(N.B. I had an extremely busy week – including an essay I had to hand in for my home uni (Manchester) so my comments and thoughts are only really on the first half of the reading – sorry for it being a couple of hours late too Jon!)

Well firstly let me start by saying what struck me the most on the first page of this: ‘neither the colonial nor republican regime could expunge the memory of an Andean, Aztec, and a Mayan civilisation’. This automatically reveals to me the power of Latin American culture, and the longevity of it.

Arguedas suggests that ‘cosmic solitude’ has been the key characteristic of Queeha poetry during the colonial period of occupation – and this is a response to Spanish colonialism. This and other examples from the reading show that more recent Andean culture has been reactionary, and specifically fighting against something. (could this be linked in some form to Peronism?…)

Furthermore, what interested me is how parts of Andean culture have become entirely disconnected from traditional rituals (p59) – especially in terms of the music: for example, he goes on to note how the ‘chicha’ style combines traditional Andean melodic style fused with electric guitar and tropical rhythm. One might mention how this is also common in other types of Latin American music, for example in Mexico, where the narcocorridos movement developed the traditional ‘corrido’.

The discussion of development of musical practice and tradition is then continued on p61 where the notion is posed that updates in technology have created an increased conformity in tonality with Western music. However, I would argue that even though this might be somewhat true, the idea that there is an overlap in musical culture is probably far fetched, simply due to the distinct timbral qualities of Andean music, which are in large part extremely different to those of Western modern music. Yes, there has been a significant amount of fusion between different musical cultures, but there are still clear distinctions to be made – despite the influence of Western music/technology on Andean music.

Sorry for the focus on music but I can’t really help that (being a music student!)…finally, some unanswered questions of mine that I originally kept in the notes part of this but feel that they’re worth including (for discussion purposes!)…

the of Andean culture being the most alternative form of civilisation?

The idea that the past can be used to create an alternative future is very interesting.

Andeans don’t hold similar notions of time and motion that Western civilisation does?

Notion posed on p53 that it is very much a case of ‘their culture processing ours rather than vice versa’ – is this unfair/naive? It might well have been the other way round? And does this initial statement have immediate negative connotations? – ‘it would be wrong to assume that Andean Culture needed Western utopianism in order to create an idea of futurity’?