I have shortly just returned from over a month traveling in Highland Peru with my photojournalist collaborator from our PBS SoCal High & Dry project, Osceola Refetoff. We built upon our amazing experiences in Chile over the last two years to wander deeper into the world of the Andean mix of cultures, histories, wild landscapes, and beautiful and humbling human connections.
I can say it was a mesmerizing experience which I foresee building upon and expressing here and with PBS, EcoJustice Radio, and other outlets in the months to come.
Our success in this endeavor had to do with connecting with our Uruguayan visionary friend Pameluz Allala, who we knew from our experiences in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. She then introduced us to Rafo Nunjar, a self-taught musician, founder, curator, and owner of the Museum of Traditional Instruments Paccha, in Urubamba, Peru.
In this episode, Rafo takes us on a ride through the rich musical and cultural tapestry of Highland Peru. From the traditional sounds of the Andes to the vibrant celebrations that connect communities with their land, Rafo shares insights on the significance of music, instruments, and rituals in Andean culture.
Peru is massive, the third largest South American country, over twice the size of France. Lima, the capital on the coastal ribbon is the economic center of the country, where right now another right-wing dictatorial-descended Keiko Fujimori has seized power. Her neoliberal-free-trade-Trump-aligned-law-and-order-with-organized-crime-connections candidacy has been vaulted over the moderate-leftist Roberto Sanchez, thanks to votes coming in late from expatriated Peruvians in the U.S. Which sounds like fraud, with assertions that the U.S. Ambassador Bernie Navarro meddled in the election.
A major mobilization against these results is underway in Lima, Arequipa, and Puno, but let’s face facts. Alberto Fujimori is known for the crackdown on the Shining Path Maoist insurgency before his government collapsed in a mess of corruption and human rights abuses. His daughter is a three-time election loser who for many reasons had her vote total inflated enough to pretend to win. It’s up to the rest of us to not pretend to believe them.
Yet the rest of the country lives under another form of Indigenous self-government of the Sierra, averaging over 3,000 meters in altitude, 5,000 communities where Spanish is the second language, people living on steep, rocky, deforested land at excessive density, many without traditional services, infrastructure, and maintained roads.
Yet, the Cusco region we are reporting from has sophisticated water and irrigation canal systems managing running water drained from the high glaciers above, with a pastoral and agricultural subsistence, grazing llama, alpacas, and sheep, weaving their clothes from the wool, and growing potatoes, cereals, and vegetables. There is tourism. There is mining. There is little crime, but people have learned to live without many of the conveniences, and many of the headaches and expenses, we have in the states.
Highland Peru is not an easy place for an outsider to understand. The mountains rise in all directions, so it’s easy to never know where you are headed. There are Spanish conquest monuments and Inca ruins in every direction as well, but many civilizations predated them going back to 20,000 BC.
The Qhapaq Ch’unchu dance represents the native Inca warriors who hid out in the Amazonian jungle, known (in a pejorative way) as the wild people. They usually bring fruits, huayruro (a native plant to Peru who’s seeds are used in handcrafted jewelry), and other products that were used to trade. The troupe is composed of the ch’unchu king (head of the dance), a group of ch’unchu organized in two parallel rows, and a kusillu or monkey (a dancer in disguise). They are also accompanied by a child or chunchu reicito.
Music and dance dominate this Andean heartland, the instruments, the quena and charango, and the costumes, have their place and particular meaning in what seems almost constant festivities. So that is where we will begin with musician and all around social commentator Rafo Nunjar.
Resources:
Rupestre - by Rafo Nunjar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lUG8s77dfRZ6p-HlWjh2brGCboate2rUM&si=HbRwEJftxLMSiROj
