Singing Huasos: Politics, Chilenidad, and Music from 1910-1950

Resumen

This article examines through the lens of Chilean folk-based music how in the second quarter of the twentieth century, conservative and middle-class liberal notions of chilenidad and criollismo shifted alongside changing social and political perspectives. It begins with an overview of Chilean political developments in the early twentieth century and proceeds to illustrate how against this backdrop the conservative elite ultimately adopted a huaso (Chilean cowboy) based conception of chilenidad and worked to instill this notion of identity throughout the country as part of their efforts to quell working-class radicalism. The article also examines the shifting perspectives of a middle-class intelligencia, who in addition to advocating for more inclusive social and political reforms, began to adopt a wider notion of Chilean identity that extended beyond huaso imagery and the creole music of huaso groups. This wider notion of Chilean identity was rooted in the conception of folklore as an unfettered, unstylized expression of popular life throughout Chile, a conception of folklore that would influence the philosophical orientation of the nueva canción movement decades later.