Illapu
Photo Copyright © Música Popular Chilena –
20 Años 1970-1990 Edited by Alvaro Godoy and Juan
Pablo González |
In
those first years, whenever we went on tour—to Arica, to Antofagasta,
or to Rancagua—I always arranged for us to play in the jails.
I would talk to a priest and ask him to talk with such-and-such
a person, so the request wouldn’t come directly from us. We
played in all the jails, because there were political prisoners
in all of them.
In Arica [the most northern town in Chile, on the Peruvian border]
I had a friend whom I had met the year before on tour with the Quilapayún,
when I was directing the Cantata de Santa María de Iquique.
He worked in the cultural outreach program at the State Technical
University in Arica and had treated me very well. The next time
I saw him was when we sang in Arica’s jail. We embraced each
other. We didn’t say much, but it was very emotional to see
each other there. Only months before, I had been in his house, and
he had been so kind to me. I learned later that he had died; they
killed him. I think the story is like this: They were transporting
political prisoners by truck to another city. During the night they
told them to get off the truck to relieve themselves, and they fired
on them…they said they had tried to escape.
It’s absurd what I’m about to say, but sometimes I felt
better in the jails, because outside I felt I had little purpose.
Nothing ever happened to me, but it was never the life I had before
1973, when I had many friends, many projects planned.
Between 1974 and 1976 we made three records and three cassettes
and received all the prizes there were to give from the critics.
We had tremendous audiences, all over Chile. So, yes, we had an
impact. In 1977 the group dissolved.
Then in 1984, a friend of mine who taught music at a high school,
began to call me on the phone insisting that I reestablish the Barroco
Andino. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have as many contacts
as before; I didn’t know many instrumentalists. So he told
me that he would get a group of people together, young people, and
that we could do it. We did it. There were ten instrumentalists,
besides me; more folk instruments, more zampoñas;
we recuperated a cello, which was necessary for some Bach pieces
(the arrangements have always been mine); and there were better
voices. Our first concert was held in 1985 at the University Parish
on Pedro de Valdivia Plaza.
The
following year we toured the south of Chile, through the Ministry
of Education. The Ministry told me to eliminate a piece by Violeta
Parra: Calambrito Temucano, a totally inoffensive instrumental.
I didn’t put it in the program, but we did it as an encore.
They didn’t even notice. The audience did, because I announced
it. That was the last national tour we did.
A kind of double game was played with the Barroco Andino. I think
the military ultimately found us inoffensive. And it wasn’t
in their best interest to ban us.
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