Debating the Past Music, Memory, and Identity in the Andes

This volume examines how the search for "cultural authenticity," the dispute over the past, and the role of "modernity" have been instrumental in building the regional musical culture of the Mantaro Valley, a central Peruvian region with about half a million inhabitants. How these people have addressed concerns over the loss of ancient traditions by restructuring colonial and pre-Hispanic traditions into new contexts and forms is explored. Covering private and public music making, along with ritual, ceremonial, and popular uses of music, Romero studies the interaction of music and identity. The book is concerned with a modern regional culture, situated and defined in the context of an emergent nation, which is struggling to build a distinct cultural identity and to recreate values.

Raul R. Romero is Director of the Center for Andean Ethnomusicology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.