Yesterday,
a popular cumbia singer – Edita Guerrero – died of brain aneurysm, only
31 years old. She was the lead singer in the group
Corazon Serrano (“Highland Heart”), a group that she founded with her siblings
and that became famous through their romantic lyrics and catchy dance rhythms
of “cumbia andina”.
Video of one of their most popular songs:
The genre
Cumbia Andina is a fusion of cumbia from the Caribbean coast of Colombia and
the huayno rhythm from the Andean highlands, and it has become increasingly
popular in Peru in the first decade of this century. With a huge numbers of
groups all over the country, you can hear this music almost
anywhere you go in Peru; on the buses and taxis, in the shops, in people’s
homes, at parties and in "video pubs". It's the music of “the people”; i.e. the majority of
people in Peru.
Not
everyone is fond of this music, however, and some people, especially the middle
classes in the capital Lima, do their best to distance themselves from it, as
they also make sure to make a distance between themselves and everything
associated with the working class or the precariat, like the domestic servants
working in their houses, or the drivers of buses and taxis and market vendors.
In Peru, the
despise and discrimination against the ”popular culture” of “the lower classes”
is permeated with racism. Classism and racism are often inseparable; their
articulations are identical.
After the
death of Edita Guerrero, several despicable utterances against her fans appeared on Twitter and
Facebook. These utterances were soon denounced as being racist. However, in
more homogenous societies, like Norway, they might be interpreted as more
“snobbish” or referring to issues of taste and what in Norwegian would be
called “harry” (bad taste, tacky, vulgar, “hillbilly”).
A few examples:
“Edita
Guerrero from Corazon Serrano is dead. Dammit, my maid/housekeeper will ask for
a break.”
“Those who
listens to Corazon Serrano are poor and live in the hills”
“Will the
rest of the week be all about Corazon serrano? Because of these groups all of
Latin America see us as an indigenous country.”
“Corazon
Serrano pronounce themselves about the death of Edita Guerrero! HAHAHA pronounce?
In what, in quechua hahaha”
“All of
those emerging cholos who listened to Edita Guerrero in Corazon Serrano should
go home to their land, to continue their poor life there”
(more can
be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRkTnH8Kpc)
In Peru,
there is sadly still a lot of racism against the indigenous quechua-speaking
population of the highlands (and also against the natives of the the Amazon).
The highlanders have been migrating to Lima and other coastal cities in
increasing numbers since the 1960s, to work in whatever blue-collar jobs
available or making a living in the informal economy as itinerant vendors,
household employees and drivers. As they have been taking the highland cultural
traditions and customs to the coast – and as these cultural expressions have been constantly
changing, fusioning, remade, recreated – they have also been associated with the
poor migrants and the working class.
Luckily,
these racist utterances have been met with a lot of criticism and disgust. The
former Women’s Minister Ana Jara wrote in her personal Twitter that “these
racist commentaries are inacceptable” and that “En el Perú, el que no tiene de
Inga tiene de Mandinga!”, meaning that those who have not indigenous/Inca
ancestry, have African ancestry (from the African slaves on the coast). In
other words, that Peru is a cultural melting pot, and that everyone should
respect each other.
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