Los Huasos Quincheros

Los Huasos Quincheros

Los Huasos Quincheros singing 'Virgen del Carmen' at the Templo Votivo de Maipú in Santiago, 8 December 2007
Background information
Origin  Chile
Genres folk, bolero
Years active 1937 - present
Website www.quincheros.cl
Members

Benjamín Mackenna, Antonio Antoncich, Ricardo Videla,

Cristián O'Ryan,

Los Huasos Quincheros (also known as Los Quincheros) are a popular Chilean folk musical group, first formed in 1937. It currently consists of the musicians Benjamín Mackenna, Antonio Antoncich, Ricardo Videla and Cristián O'Ryan.[1][2] The group was nominated for an International Music Prize in 1970.

History

The original group was formed in April 1937 by Carlos Morgan, the brothers Pedro and Ernesto Amenábar, and Mario Besoaín, when the four friends (who at the time were students at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago) named themselves Los Quincheros.[1] Through its history the group has had nineteen members,[1] most of them professionals in other areas. These have included the brothers Hernán and Raúl Velasco (who had previously founded Los Cuatro Huasos, another music group), Aníbal Ortúzar, Javier Campos, Jorge Montaldo (lead vocalist from 1952 until he left in 1965 to form another group, Voces de Tierralarga), brothers Sergio and Alfredo Sauvalle and Héctor Inostroza.[2]

The group has toured America, Asia, Europe and Oceania, and has received recognition from the Organisation of American States and IMC-UNESCO.

In February 2007 the group celebrated their '70th Anniversary Gala' in the Teatro Municipal in Viña del Mar.

In March 2013 they were nominated for the 'Premio a la Música Presidente de la República', a highly regarded Chilean music award, in the folk category.[3]

The name 'Quinchero'

After its formation in 1937, the group adopted the name Los Quincheros, translating as 'those of the quincha' (a construction of wood and cane used to contain the livestock during a rodeo).[2]

From 1937 to 1957 the name of the group was simply Los Quincheros.

In 1939, when they had been performing on Radio Agricultura for 5 years, they began calling themselves Los Huasos Nuevos ('The New Cowboys') because they had replaced Los Cuatro Huasos (Raúl Velasco's old group), whose former members became affectionately known as Los Huasos Viejos ('The Old Cowboys').

In 1957, Hernán Velasco and Aníbal Ortúzar left Los Quincheros, with the opinion that the group ought to conclude its history. Carlos Morgan and Jorge Montaldo decided to continue at any cost the traditions already created by Los Quincheros and continued as a group, inviting Alfredo Sauvalle and Gerardo Ríos to join them. In 1958, a judicial demand by the three musicians who had left prohibited the group from using the name Los Quincheros. It was at this point that the group adopted the name Los Huasos Quincheros, a combination of the group's predecessors' names.[2]

Nowadays the group uses both names, Los Huasos Quincheros and Los Quincheros, which has led to some confusion. Generally, they seem to use the name Los Quincheros when they sing boleros, usually dressed in suits, and Los Huasos Quincheros when they sing folk music, often dressed as huasos. For this reason, the original Quincheros of 1937-57 are often called Los Quincheros del Recuerdo (literally 'The Quincheros of memory').

Los Quincheros del Ayer ('The Quincheros of Yesterday') was a group created by Carlos Morgan, Hernán Velasco, Aníbal Ortúzar and Javier Campos when they decided to reunite in the 1960s to record new material.

According to the Chilean National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI), the name Los Huasos Quincheros is currently registered to Carlos Mackenna, Patricio Reyes, Antonia Antoncich and José Videla.[4]

Political participation during Military Regime (1973-1990)

Obvious standard-bearers for the most conservative right sectors of Chile, in February 1973 during their performance at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival (widely considered the most important musical event in the Americas), the group was booed strongly by a large part of the public, while the other half applauded wildly, practically starting a battle in the stands.

After 11 September 1973 the group quickly began to represent the Military Regime, including coming together by the appointment of Augusto Pinochet (the Chilean president and head of the Military Regime) at the opening of the German World Cup in 1974.[2]

Around this time a controversial song titled Ay de mí, llorona ('Woe is me, crybaby') was released, which parodied the mourning of the widow of Salvador Allende, the former Marxist Chilean president who had committed suicide in early 1973 to avoid being forced out of power by military officials.

Additionally, one of the group's members, Benjamin Mackenna, was appointed Minister of Education in the late 1970s and held the position through the first few years of the 1980s.

In the 1988 referendum which ensured the continuation of the Military Regime headed by Augusto Pinochet, the members of the group were open sympathizers of the option 'Yes' (which supported the continuation of the regime) together with other Chilean artists and celebrity press figures of the age, such as (among others) singers Patricia Maldonado and Miguel Zabaleta and actor and folklorist Willy Bascuñán.

Present

Currently the group performs throughout Chile, principally at events related to agriculture. In June 2013, their album 75 años ('75 Years') had sold 15,000 copies in Chile, making it the eighth-highest-selling Chilean album sold in physical format of the 21st century.[5]

Achievements

Members

Discography

References

  1. 1 2 3 Official site
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 musicapopular.cl, retrieved 9 October 2013
  3. ↑ "'Pollo' Fuentes and Los Huasos Quincheros receive the National Music Prize", EMOL, retrieved 9 October 2013
  4. ↑ Registration Number 460645 "Quincheros huasos", retrieved 9 October 2013
  5. ↑ "Top-selling records of the 21st Century in Chile", El Mercurio, 16 June 2013, retrieved 9 October 2013

External links

Official site

UNESCO International Music Prize

Original article (Spanish Wikipedia)

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