Between sugar cane mills and Calchaqui Valleys: folk musicians from the North West of Argentina – Atahualpa Yupanqui, Chivo and Leda Valladares, Pepe y Gerardo Núñez and Mercedes Sosa

By the end of the 19th century, the North West of Argentina had developed a sugar cane industry, strong enough to compete with the agro-livestock model centered at the Pampa. The sugar-cane barons searched not only for economic benefits for the region, but also for a cultural identity defined as an appropriation and re-creation of Hispanic, Catholic traditions. They regarded immigration as endangering national identity, and hence decided to reinforce the regional traditions they thought were kept in the “interior” of the country. 

Today’s seminar focuses on the main protagonists of the Argentine folklore movement born through this process: Atahualpa Yupanqui, Rolando and Leda Valladares, Pepe y Gerardo Núñez and Mercedes Sosa, in relation to debates about the relationship of the global and local. Atahualpa Yupanqui’s musical activity, first in Tucumán and then in France, illuminates economic and political structures linked not to American record producers, but to a French, communist-oriented label called The Chant du Monde. 

Fabiola Orquera obtained a Ph.D. in Spanish at Duke University, EEUU. She is a researcher at CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina-INVELEC), in Tucumán. Focusing on this province in the 20th century, she analyzes the relationship between folklore, the sugar cane economy, the cultural field and international politics. Her academic contributions have been published in books and recognized international journals.