By Kamran Nayeri, May 31, 2015
A Tito La Rosa concert
Last night I attended a Tito La Rosa concert which was a fund raiser for the Ayni Projects to build schools in Peru. La Rosa, a descendent of Quechua Indians of the Peruvian Andes, has spent more than a decade recovering and preserving, studying, and intuiting the ancestral music of Peru. Tito is a Curandero de Sonido (sound healer). The program was introduced as "a shamanic sound journey into our deep self, to the places beyond our normal consciousness, to the places that are our sources of joy and deep feeling, to the terrain of our ancestral memories and to the sacred place within us that connects us to the divine." Tito was accompanied by Rene Jenkins and Ian Degole, highly talented and masters of their own right. It was an enchanting experience that I wish everyone could share.
The concert was dedicated to Quechua water ceremonies as the title of the program suggested: Pachamama Este de Fiesta.” It cumulated in the following song (original Spanish verses are followed by English translations):
Desde kunyak viene from the kunyak (where rivers join) come
Agūita serpenteando beloved waters weaving their way
por las acequias through the canals
hacia nuestras vidas into our lives
De cantar Hualinas To sing Hualians (water songs)
y a la vez llorando and all the while proclaiming
toditas mis penas Every single one of my sorrows
se acabaron is finished/over/complete
Pacamama esta de fiesta
Una estrellita A little star told me
que alegre me decía joyfully told me
canta cantorcita sing minstrel
a la agüita to the beloved water
agüita madre kunyak beloved water mother kunyak
De cantar Hualinas
y a la vez llorando
toditas mis penas
se acabaron
Pachamama esta de fiesta
The program sheet explains:
"This song comes from a farming community in the highlands of Peru. each year the community has a fiesta to celebrate water when they create new songs, just for the festival. This song is a celebration of their traditions, culture and ways of living. Fujimori--the former president of Peru--wanted to give the people PVC pipes to replace the canals because canals needed to be re-dug every year. With PVC pipes they would not need to remake the canals every year. They people said 'no' to the PVC pipes because the addition of the pipes would mean losing tradition--culture. As the people dig the canals they make songs, sing and treasure their lives."
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