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Suni Paz At The Modern Language Building

Suni Paz At The Modern Language Building image Suni Paz At The Modern Language Building image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
April
Year
1975
OCR Text

For many years now, a wide variety of ethnic musicians have paraded through the U of M's concert halls. Yet without exception these groups have been of Asian origin: Bengalese Chhau Dancers, Qawwali Music from Pakistan, and Balinese Dalang, to mention a few. Thanks to the Group on Latin American Issues for reminding us that there is music in other parts of the globe as well, with their presentation of Suni Paz -The Music of Latin America.

The near-capacity crowd at MLB was an odd mixture of Latino students, Anglo students, their professors, folk buffs and political activists. Each had come for a different reason and each walked away well satisfied. Suni Paz, Argentinian singer, poet and human being was the reason. Her songs spawned by Latin America's long history of struggle, were folk music in the true sense of the word- music of and for the people. They spoke of farm workers, factory workers, miners and street urchins, long suppressed by Spain, England and America. Their tone, however, was hardly one of resignation: "We will proclaim our lands! We will proclaim our plan! Our people is la raza And our nation is Aztlan!"

This overwhelming spirit of defiance and integrity raised the audience to a standing ovation, which brought back Suni for an encore of "The Chicano Bamba," whose familiar chorus, "Linda Bamba," she often changed to "Boycott Gallo!"

Ramiro Fernandez, playing Latin percussion instruments, and Abbie Newton on cello accompanied Suni's voice and guitar. At one point she introduced her "little friend" the chirango - a ten string Bolivian guitar made from the shell of an armadillo. This sensitive instrument frequently goes out of tune while traveling because, "he picks up bugs just like his 'owner."

Unfortunately, there is very little Latin American music left that can truly be called indigenous. The Spanish conquest bequeathed its "Dorito Chips" version of Western harmony to the natives who have worshiped it and Jesus Christ ever since. Luckily the result was sincretism, not wholesale adoption; a fusion of Spanish harmony structure with indigenous rhythms that have come to be known as the Pan-American dance forms. A perfect example of this was a song about school children caught between two worlds, a plight musically accentuated by juxtaposing a romantic, Spanish-style, verse with a galloping Argentinian-style chorus.

The auditorium glowed with Suni's warmth, sincerity and overriding concern for her people. Hers was not an appeal to Chileans, Bolivians, Puerto Ricans or Argentinians, but to Latin America as "la raza:" "I don't say a name or give a sign, I just say companeros."