Ever since the emergence of the sikuri movement in the 1970’s the musicians who participate in most of its Latin American scenes have performed on a variety of indigenous musical styles indexical of different towns and regions in the Central Andes. From Puno city’s sikumoreno to jach’a sikuri from Ilabaya, what does the preference for these styles mean? What kind of relationship does it keep with the migratory flows or the demands of the recording industry? What does it reveal about the sikuri movement as a platform through which alternative forms of knowledge are transferred? Moreover, what does it say about the different cohorts of musicians that make it up? This paper explores some of the considerations that the sikuris take into account when choosing their musical styles and repertoires. It argues that the sikuris’ choices reveal their aesthetic preferences, their search for identity, their will to maintain family, regional or national ties, and even their own agendas. It concludes that, despite the frequency with which the sikuri movement is celebrated as a privileged site for intercultural exchange, the shared cosmopolitan cultural formation of those individuals involved in the transmission of these musical practices and other indigenous knowledges demonstrates quite the opposite.
Keywords:
cultural transference, Ilabaya, jach'a lakitas, music revival, representations of Andean indigeneity, transnationalism
Castelblanco, D. (2021). Sikuri Babel: transference and dynamism of musical styles within a transnational community of Andean music revivalists. Revista Musical Chilena, 75(235), 76–100. Retrieved from https://adnz.uchile.cl/index.php/RMCH/article/view/54264
