In my final project for this course I thought about looking into the Argentine cumbia villera, which is a style of music played in the poor Argentine neighbourhoods considered as “villas” (Argentine equivalent for Brazilian “favela”). This wasn’t necessarily something I was particularly interested in at first, however after doing some research I thought that maybe by studying this genre of music, it could be possible to gain a better understanding of the way of life of the lower classes in these neighbourhoods. I have lived next to one of these neighbourhoods myself, and had friends who have enjoyed this type of music, and so I have had my share of it without understanding much of the context.

In his research Mara Favoretto (2016) explains that the genre of cumbia originated in Colombia and was linked to the Afro-Caribbean cultures (p. 79). It reached Argentina in the 1940-1950, and other Latin American countries through immigration, and has been associated in many places with the “urban racialized poor” (p.79). In her research, Luz M. Lardone (2007) investigates the cultural implications of cumbia villera. She states that instead of operating as a tool to modify the poverty in which people find themselves in, cumbia villera is like a medicine for the people to understand and forget the pain and suffering of the everyday life (p. 89). Lardone states that the initial purpose of cumbia villera, as that of tango, was to give voice to those who didn’t have one (p.90). The lyrics of many of these songs are highly violent and misogynistic, they talk about drugs, women, sex, and the police. Lardone describes how the different social classes in Argentina slowly began adopting different musical preferences, the lower classes increasingly consuming cumbia, while the middle classes were more into rock music (p. 91). She states that by the 90’s, cumbia villera started reflecting the lives and values of the people in the marginalized areas of the society (p.91). Lardone argues in her paper that cumbia villera is a way of self-expression for the marginalized and poor in Argentina, whose lives are greatly affected by the underdevelopment and stigmatization of living in those neighbourhoods (p. 93).

Here you can get an idea of what cumbia villera is really about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb4RtRV1x6k

References

Favoretto, M. (2016). Tango and Cumbia villera: Origins, Encounters, and Tensions. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 34, 78-95. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/618708.

Lardone L. (2007) “El “glamour” de la marginalidad en Argentina: CUMBIA VILLERA la exclusión como identidad” Revista de ciencias sociales (San José), 06/2007, Num.116 Vol.II, Issue 116, DOI 10.15517/RCS.V0I116.11197