Susana Baca

Susana Baca is not only one of the greatest divas in South America, she is a tireless researcher, and is largely responsible for the revival of many forms of Afro-Peruvian folklore. She is also the founder of the "Centro Experimental de Musica Negrocontinuo" (Institute of the Black Continuum), a cultural center dedicated to the study of Afro-Peruvian music and dance.

Baca's institute is her life, and it is also her home. Amidst Lima's coastal neighborhood of Chorillos, Baca, along with her husband, manager, co-researcher and sociologist Ricardo Pereira are in a constant state of expanding their dream home, rather their dream institute. While most families fantasize about new game rooms, multi-media entertainment centers, and additional square footage, every day work crews flow back and forth through these Chorillos doors making space for a recording studio, an expanded dance space, and a library. The banging and drilling of the new studio seems to be barely noticeable over the constant clamor of Lima's honking horns, sirens, and non-stop traffic.

Somehow, through Baca's incredible passion for her work, she manages to drown out the deafening harangue of her urban surroundings with a soft voice. "I grew up with music all around me," said Baca. "My father played the guitar. We lived on a small street, really more of an alleyway where many servants lived. He was, in effect, the official musician of the alleyway. Whenever there was a neighborhood party, he would be called to play." Baca's parents separated when she was just a child. She was raised by her mother in the Lima neighborhood of Chorillos. "My mother was always singing," Baca remembered. "She loved music. I'll always remember the day she bought a record player. It was a huge event. That was the first time I got to hear those great Cuban records of Beny Moré ¡nd Compay Segundo."

"I wanted to be a singer ever since I went with my sister when we were kids to a singing contest at a local radio station. I saw her behind the microphone and knew immediately that that was where I wanted to be, " she remembers. "When we got home, my brother put together a make-do microphone by attaching a can to the end of a stick." Baca has been singing ever since. "My parents didn't support this idea in the beginning. My father was strongly opposed to the idea, and my mother originally wanted me to be a teacher. Women in Peru weren't supposed to sing on stage," she remarks. "A woman on stage was treated like a prostitute." When she began singing 30 years ago, Peruvian women weren't taken seriously as performers or composers, let alone researchers. Baca explains, "When Chabuca Granda wrote her first compositions, she signed them with a pen name. Her name did not appear anywhere, otherwise, she would have been ostracized by her family." Granda, of course, went on to become one of Peru's greatest composers of the 20th Century.

Over the past half-century, rights and opportunities for women have changed dramatically in Peru. "Women have been the initiators of this modernization," added Baca. "We now are working in all kinds of jobs all over Peru. It has been a long struggle. I still won't forget how much my father opposed the idea of my dedicating myself to music. Fortunately, I lived with my mother who was really supportive of my career choice and gave me the opportunities I have today."

"When I was young, I found myself singing old folksongs like 'Toro Mata,' and was curious where they came from. I then started asking my mother about the origins of both the music and the instruments, including the 'cajon'. This led to a magnificent mother-daughter dialogue and spawned my passion to research Afro-Peruvian music." The young Baca soon headed off in search of old musicians and researchers eager to learn about this history. "There was nothing ever written about our music or our history," explained Baca. "So I went out in search of oral history." Baca's passion and curiosity led her to journey up and down the Pacific coast of Peru, up to Cusco, and even to Bolivia to research this music. While Baca has dedicated herself to researching and performing virtually all forms of Afro-Peruvian folklore (such as festejo, toro mata, and alcatraz), it is the lando that has become her trademark. The lando is a mix of Spanish and African rhythms. This slow to mid- tempo, highly evocative form has become almost what the son is to Cuba, or the samba to Brazil. The lando is the sound of Black Peru, due in large part to Baca's work.

Susana Baca Review by Afropop.org

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