After our excursion in Cuzco, Macchu Pichu and its surrounding little towns like Pisac, Oyantaytambo, Puca Pucara. We departure to back to Lima. The director and the writer of the documentary ‘Afro Latinos’ had to fly back to Colombia, to continue the doc and edit what was already filmed. Rich and I (Listen Recovery) spend one week an a half in Lima. Coincidentally my birthday was in 1 week. We took the time to finally do our digging in Peru. We had been waiting to at least have 3 days to dig some of the cultural artist in Peru. From Abanto Morales, Los Kipus, Zambo Cabero and obscurity music in the form of Funk like, Barrabas from Spain that recorded most of their albums in Lima, We are all together, Traffic Ave, Black Sugar and also the pre-punk era with bands like Los York, Los Belkin, Los Saicos (who brought the screaming style of Punk in the early 60’s). We had schedule to meet with some of the record collectors in Quilca St. (artwalk of Lima street). Vicente is a known collector of the old era in punk, rock and cumbias in Lima, he mainly caters to all the international collectors that visit Quilca for some record shopping. From Japanese to Australian diggers, visit every year “calle Quilca” to experience more about Peru Music culture and its rarities. At one point Lima was the capital of Latin America for recording and performing. From Venezuela salsa to Argentinian tango to Polka music, Lima was the center of attention during the 6o’s and most of the 70’s decade in the music industry. From Polydor plants to Odeon HQ.
Here are the last photos for this V part photo story telling article. From Lima to the world. We dig deep to get deeper…
Enjoy!
This last trip to our ‘barrio’ neighborhood in Breña, Lima where Rich and I grew up till we arrive in California. Has been the origin of every expedition though the Peruvian terrain. From Costal, Andes and Jungle. Rio Santiago 173 or how we refer to it “La casa vieja” “The old house”. The story goes that Rich and I never liked to leave the house of neighborhood, it was very dear to us. From our friends playing futbol in the concrete to the music bumpin’ out the windows on Saturday mornings. To the famous ‘esquina de la calle’ ‘corner of the street’ where ‘vecinos’ ‘neighbors’ would gather and talking about life while ‘wetting the words’ ‘mojando las palabras’, to drink while talking, ‘no politic’, why?, because there is only one glass cup going around and serving a 4th of the cup, to indulge in couple of zips and pass the cup to the next men. The men will serve the women if it was to pass it to the next and the next was the women. For example, a ‘blunt’ being pass, in this case it was a glass cup, with beer. This is how Peruvians drink. And they last till early hrs of next morning. The way of drinking in South America is more discreet in pace, but never discreet in amount. Nectar of ‘caña de azuca’ ‘sugar cane’. Is a small cut of extract of the cane. It has many proteins and capabilities to protect from viruses and illness, it serves as a shield for sickness. As well as a cure for hang-overs after a long day of drinking with your friends or family. Also it cures and prevents cough and flues. This new edition of natural drinks was all new to us. We had never seen this style of protein. So we where very happy to have this in our neighborhood in Breña. The lady that serves is been doing it for 3 years. And she makes about 80 cups a day at 1 sol or 0.50 centimos (small cup). We had one everyday we stayed in Lima. In ocattion with “Malita” our auntie. (this part of our story has been very personal) hope you enjoy.
Part of the reason of why we always come back to this very same place is because of this photo, the food by our ‘Malita’ Alejandrina Franco De Matheus. This is HOME!, this dish is a very traditional. Pure de Papas con Asado y arroz blanco. Man if you are a vegy… you’ll have it hard to resit in Peru… We tell you… Peruvian is consider the best in the world as we speak… shoot!… you should google that!…
And then, We did some digging…
It was the same city we visit every year for our digging time, Calle Quilca, 0.5 miles of cultural experiences. Starting with Records and ending with Books. Quilca is historical to Lima art. Is a very attractive street, from its artwork on the walls to its people working the vending booths for books art and music. Vicente is the man we visit for records, he has put us on some deep stuff from Peru. From Salsa to the early pre-punk era, to some psychedelic peruvian cumbias or what we call “Chicha Music”.
Luiz Enrique Alvizuri is a writer / composer from Peru. In 2003 his song Rema, Rema became the song of the year for the Oscars Academy. A peruvian writer that won an oscar was unheard off. In 2008 we visit “El Averno” a poets lounge in the center of Quilca st. To our surprise Luiz Alvizuri had perform at the very same place we where standing on 3 days prior. This is the poster on the entrance of the poets lounge at El Averno.
This show took place at ‘Teatro Peruano Japones’ November 18th and 19th 2008. Only two presentations, it was 6 years since Susana had not set foot on Peruvian grounds. She was overwhelmed during her concert. Give thanks to the crowd and expressing her love for her country. It was a beautiful night in Jesus Maria, city where the theatre is located. Rich and I took a taxi cab from Breña to the theatre. We thought the show started at 8pm, but it started at 9pm. So we got there an hr earlier. We decided to take a cab back to the house, since I had forgot my camera at home. I would off been mad at myself if I didn’t get some pictures taken of Susana. To my luck it was only 15 min in a cab back to Breña. We mingle with the homies for a few minutes and then took off to the show. We arrived around 8:45 pm, ready to experience the queen of ‘Lando’. It was mainly a mature crowd of fox. You now the older crowd 50 and up. Our eyes where on the stage the moment we took our seats. To our luck. The bottom seats (closer to the stage) didn’t not fill up the room. So Susana was kind to send an advise to bring the people in the balcony to the lower levels of the theater (the cheaper tickets). Rich and I rush to the bottom when we heard the ushers tell us the info. We took the front seats of the theater. Here are some photos.
My cousin Miguel “Micky” Matheus got on the phone and called all the homies in the ‘barrio’ for a celebration of my 31st as well as a farwell party. It was around 11:00 pm when I got home. Rich, Micky and I took a taxi to a bakery near the city and got a ‘selva negra’ 4 types of different chocolates cakes in one… uummm. bomb! By the time we got home. there was some of the homies posted in front of the house in Rio Santiago street.
The next morning was our last day in Peru, Nov. 21st. We had to be at the airport by 12pm to fly at 2am on Nov. 22nd. So the same day of our flight we embarked on a quick walk and taxi ride to various galleries to purchase a few last gifts and things we wanted to get… One of the many things we wanted to get is the famous Lacoste polos… the black market has them at $5 or $15 soles, at Polvos Azules you can find the same polos but better quality at double of the price. We took the best quality since it was still cheap…
Listen Recovery 