ATAHUALPA YUPANQUI
Hector Roberto Chavero Aramburo
was born in Pergamino, a province around 200 kilometres away from
Buenos Aires, on January 31st 1908. By the 1960’s he was considered one
of the most important Argentinian, and Latin American, folk musicians of
all time.
Choosing not to showcase his family name on stage, instead, Hector decided to adopt the alias of
Atahualpa Yupanqui.
A pseudonym combining the names of two legendary Incan kings. With a
father hailing from Argentina and a mother descending from the Basque
country, Yupanqui was blessed with a healthy cultural mix, which
undoubtedly went some way towards fuelling his desire for travel.
His first musical experience was of playing the violin, but he would
soon switch to guitar, and became something of a troubadour, singing
folk songs as he travelled around Argentina. This was made possible by
his early jobs of delivering telegrams and of working as a muleteer,
which is to deliver goods by mule. Gradually the travelling would become
more than just a job. He spent a lot of time in the northwest of
Argentina and the Altiplano studying the Amerindian indigenous culture.
Of particular note, in 1934 he took part in an ethnological study of the
Amaichas Indians with Alfred Métraux. It was during these travels that
he would learn rhythms such as the zamba, vidala and chacarera, that he
would later popularise in his songs.
During this time, the young Yupanqui grappled with political
ideologies and decided to join the Communist Party of Argentina. In 1931
the Argentine took part in the attempted, and ultimately unsuccessful,
uprising of the Kennedy brothers, which resulted in the musician being
forced to seek refuge in Uruguay. Yupanqui would not return to his
native land until 1934.
Yupanqui first visited Buenos Aires in 1935, when he was invited to
perform on one of the local radio stations at the time and it was
shortly after this event that the Argentine met his long-time,
collaborative, musical partner and future wife; pianist Antonieta Paula
Pepin Fitzpatrick (nicknamed “Nenette”). “Nenette” accompanied Yupanqui
for many years under the pseudonym of Pablo Del Cerro, creating vibrant
and entertaining compositions. It was also around this time that he
became a published writer, with
Cerro Bajo hitting Argentine bookshelves in 1941.
Performing “Duerme Negrito” (with nice spoken-word intro, in Spanish)
Yupanqui’s work suffered as a result of his allegiance to the
Communist Party, especially during Juan Peron’s presidency. The
musician’s work was largely censored and Yupanqui was even detained and
incarcerated on many occasions during this period. Feeling dejected, the
Argentine fled to Europe in 1949 and by July 1950, Yupanqui was invited
to perform in Paris by
Edith Piaf. Here in France he
gained much notoriety; he would regularly open for Piaf, but
additionally, became friends with artists such as Aragon, Eluard and
Picasso, all of whom appreciated his poetry and its nature of dealing
with poverty and oppression. He signed a contract with the recording
company
Le Chant Du Monde, which published his first LP
in Europe, entitled “Miner I am”. This LP went on to win the Charles
Cros Academy’s prize for best foreign disc and subsequently enabled
Yupanqui to tour extensively around Europe with his music.
Yupanqui returned to Buenos Aires in 1952. By this time the musician
had broken off all ties with the Argentinian Communist Party, which made
it much simpler for him to book radio performances and musical events.
During this time Yupanqui’s music flourished and he achieved a fair
degree of success.
By the 1960’s Yupanqui’s work was widely recognised, especially by nueva cancion artists such as
Mercedes Sosa (who would in 1977 record her
Mercedes Sosa interpreta a Atahualpa Yupanqui album, devoted solely to his songs) and
Jorge Cafrune
who began recording his compositions. This made the Argentine very
popular among the younger musicians who affectionately began referring
to him as ‘Don Ata’.
During 1963 and 1964 Atahualpa toured around Colombia, Japan,
Morocco, Egypt, Israel and even Italy. By 1967 he had also toured Spain
and decided to settle in Paris. From his new base he would regularly
return to Argentina and he would appear in
Argentinisima and
Argentinisima II,
two Argentine musical documentaries films released in 1972 and 1973
respectively. These visits became more sparse, however, when the
military dictatorship of Jorge Videla took over the country in 1976.
Atahualpa performing “Tierra Querida” in Argentissima:
In 1989 the University of Nanterre, a prestigious and highly regarded
institution, asked Yupanqui to write the lyrics of a Cantata to
commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Yupanqui
graciously accepted the offer and produced a composition entitled, “The
Sacred Word”. This piece was released before the French authorities and
it was thought to be a tribute to all the oppressed towns that freed
themselves during the great struggle.
To the grief of many, Yupanqui died in Nimes, France in 1992, aged
84. To this very day, though, his music continues to touch the hearts
and lives of many citizens, not just in South America, but all over the
entire planet.
Atahualpa Yupanqui recorded over 12,000 songs, many of which are on
labels that no longer exist, and are therefore out-of-print. This makes
it very difficult to begin making any recommendations, however, the good
news is that I’ve never heard a bad record by him.
Mis 30 Mejores Canciones and
Solo Lo Mejor de are both recommended as strong collections of his songs.
Piedra Y Camino: 1936/1947
on Discmedi records, focuses on his early days, and while it may not
get great marks for its fidelity, is definitely worth investigating.
Buenas Noches, Compatriotas…
is a live recording, made in Mar del Plata in 1983, and despite quite
annoying crowd noise is a good document of the man in his later life.
Additionally, any of his recordings for Le Chant du Monde in the middle
of his career are worth keeping an eye out for.
Basta Ya! and
Soy Libre are two such examples.
“La Pura Verdad” – the last recording of Atahualpa. His voice is not
as strong as before, and the video is very strange with him sitting on a
wooden chair in the middle of a field, but I feel it paints an
interesting portrait of this infinitely interesting artist:
01.13
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