Music of the Americas: Back in Ecuador

Tuesday, June 16, 10 am

Upa (Rafaela Medina, Sebastián Oviedo, and Carlos Villagómez) is an Ecuadorian musical project designed for young children, seeking to create an atmosphere of connection and love between the baby and their loved ones. Through songs, this project aims to accompany and enrich the baby's daily routine, transforming it into an experience filled with music and joy.

From Quito, they sent us this viedo of “Agua, agüita” (Water, Little Water), from the project Upa, música para bebés, a song with the feel of an Argentine zamba composed by Medina that invites us to connect with our babies at bath time. Pan flutes, charangos, guitars, percussion, and vocals come together in this track, designed to become part of our children's daily routine.

Wed, June 17, 10 am

Sarawi is a musical project dedicated to the revitalization of traditional Kichwa music from the central and southern highlands of Ecuador. It performs rhythms such as the chaspishka (unique to the Kichwa Saraguro people), the carnaval, and the tonada de Chimborazo—forms that evoke nostalgia, homage, and resistance across time and space.

"Warmi sarawi," in the chaspishka rhythm, is a song that celebrates fememinity, which, in the Andean worldview, represents the complementary nature of the universe, from beauty, wisdom, and life-generating capacity.

Thursday, June 18, 10 am

Los Nin (Sumay Cachimuel, Daniel Proaño, and Alic Cachimuel), based since 2008 in the Indigenous communities of Imbabura, 60 miles north of Quito in the Ecuadorian Andes, performs rap in Kichwa. Their music is grounded in traditional Andean melodies, which they blend with hip-hop beats to create new textures, colors, and sonic landscapes within a contemporary musical context. Their socially conscious lyrics reflect social issues facing their working-class, rural, and urban community within a neoliberal society. Natives of Otavalo and Cotacachi, they rap fluently in their mother tongue, Kichwa, revitalizing a language that refuses to fade away and inspiring new generations to follow the path of resistance through music and spoken word.

“Munashpaka” (If You Wish), was composed around 2020 as a call to collective action. From a critical perspective, it advocates leaving contemplation to undertake the challenege of changing reality with our own hands, inviting everyone to recognize their active role in the construction of a new horizon. As a colleague said: "Philosophers dedicate themselves to thinking different worlds. However, the task is to transform it."

Friday, June 19, 10 am

Saraurku (Camilo Pupiales, Nayeli Guatemal, Tupac Guatemal, Edison Guatemal, and Inty Guatemal) is an Indigenous group of the Kichwa Karanki people in the Ecuadorian province of Imbabura. They are dedicated to strengthening cultural identity through melodies performed in various tunings, such as Galindo, Granada, Angochagua, and Guanopamba. The lyrics of their songs are dedicated to daily life, love, nature, and plants, reflecting rhythms that are deeply characteristic of their community.

They sent us this version of traditional music of the Karanki community, on the slopes of the Imbabura.

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation.

The 2025–2026 series is also supported, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The Augustine Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the Québec Government Office in New York, and The Amphion Foundation.