the Youth” (El Colombiano, March 27, 1981). A on romantic themes. This approach was exem- similar large-scale “Latin American Concert” was plified by the super group of Bolivian folk music held in the same year in Bogotá (figure 2). Many Los Kjarkas, which several consultants credited of the musicians with whom I spoke looked back for taking the style in a commercial direction. on the 1980s as a time during which this format became a minor fad. With the music increasingly accessible through live performance at festivals and Discourse in Música Latinoamericana well-attended peñas, and audible on specialty radio Cultural Projects programs (Roger Díaz, personal communication), a number of groups emerged to satisfy the growing As discussed in the introduction, Roy’s description demand, the most prominent of which were Vil- of the workings of a cultural project can be helpful capampa (1979), Nuestra América (ca. 1981), and for understanding how musical categories acquire Illary (1986), all from Medellín. However, very socio-political meaning: “A cultural project is a few of the first groups to adoptmúsica latinoamer- coordinated activity by an identifiable group of
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume icana continued this type of work into the 1990s. people to define a category of cultural objects, 71 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . . distinguish it from other cultural objects, make scope of this study. Using Roy’s model as a guide, claims about its significance and meaning, promote I want to therefore focus here on one fundamental its adoption by others, and thereby have a social significance claim, one example of the key bound- impact” (2010: 50, my emphasis). As seen here, ary demarcations affirmed for this musical cate- three of the closely interrelated endeavours that gory, and finally, what I propose to be its broadest come together in an archetypal cultural project to definitional concern, with a view towards tracking produce a coherent discourse about the cultural how these notions evolved in Colombia. objects at its core are “definition work,” “bound- ary work,” and “significance claims.” Examination Latin American / Andean Unity of the ideas about música latinoamericana that It is clear that the celebration of a unified Latin were forged in successive cultural projects—in the Southern Cone movements of politically con- American identity was an important significance scious music, in the transnational arena of NCL, claim that underpinned the adoption and projec- and in Colombia—allows us to observe how the tion of música latinoamericana by NCL musicians discourses relating to this stylistic mode were throughout the continent. A sense of “American- propagated and adapted in differing geographic ism” had guided the work of musicians involved and temporal contexts. with the nuevo cancionero in Argentina during the 1960s (Molinero & Vila, 2014: 195). The As I demonstrate below, musicians in Colom- prominence of Andean and other Latin Ameri- bia received many of their original extra-musical can folk music in Chilean nueva canción can be beliefs about música latinoamericana from the partly attributed to this strong Latin Americanist bourgeoning NCL complex, of which the Southern sentiment, as composers sought to express their Cone movements were driving forces. Beginning cultural kinship with the other peoples of Latin with the 1967 International Meeting of Protest Song in Cuba, artists from numerous Latin Amer- America in song texts and through their selec- ican countries intermingled regularly in the NCL tion of musical genres (Orrego Salas, 1985: 6-7; festival circuit through the 1970s and 1980s. Rodríguez Musso, 1988: 62). Guillermo Barzuna Musicians with similar—but by no means uni- cites a number of songs by NCL musicians from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Cuba in which form—political philosophies increasingly hashed Volume ! n° 11-2 out the richly layered associations they had already the idea of continental unity is advanced (1997: attributed to música latinoamericana within their 105-14). Similarly, musicians affiliated with NCL “national” milieus in this pan-Latin framework.4 in Mexico (Pacheco, 1994: 336) and Nicaragua As such, the task of comprehensively identifying (Scruggs, 2006) rationalized their engagement the prevailing themes in the discourse around with pan-Latin folk styles with the idea that a música latinoamericana in this transnational cul- united front was required for the struggle against tural project is a knotty one that is beyond the the continent’s multiple despotic regimes. 72 Joshua Katz-Rosene
Musicians in Colombia who began to take up interview, for instance, a member of Alma de los música latinoamericana during the 1970s were Andes (“Soul of the Andes”) stated: “This Andean apparently cognizant of this perspective on the music that we perform . . . transforms us into ver- category’s significance. Gustavo Escamilla, of the itable brothers of the northern Argentines, of the ensemble Los Hermanos Escamilla, described the Chileans, Bolivians, Peruvians, and Ecuadorians” mindset among his cohort of revolutionary artists (Cruz Cárdenas, 1981). I further noted that the as such: “And then some lovely texts begin to say musicians I interviewed consistently highlighted ‘Latin America must go hand in hand to build a the belonging of the southwestern Colombian united society.’ A Latin American way of think- highlands, specifically, to this greater Andean ing was born: not Colombian, nor Argentine, nor area. They often buttressed their assertions that Chilean—Latin American” (personal communi- Colombia is part of the Andean world by refer- cation).5 It is unsurprising to find that the names encing the fact that the Inca Empire extended of latinoamericana groups in Colombia, such as through the region mapped out above into what is Grupo Suramérica (“South America Ensemble”) today Colombia’s southwestern tip.6 and Nuestra América (“Our America”), conjured The linkage between the southern Colombian the notion of a continental identity. This idea was highlands and the rest of Andean South Amer- also prominent on record jackets and in concert ica had been practically embodied in the work programs through the 1980s, as when, in the of the ensemble Chimizapagua, which split its program notes for a Chimizapagua performance performances and recordings roughly equally in Bogotá on October 5, 1984, the group states between música latinoamericana and the south- that they integrate music from the entire Andean ern Colombian chirimía configuration (figure 3). region in order “to reaffirm Latin American unity Many Colombians tend to associate the latter in its cultural expression.” ensemble type, which is made up of transverse However, my findings suggest that a claim for a flutes and drums and has been traditionally per- more particular kind of Andean cultural unity formed in indigenous and peasant communities, arose as a discursive justification for the perfor- more closely with musical expressions to the mance of the Andean-oriented brand of música south of the Colombian border than with música latinoamericana in Colombia as a discernible cul- andina colombiana, the string-based music of tural project coalesced around the music in the the central Colombian Andean zone. Musicians, late 1970s. Involvement with the music has per- among others, frequently invoke the Incan con- mitted musicians to assert cultural links between nection to account for these types of cross-bor- Colombia as an Andean nation and the core der musical affinities. In the program notes for Andean region of South America that stretches up one of Chimizapagua’s 1991 performances, for from northwestern Argentina and northern Chile, example, folklorist Guillermo Abadía Morales
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume and through Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In a 1981 posited that “rhythmic accents” from the music Figure 3: Back cover of the 1984 Chimizapagua album Experiencia (Philips 818696-1). 74 Joshua Katz-Rosene
of the “Incaic zones” could be heard in the tradi- in music in their 1963 manifesto (Tejada Gómez, tional music of southern Colombia. 2003 [1963]). Similarly, the Chilean nueva canción musicians who began integrating Latin American Second- and third-generation practitioners of the traditional genres into their work in the late 1960s socially conscious strain of música latinoameri- were reacting simultaneously to the dominance of cana in Colombia have continued to postulate a deeply rooted, common Andean cultural identity, Euro-American music in the mainstream media which manifests in the musical realm, as a key and to the commercial orientation of the urban significance claim formúsica andina latinoameri- Chilean neofolklore scene that had arisen in the cana. When in 2011 I spoke with members of the early 1960s (Rodríguez Musso, 1988: 60; Torres, ensemble Nuestro Tiempo (Our Time), formed in 1980: 40). In recalling the principles he and the Medellín in 1999, one musician stated his belief co-founders of Quilapayún sought to uphold in that certain folk genres in the southern Andean their own ensemble, Eduardo Carrasco Pirard area of Colombia “bear a greater resemblance to wrote: “We did not want to make concessions to the Argentine chacarera, to the Chilean cueca, to the commercial . . . We also rejected the Anglo- Ecuadorian music” (personal communication). I Saxon penetration in our music . . . in this during found further evidence for the persistence of this much time we took our Latin Americanism to idea among people involved with Andean music in the extreme.” (2003: 22) Carrasco has also pro- recent years during my participation with one of posed a fundamental “dividing line” between, on the many panpipe troupes currently active in the the one hand, “run-of-the mill popular song” that Bogotá area. While these ensembles focus musi- subscribes to market dictates and accommodates cally on panpipe consort genres from Peru and the hegemony of foreign influences, and on the Bolivia, the only form of Colombian music they other, the various manifestations of nueva canción practice is chirimía music. in Latin America (1982: 601-2). As Colombian musicians developed their under- Anti-Commercialism standing of what música latinoamericana meant The symbolic evocation of Latin American unity to them in the early 1980s, they maintained sim- that participants of the NCL movement ascribed ilar discursive boundaries around the music. For to música latinoamericana was closely tied to the example, an article about Chimizapagua related “boundary work” through which they positioned that their music “presents a challenge to com- it in contrast to non-Latin American cultural mercialization and the tastes imposed by record forms and in opposition to commercial popular labels and foreign cultures” (Vanguardia Liberal, music more broadly. The artists who launched the December 20, 1982). The musicians of Alma de nuevo cancionero argentino had already denounced los Andes alluded more specifically to the musical “the invasion of the decadent and vulgar foreign forms that they felt were corrupting Latin Amer-
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume hybrids forms” along with commercial interests ican identity: 75 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . .
“We are not unfamiliar with rock, nor disco poses the greatest threat to the progressive values music . . . but in reality the contribution that these encoded in their preferred medium. A mix of hip- expressions make to us, the Latin American youth, and hop and Jamaican dancehall reggae with Spanish in general to the culture of our continent, is minimal.” (Cruz Cárdenas 1981) lyrics, reggaeton achieved enormous popularity throughout Latin America in the early 2000s and Contemporary supporters of música latinoameri- remains a vital trend (Grove Music Online). While cana appear to have inherited the anti-commercial many of the genre’s early stars and a great number posture forged earlier on, since they continue to of its consumers were Puerto Rican, a recent news- register distinctions between socially conscious paper headline in Colombia trumpeted: “Medellín música latinoamericana and the mainstream pop- Unseats Puerto Rico as ‘Global Capital of Reggae- ular music that reigns in Colombia’s cosmopolitan ton.’” (El Tiempo, October 17, 2013). Reacting to centers. Among musicians in the metropolises of this development, Roger Díaz of Illary told me: the central Colombian highlands, this perspective “Unfortunately this is a city now absolutely inun- ties in to their expressions of envy that música lati- dated by reggaeton . . . and by a lifestyle that is noamericana has a higher profile in the southern every day more consumerist, every day more clas- Colombian cities of Pasto and Popayán, not to sist, so . . . there are some sectors that see [canción mention massive followings in Andean countries social] . . . as something that is no longer worth like Ecuador and Bolivia. For instance, a post- disseminating.” A musician in Bogotá who was ing on the Facebook page of a Medellín group in part of the latinoamericana vocal ensemble Quin- November 2012 set up a stark division between a teto Fuga during the 1980s similarly juxtaposed festival being held in Quito, Ecuador, which fea- the extra-musical associations evoked by música tured a number of the NCL groups that helped latinoamericana to those accompanying reggaeton: pioneer the format, and the con- latinoamericana “The symbolism is basically—it’s historical, you know? certs put on by Madonna in Medellín on the same Música latinoamericana equals Inti-Illimani, equals nights. It read, Chilean revolution, equals bearded men, equals pon- chos, hippies; so people associate those things. In other “Greetings to all the people of Quito who have been words, people don’t associate for example enjoying [. . .] that music which is still necessary and música andina with sunglasses, or watches, or cars, like they do with remains current. Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani: [. . .] what reggaeton.” (personal communication) revelry of good music that doesn’t require extravagant Volume ! n° 11-2 stages, or dancers, or superficial pop idols created by marketing and scandal, like the one that will visit our A Broad Definition city tomorrow. Quito, enjoy that music of which little It is not surprising that the musician just quoted remains.” would point to such strong associations between Today, latinoamericana musicians perceive that música latinoamericana and political turmoil in the unabashed commercialism of reggaeton, a Chile. The music’s history in that country was genre with unmistakable Latin American roots, crucial to how Latin Americans and those further 76 Joshua Katz-Rosene
afield processed its political meaning. Andean reported closely on the situation in Chile (Ayala music, especially, was imbued with strong leftist Diago, 2003: 333). In the most radical sectors of associations thanks to the political inclinations Colombian society, armed rebel groups had ties of its foremost disseminators in Chile, such as to, and in some cases direct involvement from the Parra family (Rios, 2008: 156), and the sup- members of, guerrilla organizations in Argentina, port that its exponents lent to Salvador Allende’s Chile, and Uruguay, and even received cassettes Popular Unity coalition during its campaign for of music and poetry from them (Grabe, 2000: the 1970 elections and during its time in gov- 69, 85, 135-7). As such, while early aficionados of ernment from 1970 to 1973 (Fairley, 1989: 5). A música latinoamericana in Colombia likely asso- clear indicator of the extent to which this music ciated it closely with the Chilean struggle, many was indelibly identified with progressive poli- of them defined the style as more broadly relat- tics in Chile is the de facto—if never officially ing to resistance against dictatorships across the decreed—ban that existed on Andean music and Southern Cone. William Morales, who performed instruments during the early years of the dictator- with an exiled Argentinean in a duo called Por ship (Jordán, 2009: 81-3). As they criss-crossed Latinoamérica (For Latin America) before joining the world after 1973 commemorating the fallen Chimizapagua, drew a direct correlation between socialist government and promoting other leftist the installation of hardline regimes in Chile and causes, Chilean nueva canción ensembles estab- Argentina and the reception of NCL among stu- lished a profound connection for their audiences dents at the National University in Bogotá during between música latinoamericana and leftist politics the mid-1970s: as represented by their anti-Pinochet stance (Rios, “We are talking about a very critical moment, about the 2008: 170). political difficulties in Argentina; we are talking about While Chilean political exiles were the most suc- the political problems in Chile. We were a student body cessful group in generating attention internation- that received those influences. We’re talking about Vio- ally for human rights violations in their homeland, leta Parra, about Víctor Jara, and even about Atahualpa Yupanqui.” (personal communication)7 the 1970s also saw dissidents fleeing dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay and attempting to At a “festival of Latin American song” held in drum up opposition to the repressive regimes in Bogotá in 1976, which was titled Este Canto those countries (Sznajder & Roniger, 2009). Mil- en Libertad (This Free Song) and was attended itant pro-democracy movements throughout the by artists from several countries, the performers Southern Cone captured the imagination of the read a “manifesto of solidarity with the victims of Colombian Left during the mid-1970s. Organ- repression in Latin America”; at least one musi- izations and individuals in Colombia that were cian strummed along on a charango (Alternativa sympathetic to the Chilean cause held solidarity 96, August 30, 1976). While there can be little
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume actions (Grabe, 2000: 69) and the leftist press doubt that the declaration included denunciations 77 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . . of the violent tactics used to quash political dis- experienced direct and indirect censorship and sent in the Southern Cone nations, the pan-Latin threats from the security establishment during NCL movement was concerned with state-issued this time. On the other hand, the primary audi- oppression, socialist/communist revolution, and ence for música latinoamericana during the 1980s, anti-imperialism throughout the continent and and the source for many of its performers, was the beyond (e.g. the Vietnam War). In the late 1970s, student population, which had become increas- revolutionary efforts such as those taking place in ingly identified with the Left since the 1960s and Central America garnered much attention, and was ramping up its protests on several fronts in exiled nueva canción ensembles working in the the early 1980s (Archila Neira, 2003: 150, 398). latinoamericana format called for solidarity with Many of my consultants agreed that this constitu- the revolutionary fighters and the people they were ency helped to sustain the music’s overall political purporting to liberate (Fairley, 1989: 14). At a connotations in the public domain. basic level, then, during the 1970s NCL musicians and activists positioned música latinoamericana as It is evident that contemporary practitioners of fundamentally expressing the counter-hegemonic música latinoamericana must negotiate the multi- aspirations of the Latin American leftist commu- ple and sometimes contradictory layers of symbol- nity (Bodiford, 2007). ism it has accrued over the decades since it took root in Colombia. The activist-musicians from the During música latinoamericana’s zenith in Colom- ensemble Nuestro Tiempo, for example, decried bia in the 1980s, however, some musicians who the fact that the latinoamericana style had become specialized in this style actually tried to distance a fad in Medellín during the 1990s, losing much themselves from its political associations. Speaking about the origins of his ensemble Nuestra América of its political salience (personal communica- in the early 1980s, one member commented: “we tion). One member spoke about having previously were leaving the era of protest music and from played in an ensemble modeled after Los Kjarkas the beginning we wanted to develop a message and feeling a profound disconnect between the that eschewed political propaganda” (El Mundo, predominantly romantic orientation of their rep- July 19, 1993). While it is not possible here to ertoire and the realities of violence and poverty experienced in his working-class neighbourhood. fully explore the motivations behind this apparent Volume ! n° 11-2 shift, it should be noted that the end of the 1970s Even as they reflect critically on their cultural ushered in a period of intense political repression distance from the era of revolutionary fervour in in Colombia itself. In 1978, President Julio César which música latinoamericana was first introduced Turbay Ayala imposed a Security Statute that tar- in Colombia, the members of Nuestro Tiempo geted leftist political activity and instituted strict seek to recuperate some of the political resonance controls over the media (Palacios, 2006: 197). it initially carried. For instance, when I asked why More than one musician told me about having their politically committed project was still fun- 78 Joshua Katz-Rosene
damentally executed using the latinoamericana music. Remarkably, though, the only instruments format, one member responded: I saw at the meeting itself were Andean kenas and “It may be that we are a bit stubborn, since in fact what zampoñas, and música latinoamericana figured con- we are describing to you is the opposite tendency, that spicuously in the pre- and post-hearing playlists. there was a rupture between those formats and the old There is also a darker side to the indelible associa- repertoire and oppositional song . . . the group since tion between música latinoamericana and leftism: its beginnings has attempted to kind of negotiate that An informant in a study on the violent conflict contradiction: ‘Well that’s such a cliché . . . that’s some- in northern Colombia testified that paramilitaries thing from the seventies,’ and people said, ‘man it’s just that talking about political music, from the panpipes accused her of being affiliated with the Revolu- to the charango, the same old stale story . . .’ And per- tionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—an haps our position was idealistic but that’s why we said allegation that carried great risk—merely because it is Our Time [Nuestro Tiempo]—to sort of reserve she listened to música andina (Madariaga, 2006: for ourselves the right to sing in that format. Because it 52). has meaning: that format is built very eclectically, but it is a puzzle that unites Latin America on one stage—an Given the enduring political symbolism attached on-stage proposal; and that already has a political inten- to música latinoamericana, it is natural that it tion . . . The ponchos have meaning; the kenas have remains closely linked to the umbrella category for meaning, the panpipes—all of that.” socially conscious music known as canción social. Notwithstanding the apparent “rupture” between One example of this tight association came when música latinoamericana and the dominant politi- I asked a street vendor in downtown Bogotá if he cal interpretations carved out for it in the 1970s, had any records of Andean folkloric music and he the “definition work” carried out in the context replied instead that he did have canción social LPs. of the NCL movement—including at its Colom- The overlap in audience for these categories does bian node —during that time has ensured that not escape marketing personnel in the music an equation between the style’s Andean nucleus industry, as can be appreciated in an advertising and anti-establishment politics has become deeply insert found in the CD Canción Social: Grandes embedded in Colombian popular discourse. I Clásicos Vol. 2 (Great Classics) that lists the issu- observed one illustration of this relationship in the ing label’s other offerings in the “Música Andina present day when I attended a public hearing in & Canción Social” grouping. In fact, when inde- the Plains region on labour and land rights that pendent Colombian labels sought to capital- was organized by a coalition of unions and activist ize on the interest in social compilations in the organizations. One of the most prominent tradi- early 2000s, they turned to ensembles specializing tional and popular musics in the Plains region is in música latinoamericana to record covers of the música llanera (Plains music), which is typically staples of this repertoire. There is coincidence too performed with harp, cuatro (four-stringed guitar), in the spaces in which canción social and música
Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume and maracas, and it is quite distinct from Andean latinoamericana are performed. Groups dedicated 79 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . . to música latinoamericana are usually included in under the rubric of canción social. In other cases, events that bear the canción social label, as was the the correspondence between these categories is case when Grupo Suramérica headlined the First made explicit, as in the Noche de Canción Social, Festival of Canción Social in Medellín in 2009, Andina, y Latinoamericana (Evening of Social, and Andean music festivals typically showcase at Andean, and Latin American Song) held in 2012 least one ensemble that is categorized primarily in Medellín (figure 4). Volume ! n° 11-2
Figures 4: Promotional image for the Evening of Social, Andean, and Latin American Song. 80 Joshua Katz-Rosene
Summary them, performance of the music was connected to a proclamation of expressly pan-Andean cultural During the 1970s, NCL ensembles inspired leftist musicians in Colombia to cultivate música andina ties, an idea that is still voiced today. Colombian latinoamericana. Ideas concerning the significance, adherents have continued to evoke the distinction boundary delineations, and overall definition of that has long been made between música latino- the musical practices in this category of Ande- americana and commercial popular music trends, an-oriented, pan-Latin American folkloric music but in the twenty-first century they have presented accompanied its arrival in Colombia. At this junc- it especially as an antidote to the commercialism of ture, the music’s linkages to Latin American unity, reggaeton. Although some artists sought to down- anti-commercialism, and anti-dictatorial struggles play música latinoamericana’s political associations throughout Latin America were generally consist- during the 1980s, later generations of politically ent with the meanings generated for it in the NCL movement. As a robust música latinoamericana minded musicians have made a point of resuscitat- cultural project was consolidated in Colombia in ing them. This stylistic mode still carries the hue the late 1970s and into the 1980s, its participants of leftist politics in Colombia and is inextricably reconfigured certain aspects of this discourse. For tied to the category of canción social. Volume ! n° 11-2 Volume 81 Discourse in Música Latinoamericana Cultural Projects . . .
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Notes
1. Inti-Illimani’s 1970 recording, Cóndores del Sol, In Bolivia, this type of music was labelled música offers a representative example of this approach (see nacional (national music), as it in fact drew heavily on figure 1). Bolivian genres (Rios, 2009: 11). 2. This article is based on ethnographic and archival 4. In fact, Fernando Rios has shown that the process research conducted in several cities of the Colombian through which Andean music took on political con- interior between 2011 and 2014. All translations from notations unfolded over transnational cosmopolitan Spanish-language interviews and texts are my own. networks linking Latin America and Europe from the outset (2008: 154-55). 3. For example, note how the musician quoted on page 12 alternates between the two terms. While it is dif- 5. The first half of the lyrical fragment cited appears to be ficult to ascertain precisely how the term música lati- from the song “Venas Abiertas,” which was recorded by noamericana came to refer to this specific format in Argentine nuevo cancionero luminary Mercedes Sosa. Colombia, it is clear that this usage was already in place 6. Indeed, political cohesion in a large swath of South by the beginning of the 1980s. The phrase appears to American territory under Inca rule had already inspired have taken on a similar meaning in Peru (Oliart & the pan-Latin approach of Chilean nueva canción artists Lloréns, 1984: 81) and Chile (Laura Jordán, personal (Rios, 2008: 156). communication). It should be stressed that the term 7. The folklorist-composers Violeta Parra and Atahualpa would not be similarly understood throughout Latin Yupanqui, from Chile and Argentina, respectively, are America: widely hailed as the progenitors of NCL. Volume ! n° 11-2