Totó La Momposina - Trailer for "Los sabores del porro"
I have a longstanding admiration for Totó La Momposina. In the finest tradition of the Latin American Nueva Canción, her songs wrap up a criticism of modern political and social ills in the guise of folk-influenced music in order to convey their message to the largest possible audience and avoid outright censorship by those who hold power but lack the subtlety necessary to realize that they are the object of her criticism.
Unlike the often melancholy nueva canción of 1970's Chile and Argentina, however, her music is more deeply rooted in Afro-Colombian and indigenous tradition and draws from the deep, seemingly inexhaustible well of joy that is so surprisingly characteristic of Colombia, a country that has suffered more than many others.
Published