Are you interested in Kichwa culture? Don't go to a museum. Listen to Humazapas' first album instead! 

By Katicnina Tituaña June 22, 2023

Radio Cocoa 

“Sara Mama”, Humazapas' first album, became a reality on June 9 [2023]. Published under the AYA Records label, the album is a tribute to corn and all the [indigenous] cultural heritage that comes from that seed. 

At this point, Humazapas is not an unknown name in the Ecuadorian musical world. The Kichwa music and dance group has already walked on important national and international stages. But the release of their first album, Sara Mama, marks an enormous moment, both for its members and for Ecuador's national music, that should not go unnoticed. 

Humazapas has been around for at least 10 years. They have so many anecdotes that our more than two hours of conversation with the band not only flew by but fell short of being enough time to summarize their artistic trajectory, during which the group has taken on different forms. Did you know that they even played rock, ska, and cumbias at different points? 

Today, you can only feel that influence reflected in the most joyous of the songs in the album. Their current artistic path remains a reflection of a process that began more than a decade ago in the foothills of Mama Kutakachi. 

It was on the slopes of that sacred volcano where the group welcomed me to discuss what the release of Sara Mama means to them. We met on a Sunday afternoon in the studios of Anta Records (a place that is also the home of several members), in the Kichwa community of Turuku, to talk. 

But my visit, more than being just a talk with these young people, was at times more of an entertaining listen to a loving, messy, and reflective dialogue between siblings. 

Sara Mama is an album that pays tribute to the land, nature, and the Kichwa tradition and its deities. The 12 songs also celebrate the corn harvest season. 

How did Humazapas begin? 

For their dancers, Tamia, Papsi, and Sami (a former member), began their path during childhood. Encouraged by their mothers, they formed dance groups with other girls and created choreographies to perform at their community festivals in Turuku, or to participate in regional competitions. They rehearsed on a dirt floor and put so much effort into their performances that on one occasion, Papsi recalls, they won the first-place prize consisting of a large pig. 

Unfortunately, as often happens with triumphs, the award caused internal conflicts among the young performers, but they never abandoned dance. 

To the contrary, all four of Humazapas’ dancers today, Tamia, Papsi, Citlalli, and Miryam, have developed their own style over the years that, unlike other traditional music groups, not only decorates the music but also dialogues with it and elevates it. As a result, their live performances are immersive experiences. 

The development process for the musicians (Jesús, Luis, Félix, Christian, Roberto, and Lenín) and the singers (Flor and Toa), on the other hand, began later and in different ways. Having participated as wawas [children] in community rites and celebrations such as Inti Raymi, Easter Holy Week, and Kichwa weddings and wakes, were fundamental influences for each of them. These experiences have been the foundation of the ritual aspect of their project. 

Sara Tipi, the tenth song on the album, means “the corn harvest.” The song tells a traditional legend from Imbabura. The person who lends her voice in the narration is Juanita Simba, the mother of four members of Humazapas. The video clip conveys snippets of daily community life and was recorded in a chakra located on the slopes of the Cotacachi volcano. 

Each of Humazapas’ musicians is self-taught. none of them come from a lineage of musicians or artists. Through trial and error, their stages—from the smallest and most remote to the largest and most renowned—have been their school. Their homes have been their laboratories.  

And what does that self-education imply? For these musicians, it has mainly meant listening, paying attention to their environment, and asking: how did our predecessors do it? Having those guideposts has meant that the path forward has been less uncertain. 

Among the references have been the renowned traditional music groups, Trencito de los Andes (train of the Andes) and Ñanda Mañachi. Their most important guides have been the taytas (elders) of their own communities. 

If there is a particular maestro to whom the music of Humazapas owes its existence, it is Lenín Alvear, an ethnomusicologist from Cotacachi who has dedicated himself for decades to the investigation of Kichwa artistic expressions and rituals of Cotacachi county. 

Alvear, who believes that the [traditional] knowledge must be safeguarded and kept alive, has taught young people of all ages over the years how to build and play the indigenous instruments of the canton such as pifos and pallas [traditional flutes]. Many of the band's musicians went through those experiences. It is the basis for their sound, which has also added new colors and layers, as the group grows and experiments. 

From seed to full bloom 

Can we establish an exact timeline to really understand how Humazapas came about? That would take us through a maze of memories that reflects the comradery of those who have chosen to chart a path together. It is a familiarity that transcends blood ties, and that has involved joy and sacrifice. 

What was the first concert of the group as we know Humazapas today? The group’s members can halfway agree that it took place back in 2015. 

More than dates, the band remembers moments, such as the first time they were well received in a [backstage] dressing room, and that confirmed that premonition that their director, Jesús, had been constantly reminding them about: “Let's rehearse," because one day they are going to call us and leave us “a little fruit in the dressing room.” 

Having accepted gigs for transportation and food was part of the process. They did it for fun too. However, if Humazapas has been sustained over time it was because at one point they assumed a commitment that was always there but unconsciously: to give continuity to the legacy of their predecessors. 

This may sound cliché today, but ten and more years ago, generations of Kichwa youth asked themselves very few questions about their cultural heritage. The members of Humazapas took a different path with their heritage. They accepted it, studied it, played with it, broke it down, and rebuilt it with new and different elements, textures, and colors. 

The music of Humazapas is “traditional”, yes, or rather, it has a root, but it is unprecedented. It has been created in the contemporary context of its members. It includes harmonies, rhythms, arrangements, and chords that are not traditional in Kichwa music. They borrow from other musical genres in Ecuador and from around the world. 

The eighth song on the album, Hana Chagra, is a composition to the rhythm of “Chimbapura” that shares the same rhythmic pattern as the Bambuco [traditional music] of the Afro-Esmeraldeño [Afro-Ecuadorian communities on the nation’s Pacific coast]. The group’s video of Hana Chagra is a meeting of two cultures: from the Andes, the Kutakachi Kichwa people, and from the coast, the Afro-Esmeraldas people. 

Keepers of the flame 

Little by little, members of the public, young and old, began to accept the group’s vision. At that point, Humazapas went from being a seed project to a fully flowering reality. Last year they crossed the pond and toured France. This year, in October [of 2023], they will cross borders again and perform in Mexico. 

But with recognition also comes responsibility, and the responsibility that Humazapas carries is tremendous. Representing their language, traditions, and culture brings with it individual and collective commitments. The group’s members have been able to assume these obligations through continuously developing themselves, and by passing on their knowledge to younger generations. 

Chichu Burro, the fourth song on the album, is a musical composition in the Kapishka and Yumbo genre. It is a ritual song meant to awaken and converse with ancestral spirits. The video clip was directed by Víctor Manuel Checa, a Peruvian director, and shows the Kichwa “Ñawi Maillay” marriage ritual. 

With all that, the good and the bad, “we are a very privileged group,” acknowledges Citlalli, who in addition to being a dancer is the band's manager.  

Flor, a singer in the group, noted that in past times, it was forbidden for her grandparents to play Kichwa music and speak the language. 

An ecclesiastical ‘dictatorship’ existed during those times in Cotacachi County, that considered native cultural expressions to be pagan. In the face of these obstacles, community leaders used collective organization to find a way forward that would allow their traditions to survive. 

Despite such efforts, for many years these traditions were marginalized in favor of achieving survival by way of ‘folklorization’ and ‘traditionalism’, that involved ‘preserving the culture intact,’ without innovation. 

And because Humazapas understood along their journey that tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the conservation of fire (a phrase attributed to the Czech composer Gustav Mahler), Humazapas stands out among many other Andean music groups. They have a future. 

Throughout our entire interview, Humazapas continued to mention all the people who have extended a helping hand to them. The list is long. Some of the most notable include Alex Alvear, Fabiola Pazmiño, David West, Ivis Flies, Nicola Cruz, Steff Insuasti, and of course, their families and members of their community. 

*** 

While the world still insists that indigenous peoples and their artistic, philosophical, and cultural expressions belong in museums, inert, and frozen in time, Humazapas is the full manifestation of a culture in movement, whose heart beats with fervor. It will continue beating as long as our descendants exist. 

Are you interested in Kichwa culture? Don't go to a museum. Go listen to Humazapas' first album! As the daughter of Mama Kutakachi, all I have left to say is, Yupaichani!

Translated from the Spanish version: ¿Te interesa la cultura kichwa? No vayas a un museo. ¡Ve a escuchar el primer disco de Humazapas!

Katicnina Tituaña is an Ecuadorian Kichwa journalist, who lives between the cities of Quito and Cotacachi. She is currently the editorial director of the digital media Radio COCOA, a platform that disseminates the country's independent artistic, musical and cultural expressions. Her main activities are research and writing on issues around identity politics, socio-cultural tensions, and contemporary debates that run through the indigenous peoples and nationalities of Ecuador.