Debating the Past: Music, Memory, and Identity in the Andes

by Raul Romero

This volume examines how the search for "cultural authenticity," the dispute over the past, and the role of "modernity" have been instrumental in building the regional musical culture of the Mantaro Valley, a central Peruvian region with about half a million inhabitants. How these people have addressed concerns over the loss of ancient traditions by restructuring colonial and pre-Hispanic traditions into new contexts and forms is explored. Covering private and public music making, along with ritual, ceremonial, and popular uses of music, Romero studies the interaction of music and identity. The book is concerned with a modern regional culture, situated and defined in the context of an emergent nation, which is struggling to build a distinct cultural identity and to recreate values.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I was curious about the origin of the Peruvian orquestas típicas - surprising ensembles with a large number of saxophones plus a couple of clarinets, harp, and violin. This is the right book to learn about them - the author goes into much detail.

Romero is an academic and I'm not - I skimmed some of the more scholarly parts, but he always writes with humanity and compassion. There is much social history of Peru which illuminates the study of the music. The book is focused on one geographic region, the Mantaro valley.

In this book Romero examines the ideas of authenticity and modernization, reaching conclusions that are different from what an outsider would assume.