Chilean folklore

The huaso and the lavenderby Mauricio Rugendas (1835).

Chilean folklore (or folklore) is understood to be the set of handicrafts, dances, jokes, customs, tales, oral histories, legends, music, proverbs, superstitions and others, common to a specific population, including the traditions of said culture, subculture or social group that occur throughout the national territory, as well as the study of these matters.

Due to the cultural and demographic characteristics of that country, it is the result of the miscegenation produced between European elements and indigenous elements during the Colonial period. Due to cultural and historical reasons, cultural expressions vary considerably in different areas of the country, which is why five large areas are classified and distinguished in the country: Large North, Small North, Central, South and Austral Zones.

The northern zone is characterized by diverse cultural manifestations that combine the influence of the Andean indigenous peoples with that of the Hispanic conquerors and slaves, to which is added the importance of religious festivities and traditions, highlighting the diabladas and the Fiesta of La Tirana.

The central zone is identified mainly with the rural traditions of the Chilean countryside and the so-called Huasa culture, which extends mainly between the regions of Valparaíso and Biobío. Since most of the Chilean population is concentrated in this geographical region, it is traditionally considered the main cultural identity of the country and is expressed in mid-September, during the celebration of National Holidays. The folklore of the central zone of Chile is of predominantly Spanish roots, which is manifested in its music (cuecas, tonadas, payas, the latter of exclusively Spanish origin), the musical instruments used (guitars, harps, accordion), the oral tradition (sayings, stories, poetry) and in the clothing used (which in the huasos is mainly of Andalusian origin). All of the above is explained by the fact that the indigenous peoples and their ancestral culture disappeared from the Central Zone of Chile at the beginning of the XVIII century.

In the southern zone, the Mapuche culture and hacienda traditions dominate in La Araucanía, while the German influence is preponderant in the vicinity of Valdivia, Ranco, Osorno and Llanquihue. On the other hand, in the Chiloé archipelago a culture was generated with its own mythology, originated by the syncretism of indigenous and Spanish beliefs.

The southern zone has generated its own identity influenced by immigrants, both from Chiloé and the center of the country, as well as from the former Yugoslavia, and the culture of the gauchos and that in Magallanes is characterized by a marked regionalism.

The cultural identity of Easter Island is unique due to the development of a Polynesian culture since time immemorial, completely isolated for several centuries.

In 2007, the government established August 22 as "National Folklore Day". However, since 2008, the same government has observed this event on October 4.

Folklore studies in Chile

Rodolfo Lenz in 1915.

The study of folklore in Chile was developed systematically since the end of the s. XIX, mainly due to the German influence of authors such as Herder or the Grimm Brothers. In this task of compiling the popular traditions of the Chilean people and the original peoples, Ramón Laval, Julio Vicuña, Rodolfo Lenz, among others, stood out in a fundamental way, not only in the study of national folklore, but also from Latin America. José Toribio Medina, Tomás Guevara, Felix de Augusta, Aukanaw. Together they generated an important documentary and critical corpus on oral literature (stories, poetry, proverbs, etc.), autochthonous languages, regional dialects, and peasant and indigenous customs. They published, mainly during the first decades of the s. XX, linguistic and philological studies, dictionaries, comparative studies between the national folklore of Latin America, collections of stories, poetry, religious traditions, etc.

In 1909, at the initiative of Ramón Laval, Julio Vicuña Cifuentes and the German scholar and linguist naturalized Chilean Rodolfo Lenz, the Chilean Folklore Society was founded, the first of its kind in America, which two years later would merge with the recently created Chilean Society of History and Geography.

Contribution to the folklore of CarahueRamon Laval Alvial, 1916.

Rodolfo Lenz, a German linguist, philologist, lexicographer, and naturalized Chilean folklorist, was, since his arrival in the country in 1890, a fundamental piece for his pioneering work in the study of Chilean Spanish, Mapudungun, popular poetry, and folklore. Today he is considered one of the highest authorities in the knowledge of Mapudungun from the late XIX century and early XX. In the same year, 1893, he published his article Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Amerikanospanischen ('Contribution to the knowledge of Spanish in America'). In that work, Lenz, after analyzing demographic evolution and Chilean cultural history, described the phonological systems of the Mapuche language and Chilean Spanish, pointing out more than ten features that, in his opinion, distinguish Chilean Spanish from the rest of the Spanish dialects, and which are the result of the influence of the substratum on the Spanish spoken in said country. In addition, he composed an Etymological Dictionary of Chilean voices derived from indigenous languages (1905-1910). In the field of Chilean folklore his work was also pioneering, publishing in 1894 the first known work on the Lira Popular and stimulating the formation of a team of young folklorists who constituted the first generation in studies on popular cultures. Among his disciples, Ramón Laval Alvial and Julio Vicuña Cifuentes stood out, who compiled in the first two decades of the XX century a valuable material on magical and religious traditions of the popular sectors, ballads, popular poetry, riddles, sayings, myths and traditional legends. Lenz is also responsible for the Colección de Poesía Popular del Siglo XIX and the important article "Sobre Poesía Popular", printed in Santiago de Chile in 1919. The influence of his principles and methods in Pedagogy reached all branches of research.

Ramón Laval was also one of the leading Chilean folklorists of the early XX century. His was notable for the detailed fieldwork he did in rural areas such as Carahue, located in southern Chile, and for the erudition with which he compared different manifestations of popular culture with their European equivalents. His works include: From Latin in Chilean folklore (1910), Oraciones, ensalmos y conjuros (1910), Never-ending Chilean tales (1910), Contribution to the folklore of Carahue (1916), Traditions, legends and stories collected from the oral tradition of Carahue (1920), Chilean Paremiology (1923), Popular tales in Chile (1923) and Pedro Urdemales tales (1925), among others.

Later in 1943, the folklorologist, writer and cultural manager Oreste Plath created and became vice president of the Chilean Folkloric Association (currently the Chilean Folklore Society). This is how the first session was held on February 3 of the same year in Dependencies of the National Historical Museum (located in the National Library building, Moneda 610). [Since September 1982, it has been located at Plaza de Armas 951 in the old building of the Royal Court].

With assistance from: Aureliano Oyarzún Navarro, Ismael Edwards Matte, Domingo Santa Cruz, Oreste Plath, Ricardo Donoso, Raúl Silva Castro, Benedicto Chuaqui, Andrés Sabella, Carlos Lavín, Oscar Cortés, Humberto Grez, Leopoldo Pizarro, Vicente Reyes Covarrubias, Víctor Castro, Gualterio Looser, Luis Gómez Catalán, Alberto Ried Silva, Remigio Acevedo, Carlota Andrée, María Luisa Sepúlveda, Camila Bari de Zañartu, Emilia Garnham, Carlos S. Reed, Sady Zañartu, Juana Risi de Maldini, Josefa Turina, María Bichón, considering all of them partners and founding members.

Logo Chilean Folklor Society (successor of the Chilean Folkloric Association).

Since January 29, 2021, the Chilean Folkloric Association was reconstituted as the Chilean Folklore Society in the Illustrious Municipality of Estación Central.

This Chilean Folklore Society is chaired by the poet Yvaín Eltit, José Manuel Cuadro and Igor Bernaola Mateluna (directors). As well as its council chaired by the daughter of Oreste, the expert in art and folklore, teacher Karen Plath Muller Turina.

Heirs to the legacy of Plath and the Chilean Folkloric Association, they assume the task of our traditions and popular culture with the same social imprint that characterized them in the past.

Then, on March 25 of this year, the Oreste Plath Hispano-American Chair was inaugurated, organized by the Chilean Folklore Society together with the University of Talca, sponsored by the newspaper La Estrella de Valparaíso and the Embassy of Spain in Chile, to commemorate 25 years after the departure of such a renowned folklorologist, a new beginning is given to folklore studies in our country.

Chilean traditional music and dances

The Cueca (Mauritius Rugendas, 1843).

According to the Diary of my residence in Chile in 1822 by Maria Graham, the composer and researcher Pablo Garrido points out that «[i]n the house of the Cotapos, where [the English writer] staying in Santiago, [Graham saw] dancing minuet, alemanda, cuadrilla, Spanish dances and when; the when and the zamba on a trip to Ñuñoa; the campana (dance solo, by a man) in a farm in Angostura de Paine, and the patria to a group of peasant girls in Melipilla».

For his part, the Chilean musician and composer of the time José Zapiola Cortés listed several dances in his memoirs Memories of Thirty Years (1810-1840) (1872):

The dances that we have not known; but that we have heard of in our childhood are, the paspié, the rigodonetc. We've known the minuet, the alemanda, the contravention, the rin, the churre, kind of gavota, the vals, the gavota i Tables introduced in Chile in 1819. Like solo dances, the fandango i Cachucha, danced and sung for the first time by officers and troupe of the Battle of Talaveras.
Regarding dances Boyteowe remember that for the years of 1812 and 1813 the zamba and Granny They were the most popular; they were both Peruvians.
San Martin, with his army, 1817, brought us the Cielito, the pericon, the sajuriana i When, kind of minuet
From then on, until ten or twelve years ago, Lima provided us with its countless and varied zamacuecas, noticeable and injurious by his music, who uselessly try to imitate each other. The speciality of that music consists particularly in the rhythm and placement of the accents proper to it, whose character is unknown to us, because it cannot be written with the common figures of music.
The gavota, French dance, between two people, [...] was fashionable from the year of 1823 until 28 or 30 [...] (original spelling).

• Cuecas
• Vals chilote
• Resfalse
• Guaracha
• Free dance
• Corridor
• Cachimbo (danza)
• Carnival
• Chapecao
• Porteña
• Pequén
• The Shine
• The Repicao
• The Polka
• La Mazurca
• Air
• Costillar
• The Quartet
• The Mazamorra

Dances from the North Zone

In this area the dances are characterized by being of religious and festive origin. Music plays a fundamental role within this culture that has various traditional festivals such as Ash Wednesday, the Fiestas de la Cruz, Limpia de Canales, Fiestas de los Muertos and the best known Fiesta de La Tirana.

Among the dances of the northern zone are: the huayno, the cachimbo, the huachitorito, the northern cueca, the cacharpaya, the carnavalito, the trote and the diabladas.

Central Zone Dances

The zamacueca (Manuel Antonio Caro, 1873).

In the central zone of the country, folkloric expressions were strongly influenced by the Spanish colonization and certain traditional dances were established there and persist to this day. The cueca, consecrated as a national folkloric dance, is regularly practiced in this area, much more than in all other regions, with the greatest penetration in the different socioeconomic and educational strata.

Other dances worthy of mention due to their traditional representation, although very circumscribed to a few rural localities, are the gato, the jota, the mazamorra, the mazurca, the pequén, the porteña, the resfalosa, the repicao, the sajuriana and the hat. Also the protagonists of this area are the correteo, the polkas and the waltzes, which, although they became folklorized later than the previous ones, currently live in fields and cities.

In these regions, the presence of folklore cannot be ignored, through dances, in the country houses and in the most daily celebrations, such as baptisms, birthdays, weddings, funerals, name days. Likewise, as a request and thanks in times of harvest, planting work, harvesting, housing construction, among others.

The most important festivals in the country side of the central area are the rodeo and the grape harvest.

For much of its history, Chile did not have an official dance due to the heterogeneity of its traditional dances. The cueca was officially established as the national dance of Chile on November 6, 1979.

Class of zamacueca at the end of the centuryXIX.

There are different types of cuecas: Cueca brava; chilota cueca; comic cueca; Creole cueca; long skirt; northern cueca; cueca porteña; or the stolen Cueca.

Musical instruments used in the folklore of the central area:

• Guitar (cordophone). The most diffused of musical instruments both in Chile and in all Spanish-speaking countries, as the transcription of the Greek Kithara. The Spanish had six simple strings. The primitive, in Chile, had six double strings. Its wooden box with circular mouth in the center and a mast with traste are one of the features of the current guitar. No musical instrument is executed as much as the guitar, followed by the accordion and different types of sonajeros.

• Arpa (cordophone). It is a folkloric and classic instrument, disseminated during the last century. Its expansion site was between Aconcagua and Ñuble, at present it is used mostly by folkloric sets. It is almost triangular and consists of three fundamental elements: the resonance box, the column and the ménsula or the clamp that keeps the string in tension over the box. It's between 36 and 37 strings. They exist in portable size made by skilled artisans. There are smaller harps (arpin), but with the influence of the Paraguayan harp (preferred by craftsmanship in design and soundness) today the Chilean harp and the harps have been disappearing practically.

• Guitar (cordophone). The Chilean Guitar is a composite multicordophone that has 25 strings, grouped in five main orders on the fingerboard and four secondary monocordal orders, outside of it, called devils. It has a length of strings that ranges between 46 and 64 centimeters, form of avihuelada guitar, plan to speculate rectilinear and traction bridge, with wings in the form of volutes, together with which two ornaments are characteristically displayed. Studies ensure that the origin of this instrument is Chilean, the product of the ingenuity of the Chilean people. It is used basically in the Poet Song.
• Charrango.. It is a typical instrument of Chilean folklore. It is a table of one metre or longer, for thirty-five or forty-five centimeters wide, with a fixed string of very thin right wire, which is stretched by two bottles of glass, corontas of choclo or stones that are placed on both ends; achieved the necessary tension two pieces of wood or nails are placed to prevent the bottles from being corraned and lose their harmony. It is touched with a metal handplate stuck with wire. From this instrument comes the word "charranguear" used in the field to refer to the little domain of the guitar or to the execution of it. Its geographical spread includes an area that extends from Valparaiso to the south in the Biobío.
• Pandero (idophone). The baker is made with a hexagonal frame, to which a very thin patch or leather is removed on one side. It is made a few socks on the sides of the frame where it is placed brass or bronze sheets, in semiconcave forms for greater soundness. The patch cover is coupled with chestnut fish or beef fat to offer thumb resistance during the sprinkle and achieve a better vibration of the instrument.
• Tormento (idiophone). The storm of the living room was a 30 centimeter long box for about 20 centimeters wide and 10 to 15 centimeters high, with four folding legs. Its top cover was made up of a series of loose tabs engraved into a kind of tab so they wouldn't go out. To allow greater soundness, it did not have lower cover. In its interior it had a kind of metal beads and was percut above the deck with a stick. The current torment, used in chinganas and branches is larger. It measures between 50 to 60 centimeters in length for about 35 to 45 centimeters in width.
• Cacharain (IDO). It's a piece of donkey or mule to which the molars and premolars are released. The surface of the jaw is painted and drawn with striking themes such as flowers, leaves, etc. Its form of execution is similar to the tropical Güiro, that is, brushing the teeth with a stick to produce the sound. But its most frequent form is to take the jaw with a hand held in the widest part, thus producing a better resonance of instrument. In some parts of the country it is Carretilla, on Easter Island it is called Kahuaha.

Music and dance from the South Zone

The south of Chile is rainy and the predominant traditional activities are agriculture and livestock. In the Region of La Araucanía, the dances and songs of the Mapuche people have mainly a religious function and are practiced during the guillatún. In many places in the southern zone, the characteristics of local folklore have been lost and the dances and songs of areas located in the vicinity of them are emulated. In numerous places, the cueca in the manner of the central zone has displaced all other dances.

The Germans who immigrated to the provinces of Valdivia, Ranco, Osorno and Llanquihue introduced the accordion, especially the chromatic or button accordion, which later spread to the entire south of the country and was integrated into existing music.

On the coast of the province of Osorno there are Huilliche dances, sung in Chesungun (the local dialect of Mapudungun), such as the Sajuriana and the Huilliche cueca. The most common instruments of festive music are the bass drum, the guitar and the bandio.

In the Chiloé Archipelago, folklore also has particular characteristics, since many Spanish traditions were maintained with few changes and others were mixed with the Huilliches, giving rise to new forms of expression. During the Chilean War of Independence, in which Chiloé remained faithful to the Crown, royalist soldiers introduced dances such as chocolate or pericón to the islands, which later became pericona. Apart from the festive dances, parades are played during religious festivals, always accompanied by guitars, bass drums and accordions.

Among the dances of Chiloé are: chocolate; the little heaven; the chilota cueca; the ship; the pericona (from Llaullao, from Cucao, male, from Calen); the kidney; the chair; the back; the sajury; the chilote waltz

Dances of the Southern Zone

In these lands, the one who dominates is the gaucho and his dances, which are traditional from the province of Palena in the X Region of Los Lagos to Tierra del Fuego. These are:

• Ranchera: derived from the mazurca (a rhythm of Polish origin). In the form of dance, the couple performs overlays to the 3/4 beat. Choreographically they mark the figure of a wheel or an ellipse, interrupted at intervals, according to the changes in velocities or stribilles of the subject.

• Vals: the dance of vals (sic, with and ending) practiced in the eastern part of Aysén (Coyhaique and surroundings), differs from the waltz (European, chilote, Peruvian, etc.) because the steps are shorter, although it keeps much likeness in the spins and in the bodily posture of the dancers.

• Polka criolla: the author has observed two different modalities of executing it: a very lively one, with long steps (similar to the Argentine and Mexican versions) and another very sobria (similar in the passage to a milonga porteña, but differs in the spins and is added some figures of the passdoble).

• Pasodoble: Spanish dance, of binary compass, derived from the march. In the musical accompaniment, when there is more than one guitar, it is sought to imitate the chords of the Spanish instruments.

• Chamamé: rhythm derived from the chamamé poteta (lento), oriundo of Corrientes, in northern Argentina. Dance in the passage differs from that practiced in Corrientes and other Argentine provinces.

Typical dances of Easter Island

On Easter Island, traditional clothing includes the haku huru-huru (feather suit) and the haku kakaka (banana fiber suit), which They are used in traditional festivals and folkloric presentations. The sarong, which is a patterned fabric garment, is widely used on the island, although it corresponds to a recent addition from Tahiti.

On Easter Island you can see both religious and festive dances. The typical dances are:

• hoko
• sau-sau
• tamuré

Among the musical instruments used, the guitar, the water stick and the drum stand out.

Chilean folk music

Violeta Parra, Chilean folklorist.

Chilean folk music is characterized by the mixture of traditional aboriginal sounds with those brought from Spain. The cueca, a national dance since 1979, is a good example of this: it has its own characteristics depending on the area of the country in which it is performed.

The most traditional folklore has been performed over time by various artists, highlighting some such as Silvia Infantas, Margot Loyola, Nicanor Molinare and ensembles such as Los de Ramón and Los Huasos Quincheros. Since the early 1960s, with the so-called Neofolklore, and especially during the 1970s, with the so-called Nueva Canción Chilena, there was a resurgence of music with folkloric roots, with artists who investigated the musical origins of their country and composed and interpreted their own songs inspired by these investigations. Musicians such as Víctor Jara, Patricio Manns, Violeta Parra and groups such as Illapu, Inti-Illimani, Los Jaivas stand out from this movement. Quilapayún and Nutuayn Mapu. Different dance groups have also been in charge of disseminating and keeping alive the Chilean musical heritage, such as the Bafona (National Folk Ballet, 1965) and the Bafochi (Folk Ballet of Chile, 1987).

Native or aboriginal music

Autochthonous or aboriginal music is called folklore made and played by certain cultural ethnic groups of the country. In Chile, there is a clear example of the Mapuches, for whom music was used for religious or curative purposes (in rituals such as the machitún). Aboriginal music is the only one originating only from the first American cultures; It is not music originating in Europe like the rest, after the discovery and conquest of America. Even so, it must be remembered that the influence coming from Spain in this period significantly determined most of the instruments adopted, such as the guitar, the accordion, etc.

Oral literary tradition

The popular and folkloric traditions associated with oral literature (poetry, stories, riddles, myths, legends, etc.) are extremely rich and vary according to geographical areas. Therefore, a distinction is made between those of Creole or mestizo origin, which are generically called "Chilean", or referring to geographical particularisms such as the Chilota or huasa tradition, and those of indigenous origin such as the Mapuche or selk'nam, among others.

Legends, mythology and fantastic narratives

The Trauco, famous character of chilota mythology.

The Chilean mythology is the name given to designate the set of mythologies and legends made up of very diverse traditions within the territory of Chile that belong to the set of South American legends and mythology. It is characterized by having adopted a multitude of myths and legends of the beliefs of the indigenous peoples of the Chilean territory and others of European origin, coming mainly from the Spanish colonizers.

This variety of sources of belief has caused, in some cases, syncretism or the fusion of different beings, coming from these various mythological origins, which has complemented and differentiated Chilean mythology.

Similarly, the differences in landscapes and climates present in the Chilean territory have configured defined geographical areas that have experienced different historical circumstances, which has favored the appearance of different and new beliefs and myths that have enriched the mythology of this country. territory.

Folk poetry

Interpreting Chilean guitar.

The name Canto a lo Poeta refers to an ancient Chilean musical and literary tradition, framed within popular poetry, and which is fully in force.

In the Chilean folklore of the Central Valley of Chile, until the middle of the XX century, there was a rigorous division of poetry and popular music according to the sex of the interpreter, each branch showing its own arguments, meter, song and instruments:

• The singers they represent the female branch and they dedicated themselves to cultivating short musical forms, notably the tonada and the cot, besides the polca and the waltz. The compositions are usually then occult quartets and the accompaniment is with harp and guitar. The themes of these pieces used to be light, joyful, but with a subtle denunciation, disappointment or irony if more attention is paid.
• Them singers were dedicated to the composition and declamation of larger pieces, composed in tenths, their themes or fundamentals the romance (epic), the lyrics serious and the repetitive singing. The accompaniment was given by the guitar and the rabel. This branch is the one that constitutes I sing to the Poetwithin which the two great divisions are distinguished: the I sing to the Human and I sing to the Divine. Of course, this phenomenon causes us to sink the root of this genre in the Middle Ages, in the art of troveros and troubers.

This form of versification arrived in the Colony and spread throughout the Americas. In Chile we find in this period the verses of the priests López, Morán and Oteiza (Dominicans), which they used to comment on situations of daily life and humor. We also find the verses of Captain Mujica.

Within the Song to the Human, there is what in the Southern Cone is known as paya or payada, a musical poetic art belonging to the Hispanic culture, in which a person, the payador, improvises a rhyming recitation accompanied by a guitar. When the payada is a duet, it is called "counterpoint" and takes the form of a sung duel, in which each payador must answer payando the questions of his opponent, and then go on to ask in the same way. These duet payadas usually last for hours, sometimes days, and end when one of the singers does not immediately respond to his contestant's question.

It is an art related to Basque versolarism, the Galician regueifa, the alpujarreño trovo and the Cuban suddenness. This type of "dialectical discussion" responds to a pattern that has been present in a large number of cultures, and is part of the Asian tradition, Greek and Roman cultures, and the history of the Muslim Mediterranean.

La paya is a very popular art in the Central Zone of Chile and is a very important part of peasant or huasa culture. The most used stanzas are the quatrain and the tenth. She was persecuted by the authorities during the 19th century, and her lyrics became known as the "popular lyre".

In the 1950s, Santos Rubio, the blind popular singer, brought the payas to the record companies; During the following years, records and cassettes with recordings of payadores meetings were published. During the 1990s, on Radio Umbral, there was a weekly payas program where the payas Pedro Yáñez and Eduardo Peralta responded to the proposals and challenges that the public asked them by telephone.

Regularly there are meetings of payadores organized by some municipalities or social institutions where payadores from all over the country participate. These activities keep this art current for the new generations.

Liborio Salgado is the quintessential Chilean payador; It is said that he paid with the devil, a legend that is repeated in other Latin American countries: in Argentina a similar anecdote is attributed to Santos Vega, and in Colombia to Francisco Moscote.

In Chilean Patagonia, the gaucho culture is present and they paya in the style of Argentina and Uruguay.