If you don’t know what a cueca is, I recommend that you play the songs “El Guatón Loyola”, written by Alejandro Gálvez, or “La Consentida”, by Jaime Atria, to read this article.
It is likely that most Chileans recognize them, especially in the month of September, when the Fiestas Patrias are celebrated.
These melodies can be heard at every fair, restaurant, square or event in the country. All you need is a white handkerchief (or, in the worst case, a napkin) to start dancing to them.
With its unique rhythm, turns, half turns and footwork, the cueca is a important cultural symbol for Chileanswho declared it their national dance in 1979. It is said that its lyrics contain the unofficial history of the country.
But it is not unique to Chile: it also has a presence in other countries in the region, such as Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Mexico, where they dance under different names.
What are the main characteristics, origin and history of this dance? We will tell you about it here.
Characteristics
The cueca is a dance that is traditionally performed in pairs. The man plays the role of the conquest while the woman adopts a more elusive posture.
The dancers trace circular figures, with turns and half turns to the rhythm of 6/8 and 3/4 time.
“The man is the one who chases the woman, surrounding her. It is said that it alludes to what the rooster does to the hen, showing her his feathers,” the Chilean musician explains to BBC Mundo. Cuti Aste.
The guitar and the tambourine are the basic instruments of the cueca. The accordion, the piano and the bass are also used, among others.
There are different types of cueca. In Chile, the best known are the traditional (or huasa), which is associated with peasant culture and for which dancers usually dress in the huaso or huasa costume, and the urbanwhich was born later, around the 1930s, driven by migration from the countryside to the city.
But there are also other genres and subgenres.
“Depending on how we classify it, it is the type of cueca that we find. That is, if we divide by region, we will find the version cueca chilote, cueca centrina or nortina. If we divide by style, we have more romantic or more political cuecas,” the ethnomusicologist and academic explains to BBC Mundo. Christian Spencer.
The historian expert in popular culture and folklore Karen Donosostates that cueca is a “very versatile” musical style and dance.
“There are nationalist, left-wing, peasant, revolutionary, romantic, love-sick, revenge and fantasy cuecas,” he says.
Even so, he warns that, regardless of the type of cueca, they all respect the fixed structure of their poetry.
“The poetic form with its verses, syllables, seguidillas and endings is respected. And the rhythm is also maintained,” says Donoso.
Cuti Aste agrees. “You have to know how to dance it because it has its rules,” he says.
Origin
But where does the cueca come from?
It is a difficult question to answer because there is no academic consensus on the matter.
However, there are several theories.
One of them points to an African root. The Chilean historian Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna (1881–1886) He claimed that the cueca had been brought by “black slaves” who passed through Chile – specifically through the city of Quillota, in the Valparaíso region – to then go to Peru, where the viceroyalty was.
Vicuña Mackenna said that its original word was “zambaclueca”. Slaves would have danced it in public squares and then the Chileans would have added their own characteristics.
Another theory states that the cueca has an important Arab-Andalusian influenceand that it would have been the Andalusians who brought it in the period of the conquest of America. There are also those who believe that it comes from the Andalusians themselves Mapuche indigenous people who inhabited Chile long before the Spanish arrived.
According to other historians, such as the 19th century chronicler Jose Zapiolathis dance is preceded by the “Peruvian zamacueca”, originated during the viceroyalty, and is also the basis of other important Latin American dances such as the marinera (Peru) or the chacarera (Argentina). This theory has managed to gather a high consensus.
“According to Zapiola and other researchers, the zamacueca leaves Lima, travels to Santiago, and from Santiago it reaches Mendoza, in the province of Cuyo,” explains academic Christian Spencer.
“And at the same time that it goes to Chile, it goes to Bolivia and becomes a national dance, and it also reaches the north of Argentina,” he adds.
In his writings, Zapiola states that when he left Chile for Argentina in 1824, the zamacueca “was not known” in Chile.
“On my return, in May 1825, I was already faced with this novelty”wrote the chronicler. That is why today many are celebrating the 200 years of the presence of cueca in Chile.
However, in all these countries – including Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile – the dance acquired its own characteristics.
Christian Spencer says that in Peru it was renamed “sailor” after the War of the Pacific (1879 – 1884).
“The Peruvian navy, particularly a naval chronicler, proposed that the zamacueca should be called marinera in honor of the navy.”
“And after the Chilean invasion of Lima, which was very cruel and extensive, it was considered necessary and the name was changed,” he says.
“Then, in the case of Bolivia, the cueca acquired other musical characteristics, different from those of Chile. The octosyllabic quartet was maintained but the seguidilla was eliminated. It is a slower, more measured cueca,” he adds.
Today, the “Bolivian cueca” is of great importance to the culture of that country. So much so that it was declared a cultural heritage in 2015.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the “Chilean cueca” that exists in Mexico.
Spencer explains that “documentation shows that in the 1840s, Chilean travelers went to the coast of Guajaca, in the state of Guerrero, where they danced cueca.”
“The Mexicans absorbed it and christened it Chilean. It still exists today with its Chilean reminiscences,” he adds.
“Chora” cueca and “brava” cueca
But beyond its origin, what is clear is that the cueca, in the way it is known today in Chile, was consolidated at the end of the 19th century.
“It was at that moment that the formula that it has today was strengthened and began to be called cueca,” says historian Karen Donoso.
This is how people gradually began to dance in the cantinas or chinganas, centers of popular celebration, and also in the salons of the aristocracy.
It quickly became a symbol of Chilean national dance. In fact, there is documentation showing that it was already danced in honor of the country’s authorities in those years.
With the Appearance of radio in 1922the cueca gained even more momentum.
“It gained a lot of importance by appearing in the media and being associated with the traditional,” Spencer explains.
In this way, they begin to create their own original melodies, using instruments such as the guitar, tambourine and harp, and the tapping of their hands.
There are other milestones worth mentioning, according to experts consulted by BBC Mundo.
Among them, the appearance of the “cueca chora”in the mid-1960s. Its most recognized author and performer is Roberto Parra -popularly called “Uncle Roberto”-, brother of the artist, composer and singer Violeta Parra, one of the main folklorists of South America.
According to the National Library of Chile, cueca chora is an “essentially urban invention, which emerged in nocturnal and marginal spaces in ports and cities in the Central Valley.”
“Instead of dealing with the topics of the countryside, nature and huasa life, common in conventional cuecas, these compositions can narrate subjects such as brothel life, nights spent outdoors or the fate of a prisoner.”
Another relevant milestone is the creation of The Chileansin 1967, a group led by Hernán Núñez Oyarce (known as Nano Núñez) who became one of the main exponents of the “cueca brava” which, like the “cueca chora”, moves away from the rural and traditional, and is born from the urban marginality.
“In the 60s and until 1973 (the year of the military coup against President Salvador Allende), there were more aggressive cueca musicians, where they did not speak elegantly about love, but about what really happens: crime, the underworld, life in the suburbs, the danger of the night, or prostitution”explains Cuti Aste.
This caused cueca to become even closer to Chileans… until the military regime of Augusto Pinochet arrived.
“Cultural blackout”
The cueca was declared the national dance of Chile in 1979under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
According to the National Library of Chile, “among other arguments, it was highlighted that within the wide range of Chilean folk dances, this was the one with the greatest level of diffusion and the deepest historical significance.”
This gave a boost to some huaso clubs, while schools were forced to teach cueca dancing.
However, historians agree that during this period there was a “cultural blackout” that also affected the development of folklore.
“Most artists were against Pinochet, they wanted to denounce what was happening. Culture was not convenient for the dictatorship at the time. In addition, the curfew killed and buried the nightlife. And with that, folklore disappeared too.”explains Cuti Aste.
In this context, some protest cuecas emerged, explains historian Karen Donoso, such as the “cueca alone”, Created by the Association of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared People (AFDD), it is danced only by one woman, without a partner, to symbolize the loss of loved ones and the grief of searching for them.
But with the return of democracyIn 1990, cueca once again gained significant momentum.
“Spaces that were considered old or popular began to be re-established. Restaurants and spaces with live music were recovered. And that gave a boost, especially to urban cueca,” explains Christian Spencer.
The rebirth of cueca
Thus, over the last 30 years, the cueca has been gaining more and more strength.
“It has been an interesting process because it is no longer practiced just to pay tribute to the homeland. not only as a way of life but also as an artistic expression,” says Karen Donoso.
“The generational step has already been taken. Today, many young Chileans know it as a living practice, in the street, at parties. This has led to the creation of cuequera communities that have multiplied since 2010 onwards,” he adds.
The participation of renowned Chilean artists with the cueca has been important in this.
For example, the rock band The Three helped popularize the legacy of folklorist Roberto Parra by including some of his compositions in their repertoire. Los Tres played two cuecas on MTV’s “Unplugged” in 1995, the recording of which became a best-selling hit in Latin America.
“The Chilean youth, who loved Los Tres, He immediately fell in love with cueca again,” says Cuti Aste, who was a member of this musical group.
The band also created “The Yein Fonda”, a popular event that was set up to celebrate the Fiestas Patrias in September and which for the first time brought together cuequeros, cumbiancheros and rockers on the same stage.
“We set a standard that was later followed by characters like Daniel Muñoz,” says Cuti Aste, referring to one of Chile’s most important actors and a current exponent of cueca brava.
“Cueca has been broadcast on more media than ever before in history. There are radio programs dedicated to cueca, and an explosion of books and research on the subject,” says Karen Donoso.
Women have also been acquiring a more important role. He no longer just avoids his dance partner, but becomes more actively involved.
“There have also been female solo ensembles. They have certainly helped to expand the musical repertoire,” says Christian Spencer.
These days, as Chileans celebrate the formation of the First National Government Junta in 1810, many are already polishing their shoes to dance a cueca step.
It is a unique and complex dance that has accompanied the history of Chile and is classified as the “purest symbol” of its identity.
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