The old Jesuit missions of Chiquitos in the department of Santa Cruz (1691-1767) and those of Moxos in the department of Beni (1681-1767) constitute one of the main riches of the Bolivian regional and national cultural heritage. During the process of restoration of the Jesuit temples of these missions a great musical wealth was discovered: in Chiquitos 5,500 and in Moxos 7,000 sheets of sacred music written between the 17th and 18th centuries, both by European musicians and by the indigenous people of the zone and that was interpreted daily in these towns until the middle of the 19th century.

To this treasure is added the declaration of UNESCO in 1990 that named six villages of Chiquitos as Cultural Heritage of Humanity as “living towns”, since unlike other ancient Jesuit villages that only remain ruins, in Chiquitos they are still preserved its beautiful churches, musical scores, customs, clothing, parties, ceremonies, instrument manufacturing and many of them the musical tradition. These towns are San Xavier (240 km away from Santa Cruz de la Sierra), Concepción (290 km), Santa Ana (520 km), San Rafael (550 km), San Miguel (515 km) and San José de Chiquitos (280 km), but in addition there are the other missions although they have not been included in the declaration by UNESCO are part of this circuit and equally of extraordinary attraction; These missions are: San Ignacio de Velasco (460 km), Santiago de Chiquitos (420 km) and Santo Corazón (640 km).

The Festival created in 1996 by the Association Pro Art and Culture took place in three venues: Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Concepción and San Xavier. Today it reaches other villages (more than three thousand kilometers) that were former Jesuit missions from other regions of the Department of Santa Cruz and Beni, as well as Franciscan and Mercedarian missions from the territory of Santa Cruz. This project is unique because it revolves around this lively and dynamic cultural heritage of its peoples that keep their traditions in force.

For musicians it is like going back in history, a magical moment due to the historical-cultural connotations. Many times music arranged or created by the indigenous people of the place is interpreted, so cultural identification plays a fundamental role.

Those first missionaries could never imagine the way in which the Chiquitan peoples would appropriate those instruments and music they carried from Europe, incorporating them and adapting them to their own culture. To the end that four centuries later it can be said that Chiquitania (or Chiquitanía: it is accentuated in both ways) is one of the most melómana regions of the world, where Baroque music is still as alive and current as in the eighteenth century, nuanced and colored with local flavor by some communities whose idiosyncrasy reconciles, in an admirable way, the traditional and the modern, the artistic and the practical, the Spanish and the aboriginal language.

Mario Vargas Llosa (El País, 09/02/2014)

Full article by Mario Vargas Llosa for El País:

«Chiquitos y la música»