/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-PERU: Cutting-Edge ‘Technocumbia’ Has a Woman’s Touch

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abraham Lama

LIMA, Apr 25 2000 (IPS) - The evolution of popular music in Peru currently stars “technocumbia,” a style music experts say expresses a new cultural identity in this multi-ethnic country, as they point to the women at the forefront of this musical movement.

In Peru’s music stores, technocumbia sells nearly as much as all other pop styles combined. The genre’s stars are its female vocalists, who are often the composers and managers for their groups as well.

Though the principal stage is Lima, these musicians quickly become nationally known. And the technocombia singer-stars tend to have something in common: most are young women from rural areas.

The movement is led by Rosa Guerra, a woman born in Peru’s jungle region, who renamed herself “Rosy War” (the anglicised version of her Spanish name) and dresses like the late Chicana singer Selene. On her heels in this musical arena are Ruth Karina and Ana Kohler, both also from jungle towns.

A fourth vocalist has recently joined the provincial-born technocumbia celebrities: Ada Chura Quispe, from the Andean mountains. She used to sing with an evangelical church choir but now is all the rage with her provocative song ‘Ven a gozar’ (Come and Enjoy).

“The musical phenomenon known as technocumbia reflects the rise of a new Peruvian society, the integration of the country’s different ethnic groups and the ‘cholification’ of Lima, brought on by the third generation of immigrants from the mountains and jungles,” comments Pericles Caceres, a former promoter for the government Institute of Culture.

‘Cholo’ is local slang for people, usually of indigenous or mestizo descent, from Peru’s rural areas.

“The predominant role of women in the iconography of technocumbia is also an expression of the new Peruvian reality, because women were the axis of social survival in a country caught up in political violence and extreme economic crisis,” adds Caceres.

Technocumbia’s musical predecessor was “chicha,” a beat emerging from the melding of Andean indigenous music with Caribbean salsa, which dominated the musical scene on the Peruvian coast during the 1970s.

The name “technocumbia” was rejected at first by many of the musicians playing in that style, who wanted to continue calling their music “chicha” or “Andean tropical,” but market forces prevailed in the end.

“At first glance, technocumbia is a syncretic evolution of folk music from the coast, the Andean mountains and the jungle, which for a long time was rejected. It is influenced by sounds, instrumentation and rhythms coming from other Latin American countries,” explained Amelia Lora, an attorney and singer.

“But if we analyse the contents, the bold and upbeat sensuality of its lyrics and the occasionally aggressive social humour, we find that we are in the presence of a new spirit, a far cry from the plaintive voice of the Andean Indian or the weeping romanticism of the coastal waltz,” she added.

Lora says it is also important to underscore the strong presence of rhythms from the jungle, which were practically unknown in Lima, but have now arrived on the musical scene with sounds from the Amazon regions of Brazil and Colombia.

The creator and icon of the movement is Rosy War, a former vocalist for a mediocre “chichero” band, who made her way in Lima’s impoverished neighbourhoods, where the new generations of immigrants from the country’s interior now live. She was also the first to break onto the international musical arena.

“In addition to including electric guitars and electronic drums in her jungle melodies, which was nothing new, Rosy War lifted herself up to international standards, using her tough feminine image and the belligerence of her voice,” says entertainment journalist Norka Peralta.

After she unsuccessfully tried to promote her music by knocking on doors of music shops and radio stations, Rosy War began to attract attention with her free concerts – held at sports fields without bleachers or other facilities – attended by crowds of 10,000 frenetic dancers.

“Her first presentations on radio and television were done free of charge. She almost had to thank them for not charging her for the opportunity. Now she earns 10,000 dollars a concert,” said her husband, Tito Mauri, musical arranger and member of her band.

The stories of other female technocumbia musicians have a similar ring, as they often had to practically beg radio stations to play their recordings, while they built their fame in Lima’s poorer neighbourhoods.

But the vocalists are not the only women who are making their fortune with this genre of music. The experience of Rosita Arango is similar to that of Rosy War, Ada Chura and Ruth Karina, but on the recording side of the business.

Aranga, who used to be a street vendor of pirated cassettes, is now the owner of a successful recording company, thanks to technocumbia. She was one of the first to sell “home-made” Rosy War recordings from her cart – equipped with amplifiers – at the Mesa Redonda market in downtown Lima.

“Everyone asked me what group that was with the husky-voiced singer who sounded so good. I sold all the tapes Rosy had given me and then I recorded 50, then 100, 500 and finally 1,000 more each month. I distributed them among other street vendors and also to stores. Of course I paid Rosy her percentage,” says Arango.

Now she is the owner of Rosita Productions, a company specialising in technocumbia, which boldly invests in the little-known vocalists who seek her out with their self-recorded cassettes, later to be distributed in Lima and Peru’s other larger cities, as well as in Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina.