Music of the Americas: Kichwa Music from Ecuador

Wednesday, June 3, 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.

"Jaku yari," by Alberto Chilcañán, celebrates the love between a couple within their community. The man expresses that wherever they may go, they will always go together, and should circumstances ever keep them apart, he will remember her with deep affection.

Thursday, June 4, 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.

"Puka Walla" (Red Soldier) is an instrumental piece in the rhythm of a tonada de Chimborazo, conceived with the red ponchos of the Kichwa Puruwá in mind. These are garments that evoke resistance and a subterranean memory, projecting the history of insurgent ancestors into the future and opening an intergenerational dialogue in which the song becomes a living archive of identity, rebellion, and hope.

Friday, June 5, 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 Ecuadoran 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.

"Credo" was composed in 2025 to be included in a new album currently in production. This project seeks to challenge the oft-repeated rhetoric of “vindication” and “struggle,” guiding it toward a deeper, more honest reflection. “Credo” aims to reframe the memory of our martyrs, whom those in power fear and refuse to name. It is a song that seeks not to fit in, but rather to shake things up and open up new ways of thinking about and experiencing reality.

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.