Atahualpa 🎶 Camino Musical

Artist: Elsa Ayllon Vega Szeinfeld

Original recording date: circa 1981

This was a homemade recording that my Mom (Mama Elsita) made with her mom (Mama Polita) in 1981. It was an artistic production of Ecuadorian folkloric and indigenous music, that was performed in Arlington, Virginia November 19, 1981. They, along with other performers, wore Indigenous traditional dress. My mother and grandmother recited the introduction of the production in Spanish and Quechua (an indigenous language).

This is the English translation of what my Mother is saying: Here we are, amidst the landscape of our land, to offer you some modest melodies of our people, with rhythms and folkloric motifs from our Ecuador. Let us transport ourselves to Incan times, when the sun shone brilliantly in the clear and healthy minds of ingenious warriors. The Indigenous person, an expression of naturalness and simplicity, of native essence, as old as the people themselves. Everything that emerged from the land came to be called folklore.

The English explanation of what my Grandmother is saying in Quechua: She is welcoming the audience and letting them know that they will be performing indigenous music as an offering for the audience.

The song you will hear in this clip is called “Atahualpa”, composed by Carlos Bonilla Chávez in the 1940s. It is a song type called "Yumbo". The song blends traditional Andean music elements with contemporary sounds. It showcases intricate melodies and rhythms characteristic of Latin American music.

The song is about the last Inca emperor in the 1500s in Ecuador. In the 16th Century, the Incan Empire stretched from modern-day Colombia to Chile. Soon after that, as we know, European Colonization was forced, and it led to the collapse of the Incan Empire.

I am very proud of my mother, and her pride of the indigenous in Ecuador, which leads to my own pride about my heritage.

My mother would have celebrated her 97th birthday this past weekend.
From “Las Mañanitas” lyrics:

El día en que tú naciste

Nacieron todas las flores

En la pila del bautismo

Cantaron los ruiseñores

The song was written by Alfonso Esparza Oteo and has been performed by many great Mexican artists, including Vicente Fernandez.

Feliz cumpleaños, Mama Elsita 🎉🥳

Cover image: Mama Polita, Young Brigitta, and Mama Elsita before a park performance.

UNO Souls is a wellbeing organization that centers and nurtures each person so they may blossom into their fuller self. ✨