Held at Lima's Pontificia Universidad Católica, a large private university in a working-class neighbourhood of this sprawling megalopolis, this was a very lively conference as befits one of the largest of the IASPM branches. Called Alma corazón y vida (Soul, Heart and Life) in homage to a famous Peruvian song known all over the Americas and Spanish-speaking world and composed by Adrián Flores Albán who was born in Piura in 1926, I am pretty sure this could be the only IASPM conference (in my experience at least), where the local general co-ordinator (the indefatigable Chalena Vásquez), and others, sang the song almost every day in one context or another. A bolero ballad as rallying cry! This refreshing aesthetic was reinforced by the colourful, woven Peruvian shoulder bags given out as conference bags, instead of the usual black plastic numbers, and by the evocative conference dedication, ‘Por el pan y la belleza, otro mundo es possible …’ (‘With bread and beauty another world is possible’).
The conference subtitle, La canción popular y sus discursos analíticios (Popular song and its analytical discourses), saw presentations divided into parallel sessions organised on the following themes: Cover and Versions; Music and Other Arts; Relocated Genres; Song Analysis; and Music, Politics and Ideology, which had by far the most papers and sessions. Plenary sessions were given by conference delegates, with contributions from guests including Cuban musicologist María Elena Vínueza, Musical Director of Casa de las Americas, Havana; Peruvian gender specialist Rocío Silva Santisteban; Peruvian musicologist Nelson Manrique; and Puerto Rican musicologist Angel Quintero Rivero. Thanks to a grant, there was a strong Cuban contingent, which not only made for exciting Cuban papers but also enriched the ‘open-mike’ evening when delegates sang, danced and played music on a host of instruments from Guantanamera forwards!
The conference was characterised by vibrant debate and discussion in plenary sessions held in the comfortable theatre of the university's Centro de Música y Danza Peruana (CEMDUC), whose student members acted as organising hosts. CEMDUC students gave the concert a rousing opening processing all around the theatre playing pan pipes and bombo drum music from the Peruvian highlands. The group of CEMDUC dancers have a high profile within the city and in the media, and on one occasion a group of delegates led by Chalena Vásquez accompanied a group of dancers to a classic theatre in the centre of one of Lima's main parks, for the live televising of a popular weekly culture magazine show. The CEDMUC dancers were featured dancing a beautiful choreography to Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), a key Latin-American song by seminal Chilean nueva canción (new song) singer-songwriter, the late Violeta Parra. While the show was on air, the hostess came down to talk about the conference and the power of music to an invited group of IASPM delegates sitting on the front row: Angel Quintero Rivero was able to demonstrate a little of his expert salsa dancing to music provided by a live orchestra; while despite not wearing a kilt, yours truly offered a brief glimpse of a Scottish Highland fling!
Media frivolities aside, the conference was marked by a high level of content and technical level of presentations, and the variety and quality of research. It included a vibrant mix of papers from a large number of Brazilian scholars alongside participants from practically all the countries of Latin America, with some sessions in a great language mix of Spanish and Portuguese. While there was some public disagreement on procedures (which spilled over into heated after-conference debate on the e-mail list), in the final analysis this only serves to demonstrate the vital level of democracy and debate within the Latin-American branch of IASPM. It is worth considering that fifteen to twenty years ago (pre the common availability of e-mail and the World Wide Web), most Latin-American scholars had limited institutional means of communication available to them to know about each other and each other's research, never mind meeting each other at congresses in a huge continent with so many natural geographical obstacles. Today, the Latin-American branch of the IASPM is undoubtedly not only the largest and most lively of all IASPM branches, but one that is inspiring thriving debate and exchange across country borders among a new generation of students and which is linking across to Spain. Much (although by no means all) of this work has come from the continental vision and energy of Chilean scholar Juan Pablo González, who deserves congratulation for his continued work for IASPM-LA; as does present IASPM-LA President Julia Palacios (Mexico) and Vice-President Adalberto Paranhos (Brazil).
This was a great event, with music and films; a full rock event in a working-class suburb co-ordinated by Kamilo Riveros; a performance by a young Brazilian group; a great football match and barbeque; and for a number of delegates lots of long nights out fuelled by local Peruvian pisco drink, to hear and dance the Peruvian waltz in old nightclubs reeking with atmosphere and with brilliant singers. The city of Lima played its part: overcast and misty as befits its winter months. The next IASPM Latin America conference will be held in Venezuela in 2010 with the conference themes being debated by the e-mail list at this moment.
