Cumbia: not only Colombian music

Some posts before I talked about a Colombian folk music called cumbia. That's right, it rose in Colombia, like a fusion of Spanish, African and Indian characteristics that, mixed, gave what we know like the folk version of this genre. What is typical for it are the dress and the primitive instruments used, for exemple, during the most famous Colombian carnival, Carnival of Barranquilla.

So, why I want to write about cumbia from other countries? How it passed to be part of popular music of Argentina, Mexico or Peru? Well, between 1940 and 1960 famous musicians like Lucho Bermúdez or Luis Carlos Meyer with their orchestras went to give concerts in all Latin America. For this aim they needed to make from these "wild", folk songs something more accesible for stranger public. Thanks for this operation, in the countries I've already mentioned, the interest for cumbia appeared and new, local artists started to record. They put local instruments like charango, panpipes, etc. to the rhytm and in this way changed a little its basic form. In general, the genre turned to be more modern, popular, danced in discos.

In Peru, because right now is the country thar most interests me, there are two more listened groups. One of them is Los Hijos del Sol (The Children of the Sun) that interpets a well-known song "Cariñito". It has two version: one is cumbia version, and the other, that hasn't any official author, can be played and sang by anybody, is with zampoña (panpipes) and charango, the typical Andean instruments that made so popular Peruvian music.

Cumbia version

folk interpretation

The other group I need to talk is Corazón Serrano. Their songs are everywhere! They are always trendy! Any radio, any bus you go up, they are there with their songs! I decided to compare them with our Polish disco polo, because they can be considered quite... kitschy. It's so ingrained in the society. There are Peruvians that protests that it's very low culture, and in part they are in the right. Just listen yourself and judge.

"Como pude enamorarme" is one of the current hits. How can you observe, it's an easy rhytm... Maybe too easy for some people :D

If you have a few minutes, you can take a look at one of my articles in a student page about Latin America, Iberoameryka.com. This one is exactly about cumbia. The link: https://iberoameryka.wordpress.com/kultura/muzyka/cumbia-kolumbijski-dar-dla-ameryki-lacinskiej/ .

Such a funny dance!

It's a good moment to change the topic, so this time I will present you a folclorical Peruvian dance called HUAYNO, that in Spanish sounds like Polish ŁAJNO (the English translation is DUNG)... Yea, but it has nothing in common with animal excrement... I'm sorry, I started with the bad side, but the truth is that this similarity introduces a humorous element. And it's good, because huayno is very joyful dance and when you see the people dancing it, you just can't stop laughing or, at least, smiling. They are enjoying so much!

So the stage version, with folclorical cloths is like in this video:

It looks good, basically it's jumping and hitting the floor with your feet. This movement is called ZAPATEO, from zapato - shoe. I tried to learn it with the video below, just have a look if you want to try. It's quite tiring for your legs, but when you catch that, it's a pleasure to dance!! Because if you don't know this step, you can only jump from one leg to the other :D But it's nice too, it's always a good beginning.

Ok, and now just see the popular way of dance huayno :D It's a totally improvisation! But they feel so free when they dance... It surprised me!

As you can see, there are no couples. You can dance lonely, with somebody of your sex or not, or in a circle, with your hole family. Normally you don't hold the hands of others. I saw my boyfriend's family dancing like that and I fell in love, definitely! I also danced in the middle of the circle listening to my favourite song of huayno, "Qué linda flor" (What a beautiful flover).

When I danced, my Peruvian friends immediately considered me a part of their family, hahaha! It's a pity that I can't practice in my flat... If you read my blog from the beginning, perhaps you remember I have a neighbour that hates noise, so I have to be as quiet as a church mouse...

Now I only introduce the topic of dance, although huayno is the most representative one, I think. See you soon! :)

Fruit world

This week I want you to know something more about fruits that you can get in Peru. From among all the fruits we have in Poland, the unique one the Peruvians didn't know when I asked them where apricot. They have listened about it, but not eaten. 

I've tried some new fruits like granadilla, mangopapaya, lima, chirimoya, aguaymanto, tuna or lúcuma and I've also seen carambola, guayaba and cocona. Just have a look at the photo of a stand in a local market.

There are a lot of common fruits like strawberries, pineapples, apples, mandarines, grapes, pears or bananas. However, they distinguish more than one types of bananas. Normal, yellow bananas are two types: isla and seda. Other two types don't ripen, they are always green. Their names are palillo and bellaco. They sirve basically to fry. Bizcochito and manzanito are names of baby banana, smaller than the anterior mentioned.

But I will come back to the unknown fruits, because that's the principal subject of this post. Granadilla tastes like gooseberry. You need to break the peel or shell and a white layer to eat dark pips in a gelatinous transparent substance. It's delicious! And very fast to eat. Yo can use a teaspoon or suck the pips.

Mangopapaya, how you can see, is a mutation of mango and papaya. It has size of a papaya (bigger than mango) and colour of mango (not only it's yellow, but also red and green). It appears only in Peru.

Lima seems lemon, but it has shape of a mandarin and is more sweet. It's peel is like of an butterly: bright yellow with some green spots.

Chirimoya is one of my favourite fruits. It's green, big and with white flesh that doesn't remember any other fruit. It contains black stones (I should have been stolen them and planted in Polish ground! haha).

Aguaymanto looks like small yellow plums. Inside it has a lot of pips. It's quite acid. In the photo you can see aguaymanto (left side), carambola (the green one), cocona (the orange one) and guayaba (two yellow fruits). They are all used to be drunk in juices.

Tuna is fruit of a cactus. Out it's green, but the inside is red. It has pips very difficult to chew.

The last one is lúcuma. As in the case of mangopapaya, is the vernacular fruit of Peru. There are cookies and yogurt with this flavour. In Starbucks you can buy a coffee lúcuma too. It's my peruvian number one!!

Ohh... I am seriously thinking about import these delights!!