Runa Kuti, urban indigenous
I consider myself from the native people Colla
Descendant of Mbya Guaraní nation
I am daughter of Quechuas
[singing] Pachamama mother earth
[singing] don't eat me...
From a Mapuche root
[singing] Look that i'm still young, and i have to leave seed
[singing] hearts, don't forget me, don't forget me
[singing] Pachamama, mother earth, don't eat me yet
My name is Sandra Barrientos Callamullo
my father, my mother, they are from Potosí, south of Bolivia
precisely from a place called Chaquí
i belong to the Quechua-Aymara culture
i'm the oldest sister of 3, we are 3 sisters
we were born here in Argentina
we are te first generation born here in Argentina
My parents came as many people who emigrates to the big cities
looking for that "progress" they were educated with
in the place they came from
Both my sisters and I lived the first period of our childhood in Villas (poor villages)
nothing, this is unbelievable...
And these things that parents do in order to protect us
that was part part of our history that did not tell us, that we lived there for a while
among other things they have done to protect us, such as...
not transmit the language
not teach us to speak Qechua
that's what my parents and my grandparents always spoke
I understand them now
that at that time they...
they tough that if they don't teach us the language, the accent was not going to stick to us
and the people were not going to treat us badly
but it was an appearance matter
the insults, the bad ways... it was really clear
not need for them to hear you talk
they look at you, and already they treat you bad
This one is from Potosí, this is my grandmother's house
already in Potosi city
not in the countrie side
this is my grandfather, this one my grandmother
You know how she was up and down with that 'aguayo'?
she would come and go just like that
Look at Ren, when he was little
here my sister, me, Diego
As a result of being in Bolivia and the north, meeting with people,
and the people's behave that... don't have no comparison
it was a different look and different treatment from the people here
so you relate with the people in other ways
and you find yourself in another way
and you say... wow! i never lived this!
or maybe i did with mom, dad, the uncles and no one else
but not in the streets, in the daily life
that was different
in that moment something happend, i start to realize
what i lived when i was child
and how you grow up approving situations that are not good
you go naturalizing and normalizing violent living codes
so this reinforced also the fact of...
of assuming the identity from another point of view
start to... love yourself a little bit more
that's the way
and at the same time go healing wounds as well
This is the planisphere with the real proportions
At that time it was like starting to... little by little... to see the way
is like the first stage of the process of...
i don't know how to say it...
identification, self-identification...
[car pass by]
but there was that stage
and then the other things comes
it's like the strenghtening stage
firts it's to know... start to know
and then from being doing the activities feel part of it
What will cost them to get out and speak with us?
I'm Valentin Palma Callamullo, from La Matanza
i'm a Quechua descendent
Buenos Aires is seen as the Paris of the south, the Paris from Latin America
a place without history, where spanish people came to do nothing
a couple of persons that resisted and that's it
and they was... according to the official story they was exterminated
growing up here, it's a little bit difficult
the society maybe in some cases
a bit discriminatory, maybe a bit xenophobic
and they make you feel different
and when you are a child, a teenager, you are more vulnerable
and you try to hide it, to hide some things because
they point at you or they say
"bolita", "paraguayan", "chilote" stuff like that
or "shitty black"
If I speak with my grandparents in Quechua
or I say to them that I want to learn
they would laugh, they tought I was jocking with them
maybe it is naturalized that you don´t have to
some things, maybe for the oldest
there is no need
maybe them already have that, they are peasants not indigenous
they don't recognized themselves
the interesting for me is, that in my family they can start to feel proud
of being indigenous descendent, of being indigenous
as in society is also difficult sometimes, a slow process
in the family as well
maybe to be crossed by the catholicism
because after all, we are all crossed
by five centuries of a western subjectivity, individualism
that prevailed here, or that tries to prevail
so, we all have contradictions
but the good thing is to identify them and slowly begin to recover the other thing
the most important thing
(police's sirens)
I came here to do my job
they warn me, there is a call from
to defend our rights to do an indigenous ceremony here
where there are remains of our ancestors
like there are remains below that private neighborhood that were buried under that private neighborhood
we do not make any complaint to them
because we know what is the law in this country
that is a kind of law that protects the private property
not the rights of the people who lived here before these laws came
before the ones you work with
let's get into legal issues, do you want to come with me?
come on, here is a public road that reaches the other side
where the people walk
(radio) "because now in the fields and the mountains of America"
(radio) "in the slopes of the hills"
(radio) "in the plains and jungles"
(radio) "between loneliness or city traffic"
(radio) "on the shores of the great oceans and rivers"
(radio) "the world is beginning to shake"
Ha'e peme'e, che réra Dario, che Mbyá Guaraní
Hello everyone, my name is Darío and I'm a Mbyá Guarani's descendant
(radio) "500 years ago fooled"
(radio) "by some and by others"
(radio) "the history will have to count with the America's poor people"
(radio) "with the exploited and spurned of Latin America"
(radio) "that has decided to start writing themselves, forever, their own history"
I was born in Buenos Aires but I didn't lived my childhood there
when I was 3 months old, I was already traveling to Misiones
I always say as a joke, at 3 months old I was a political exile
my entire childhoos was in the mount
so, there is a conexion with the mount, with the energy that the jungle has
I grew up with that
and then, always connected to the rock
all my teenage years were very connected with this kind of music
with friends who always were in rock and metal scene
when I was 20 years old, because family issues, I came by myself to live in Buenos Aires
it was a quite strong change, because the city where I used to lived
called "El Dorado"
was a very humble neighborhood, really small
in comparasion of living in a big metropolis such as Buenos Aires
it was shocking
after a while, living in Buenos Aires
I started to research about native peoples
but it was just a matter of interest
I wanted to know what they thought, I even spoke in past tense
what they believed, what they had in mind
and when I was finding out a little more
I realize that there were some things of native peoples
that were not wrote in the books
and even the people would tell you about native peoples and there were missing things
so, because I always traveled to Misiones
at least, two or three times a year I do
because a spiritual need, I could say
I need to intern myself a while in the mount
I found out that what I have to do is go and get into an indigenous community
so, I took my bag and went
I got into the community, I introduce myself
I was welcome
a community called Yeyé, wich in spanish means Palmitos
obviously my head made a terrible turn because
I found that there was lots more about this matter
- and because is you -
I think I was more interested in activism, see more about this peoples
I wanted to get involved more in this subject
and I start to take part, to connect with the people that was
in the most political part, if you want to say it
or more specific claims as the land issue, the security issue
health issues, this a bit more... serious
I think we should also have a spiritual independence
become independent of the spiritual terrorism that the catholic system has being doing along all this years
what they are doing, I would called it spiritual terrorism
And at the time, my mother asked me, what I was doing with the indigenous matters
Because I knew she had her bad... her experience from what the 76's dictatorship was
I didn't want to tell her a lot, not to scare
and I told her: look, most of them, are cultural activities
we talk about indigenous customs
And she said to me: I asked you, because the parents of your grandmother were indigenous
And I say to her: are you telling me that part of my blood is indigenous?
and she said: yes, your grandmother and her parents were indigenous, from Guaranies
So... i was someone searching something that already had
seems crazy to tell it this way, but I was looking for little pieces, putting together something that was already made
I'm Argentinian, born here in Argentina, but my mother and father are Bolivian.
I'm Pedro, Pedro, just Pedro, another one in this world
Something happend to me that unfortunately happens to everybody in the life,
my mother gone, died.
Being walking and remembering I had a very deep and personal question:
How do I continued the relationship between my mother and I after that?
Amazingly in the middle of the hills I was walking around and kicking stones
I think I gave myself the best answer to my own question
why not do what she always did?
Why not to continue with the things she did... in the way she walked?
and then I remembered that she had never left, since I have memory,
to make her ceremony to Mother Earth.
So instead of closing my door because I was a little more alone,
I opened my door and there began to come kids from the neighborhood
I started to try to be useful to the community with a small place to give food to the poors in the weekend
and I was thinking how I would continue the way of my mother about their culture
and their traditions and their cosmovision...
And in that time i told to the kids that were coming there:
look, is about 1 August and I wanted to do a ceremony for Mother Earth
and logical kids when they are young, they have no prejudice
They said, what is it?. I tell them we will make a meal,
we will share with each otjer and we will make an offering to Mother Earth
and the kids said: yeah, yeah let's do, let's do
and this was the begging of my cultural roots rescue's story
This library began more or less in the early 90's.
At first it was on that corner, a pile of books and magazines with papers
and a group of guys with who we started doing crafts,
I wasn't a craftsman either, I didn't know, but trying to entertain them
and give them something they could use and that they could be helpful with,
I started to learn, and that makes us appreciate all that surrounds us
and that's what today I would say from the small library
that yes, in part I humbly think, I'm succeeding, to convey that,
to show the world view of indigenous peoples.
Teach this, show this
to the kids, starts to encourage them to realize and respect the culture of the fathers and mothers,
but sometimes older people comes too
and talking about this, perhaps is a way I might...
or I tell them how myself now, older, I start to realize this,
and they begin to think back, to remember their parents, their grandparents
and they start to recover their identity.
One day, at the University of
I studied at the University of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
and one day a colleague told me about this and the following Saturday we came
That was almost a year ago, in March 2010
and then I came and well ... and I could not go
I began to be here a couple of days until I left everything there and I came to live here
The oldest do not understand yet.
is contradictory because they keep traditions of indigenous culture,
even though this pierced by Catholicism, retain several things that
perhaps unknowingly ... and being the closest to that
and like that, maybe they do not understand sometimes
the younger, cousins or uncles they do realize
because the place is very strong,
I mean, not only the nature or being facing to something so disgusting like these
is mostly connected with the history of the place,
and without being esoteric mysticism or anything, it feels,
There is an energy in the place
We try to take only what is on the surface
what is kind of burried we don´t take it out
but the reality is that after the water comes and takes it all.
When this gets lower you can walk around
Here I am seeing a lot more of pieces
There are plenty. See beneath the landfill
Yes, some people calls me Pablo, the indian
About ten years now that I am participate in an alternative media, Indymedia
working with news of native people.
What we are asking is that this part of the lands that were sold
make a reversal of entrepreneurship of the private neighborhood
to remain as a public space which claims to indigenous peoples,
to protect archaeological remains that are in this place,
remaining open place to use as it has been used for decades
This will mean to make the first claim to the indigenous peoples of Buenos Aires
rigjt outside of the Capital.
We are trying to make is that, by retrieving this place, it begins to speak,
serve as a trigger to think Buenos Aires in other ways
to raise awareness throug all the population living in Buenos Aires
that the history of this place is not what we have been taught since childhood.
Where is Pablich? ... Pablich ...
New shirt, new shoes, hairstyle, tie, trousers, they have everything
They arrived when the machines began to build that
and after, the peole came
the people who speaks english and live inside
They are yankees priest from Arizona.
I think is a paradox how the come
500 years ago they came with the cross and the sword from Spain
and today, the come with the bulldozers and the cross from United States
in versions of those places
Is the same history, like a spanish poet said
"Some people read ten centuries of history and closes the book because it is always the same"
but the good thing is that in this story there is always another story, which is not told,
the voice of the vanquished, supposedly
that slowly is beginning to be heard
and to be visible
[singing] The days are passing, the nights are going
[singing] my youth fading like flowers of the field
[singing] Oh, I am so sad, I feel like crying
[singing] remembering those moments that we were very happy
[singing] Oh, I am so sad, I feel like crying
[singing] remembering those moments that we were very happy
[singing] they say, say, say that you want me
[singing] they say, say, say that you love me
[singing] If you want me, why you don´t kiss me?
[singing] If you want me, why you don´t hug me?
[singing] they say, say, say that you want me
[singing] they say, say, say that you love me
[singing] If you want me, why you don´t kiss me?
[singing] If you want me, why you don´t hug me?
I listened to folk music
and after that I started to listen and play Sikus
traditional music (from the Andes)
and in this moment I realized
the function, the funcionality of the music
the reason of the music
of the origin of the music in the different cultures
[Sing in Quechua] Lloqo lloqo qollunxa
[Sing in Quechua] waki wawa llupt'añan
[Sing in Quechua] Lloqo lloqo qollunxa
[Sing in Quechua] waki wawa llupt'añan
[Sing in Quechua] ukataki atipxayasipxasma
This is the important thing, the interrelation between people
the interrelation between the differents voices of the instrument
and singing in group
this is... what also
when you start to do it, to share it, to experience it
you feel it
one thing is to play alone
triying to cover one song
and another different thing it's to play all togheter
I listen to Heavy Metal since I have 12 years
is a music that accompanied me throughout adolescence
throughout this period of rebellion...
¿how do you say?
of craziness
always accompanied with the Heavy Metal
and when i was a boy I said: when I grow up I'm going to have a band
[music] I miss the rock, in the blood
When I started with the indigenous militancy
i continue with my...
listen to the same music
then something appears in my life way
I'm going to be a militant indigenous that renounced to his musical preferences
or I'm going to be a heavy metal that renounced to his roots
I had this dilemma
then i said: no, why I can't do not both?
and I proposed the idea
I want to make a band like this, going to have a lot from indigenous peoples
going to be a lot of words from the indigenous peoples
lot of message from the indigenous people
and well ... Charlie looked at me as he is saying to say: What!?
¡¿What you want to do?!
and I proposed the name
[singing] Good night
[singing] this is
[singing] XON-DA-RO
Xondaros was, or still are, the protectors of the communities
they are communities physical and spiritual protectors
[singing] They can not defeat me
Obviously we did not invent anything
There are many bands that take indigenous issues in his lyrics
maybe the change we do is:
the present and the future of the indigenous message
My thing is heavy metal
is what I like to do
everyone, every person
in his own place
have to do his own fight
some with music, another with writing, another through journalism
in the schools
everyone has to let out the fight that we have inside
from that place
So we can say that from there we go shooting
is our strength
- She, the weaver
- wakes up when is still night
- like if she's listening the sound of the day
- then, picks up a clear strand and passes it
- between this threads
- Quickly the first line of light on the horizon is draw
In Punta Querandí began to spread the rumor that it was
an indigenous cemetery that was to be destroyed by a private neighborhood
from that point, seeing that the authorities that had to protect this place
didn't do it
Starts an organization called
Movimiento en Defensa de la Pacha
composed by indigenous, environmentalists, journalists, neighbors...
a confluence of very important parts
I was learning in this way
that everything around me
everything with which I fed
everything with which I heal
even with the clothes I usually wear
was coming from the earth
when we have the concept is easy to understand
that we are children of the Pacha (Pachamama)
and we are all brothers
For me what unites
the cultures in the wolrd
is the feeling of love for the earth
the respect to the space where we are
Ancestral peoples are now returning
to their territory
they not die, they are, they are still here
they are pushing us
Our Grandparents have been watching the movements of the universe
they have seen cycles of five centuries
now it's begining a movement ...
in a global level
that is making that the knowledge of the ancient cultures are gaining more space
Pacha Kuti happens every 500 years
Pacha means cosmos, universe, mother earth
Kuti means to return, go back, change ...
I am very happy with what is happening in South America
I like that my generation, and people a little older than me,
we are preparing this way
very hard times are coming, very nasty times
but also some very strong times at some level...
at a earth level we can say
at Abya Yala level, the new world
It's like we are looking inside for this equilibrium
also for the outside does not?
Indigenous people always speak of cyclic life
always cyclic life
begins and ends, begins and ends
Circular life
And we go back to that point again
going through the best of times, apparent
and returning to that situation
in which we will recover our natural living
between man and nature
and equilibrium in all concepts
dynamic, electrodynamic, cultural, life ...
We know we are planting a seed here
I'm positive that there is no turning back
will be another balance of power
You see that there are more and more people
working for equilibrium
It's a phenomenon, there is a revaluation
and I bet to this revaluation
we can create a more conscious society
we can
We began to start giving more value
to a corn than to a gold ring
overturning that value, that economic system
of value, money and gold
Big part of that essence is still inside of many people
it's inside the persons
is just to assume the responsability
return to a relationship with nature
And that love for the earth, to the universe
is the love to yourself, and to everything
We are all in that way
there is some people, that still fail to realize
but someday, with consciousness, as they said the grandparents
or by pain
they will begin to realize
¡¡JALLALLA JALLALLA TATA INTI!! (Hurrah Hurrah for the Grandfather Sun)
¡¡JALLALLA!! (Hurrah)
¡¡JALLALLA JALLALLA TATA INTI!! (Hurrah Hurrah for the Grandfather Sun)
¡¡JALLALLA!! (Hurrah)
¡¡JALLALLA JALLALLA TATA INTI!! (Hurrah Hurrah for the Grandfather Sun)
[singing] Five centuries resisting
[singing] five centuries of courage
[singing] maintaining always the essence
[singing] Five centuries resisting
[singing] five centuries of courage
[singing] maintaining always the essence
[singing] Is your essence and it's seed
[singing] and it's inside of us forever
[singing] Is your essence and it's seed
[singing] and it's inside of us forever
[singing] It becomes life with the Sun
[singing] and flowers in the Pachamama
[singing] It becomes life with the Sun
[singing] and flowers in the Pachamama
[singing] At the edge of a path
[singing] my brothers live
[singing] At the edge of a path
[singing] my brothers live
[singing] They ask God, persecuted
[singing] you can call them Qom
[singing] They ask God, persecuted
[singing] you can call them Qom
[singing] Primavera! persecuted
[singing] you can call them Qom
[singing] Primavera! persecuted
[singing] you can call them Qom