Later on in the evening, after the gentle lull of the afternoon has given way to the slowly simmering excitement of an impending barn dance, Kuwabara is duly given a barn-raising reception as he accepts his award on the main stage. Visiting artisans and musicians also gather nearby, selling jewellery and accessories as well as sharing chicha, cerveza, coca and tunes, including rousing renditions of folkloric favourites ‘Ojos Azules’ and ‘Leño Verde.’ Among the music makers is Japanese-raised, La Paz-based Chupay Ch’akis charanguista Kenichi Kuwabara, who took first place in the international charango players competition the night before.
The former bandmate, friend and charango-making disciple of late virtuoso Bolivian charanguista and master craftsman Mauro Núñez, Montero is one of several master luthiers whose handiwork is on show for festivalgoers wishing to purchase a handmade instrument. Youngsters can be found enthusiastically strumming and picking the stringed instruments around town.Īt the other end of the age spectrum, Walter Montero is exhibiting his ornately crafted charangos in the stalls next to the Manuel de Ugarte school stadium, where the festival’s main stage is set up.
Their predicament is evocative of the song ‘Niño Rebelde’, by the Quechuan group Norte de Potosí, in which a father asks his son what he wants to be when he is older and responds in repeated disbelief and protestation when the son maintains that he wants to be an artist, simply because he ‘likes it.’ He speaks of the amazing ‘feel, technique and precision’ of some of these young charanguistas in attendance, some of whom nevertheless had difficulty in obtaining school permission to come to this year’s charango festival. ‘Music needs to be better supported in Bolivia,’ says paceño musician Rodolfo Ramírez Paredes. The all-ages appeal of the charango is on show not only in the various age categories of the previous night’s competitions, but also with the youngsters who can be found enthusiastically strumming and picking the stringed instruments around town. Festivalgoers move around in trickles and spurts after the charango-playing competitions the night before and with the Gran Peña de las Peñas still to come in the evening. Situated among the southern Quechua-speaking valleys of the diverse Cochabamba department, the ‘Capital of Charango’ is known for its dry climate, chicha, earthquakes, meteorites and, above all, its excellence in charango fabrication.Ĭombined with a familiar, friendly small-town feel, Aiquile’s charango festival greets us with a warm, relaxed vibe as we arrive in the blissfully beer-inviting mid-afternoon heat ahead of the closing night of the 34th annual celebration. The Aiquile International Charango Festival celebrates the cultural heritage of a musical companion present through hardships and happiness.īuena onda is a good way to describe the people of the small central Bolivian city of Aiquile and their annual international charango festival, which celebrates and pays tribute to the cultural heritage of the small but powerfully iconic traditional Andean stringed instrument.
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