I wrote a short time ago about the Shipibo people, an indigenous Amazonian tribe, some of whom now live on the polluted river Rímac in Lima’s desert. (Alejandro also introduced us to the River Rimac Project)
Here, Alejandro tells us more about the Shipibo people living in Rimac, and their fascinating artwork.
An infectiously danceable mix-up of old slave songs, salsa and dub
IT’S impossible not to dance to Novalima’s music.
Their mesmerising Afro-Peruvian rhythms based on 400-year-old slave songs mixed with Latin salsa and Caribbean dub is perfect music for this city of immigrants.
Cramming into the Cargo club beneath the rail arches where an old east London garment workers’ district meets the glittering steel and glass skyscrapers of the City, the nine musicians who make up Novalima bring the sounds of Peru’s Pacific shore to Britain.
US Expat Barbara Drake talks about the win by La Teta Asustada of best film at the Berlin film festival last week and about other notable works covering a dark period of contemporary Peruvian history.
Born in Cuzco in 1539, Garcilaso de la Vega was the son of Spanish conqueror Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas and Inca princess Palla Chimpu Ocllo. He grew up in the earliest years of the Spanish empire, just when the conquered Incas were becoming used to Spanish rule. He lived among and was related to indigenous Peruvians who were alive in the days of Huascar’s rule in Cuzco and his subsequent battle with half-brother Atahualpa, as well as those who were alive during the rule of Huayna Capac.
He grew up learning both Quechua and Spanish while living with his mother – until he turned 10. It was then, with the death of his father who had long since abandoned the family, he decided to go to study in Spain with the 4,000 pesos he had received as an inheritance.
The history of pre-Hispanic Lima is deeply entwined with Pachacamac. Worshipped across the central Andes since before the Inca conquest, the powerful creator god Pacha Kamaq is even revered today, almost 500 years after the Spanish conquest by Catholics in Lima. Today this powerful being has taken shape as the Cristo Morado and has been absorbed into Catholicism, and just as he is today, this ancient figure was also known as the Lord of the Earthquakes.
This amazing video named “Huk Punchaw”, Quechua for “One Day”, is the work of Oswaldo Villavicencio and Eva Machado. Winning the prize of Best Documentary in 2006 in a competition run by Peruvian art school Toulouse, it shows a single day in Peru’s capital from dawn to dusk. Enjoy.
Probably Peru’s greatest artist and definitely the best known internationally, female soprano Yma Sumac is nothing less than a legend.
Born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, she is said to be a direct descendent of Inca Atahualpa on the part of her mother, Ima Shumaq, though this, as well as her exact year and town of birth, isn’t truly known by anyone other than the woman herself.
Karl arrived in Peru from South Africa four years ago, full of hopes and dreams and with a job repairing classic cars. Not knowing anyone, or speaking Spanish, it was all the more of a shock to him when the company folded and he was left penniless.
It’s carnival time in Cajamarca!!
…a period of song, dance and water fights. This carnival is known to be the most wild in the country and perhaps the second most famous on the continent after the one that takes place in Brazil. Whether a sunny day or not, dressing for rain would be a very good idea – expect to br drenched in buckets of water.
Cumbia is a type of music that originated in Colombia as folk music and has since spread across Latin America becoming hugely popular. You’ll find it slightly different in each country, listened to by different sections of the population. Readers from the United States might be familiar with famous Cumbia singers Selena and The Kumbia Kings.
