A lesson in humility, by Atahualpa Yupanqui and Juan Chauqui

In Barcelona I chatted during the asado about folklore - music,dress, history, with an Argentinian teacher of dance, Olga. 

I mentioned the great Argentinian folk singer, Atahualpa Yupanqu and some folklore genres I had heard, whereupon she told me one I didn't know: the baguala. I don't remember exactly how she described it, perhaps something like poetic, deep, reflective. This evening an Argentinian friend said: "la baguala transmite mucha paz y espiritualidad" / la baguala conveys much peace and spirituality.

I asked if Atahualpa was known for any baguala. Olga said no, but later, looking for examples, I found some by him, although I think they are not his most famous songs. 

Many songs in Argentina, and from other countries in the Americas, demonstrate a passionate attachment to the country and the land. While there is a strong folk music tradition in England, in Scotland and I imagine in the other countries of the UK, it seems to me that more ordinary people in Argentina are connected with their folk music, and through that, to their land and traditions, than we are. They are not unlikely to know, for instance, some famous zambas or chacareras, a gato or a chamamé. A few months ago, for example, a friend, in his late thirties who moved to Córdoba province from Buenos Aires, talked about having a fire with his neighbours one evening and singing zambas to the accompaniment of his guitar.  It didn't seem unusual entertainment there. 

Atahualpa's, Baguala de Amaicha, has a wonderful spoken introduction. He actually sings just the end of the song. His introduction starts - if I have more or less understood - by describing the area. Amaicha is a place in western Argentina between Tucumán & Catamarca.  The ground is hot there, underground from whence the name of the nearby place, El Infernillo. The name ‘Amaicha’ refers to the long downhill slope of the road on which it is situated. Atahualpa rode it many times. 

Once, a rider was ahead of him, humming a song from the area. In castellano, Don Ata says this kind of song is called ‘baguala’ but in the local language it is called something like joi-joi. The indio in Humahuaca (in Jujuy, in the north) calls it arribeñas because the song comes from the high mountain.

It is called joi-joi in the Tucumán area because, before singing the copla/couplet, the singer tries out his voice: "joi joi...", thus, which the Andaluces call the probá, the ay, ay, ay. So this man was doing the joi-joi. 

Atahualpa caught up his horse with that of the man, called Juan Chauqui, because he wanted to make a note of the words. He said he then made the mistake of praising him. "Está cantando lindo", your singing is beautiful. 

This man, of great solitude and silence, then taught me, says Atahualpa, a great & unforgettable lesson. The man said, "Don't mock me please. I know that my singing is fierce and ugly. Anything beautiful in my song is transformed by the peak and the mountain." Later, Atahualpa thought all his life: we presume to be singers and folklorists and we travel the world. We don't have a mountain to make our song beautiful, we have nothing behind us, just walls, curtains & theatres. There is no mountain to shelter & guard the song that rises in our heart. The man who has his landscape, who loves it and feels it will never be alone, will never be poor, because a universe is contained within his heart.

Atahualpa was as much poet as singer, as guitarist, as traveller. I remember a musician I knew from that continent saying: "Atahualpa is a genuine folk tradition genius and a prolific poet and musician beyond compare."

I found a version with these lovely lines:

Nunca desarraigarse de su tierra

Es lo único que nos puede defender

No tenemos, como ese paisano de Amaicha

Ese desconocido señor de a caballo

Pleno de soledad, de cobre en su rostro

mountain

Y de bello canto, embellecido por la montaña

No tenemos montaña que nos proteja

Y nos haga encantador el canto nuestro

Never uproot yourself from your land

It's the only thing that can defend us

We don't have, like that countryman from Amaicha

That unknown gentleman on horseback

Full of loneliness, copper on his face

And of beautiful song, embellished by the mountain,

We have no mountain to protect us

And to make our song enchanting .

However the song is better here

Lyrics (in Spanish).

The song is about walking and singing and being surrounded by silence, about singing from the heart.

It begins...

To sing bagualas,

 The voice doesn't matter, 

You just need to put in the verse,

 All your heart.