This Peruvian girl’s Michael Jackson cover will make you want to learn the dying language of Quechua

[Judi Lynn]

This Peruvian girl’s Michael Jackson cover will make you want to learn the dying language of Quechua

by Nidhi Prakash
August 18, 2015 8:18 AM

In the middle of ancient Incan ruins in the foot hills of the Peruvian Andes, 14-year-old Renata Flores Rivera brings together two things dear to her heart: the ancient Indigenous language of South America, Quechua, and Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” The result is gorgeous:

Renata Flores Rivera "The way you make me feel" Michael Jackson - Versión en Quechua


Flores spoke to Fusion from home on Monday afternoon after a full day at school.

“It’s a project called ‘Las juventudes tambien hablamos Quechua‘ (the youth, we speak Quechua too),” she said. She said it’s important for her “to be able to appreciate this language again, because we are losing it here in Peru.”

Flores’s mother, Patricia Rivera Canchanya, kicked off the campaign this year through a cultural association, la Asociación Cultural Surca, which she founded 11 years ago to promote arts and Peruvian culture in their home city of Huamanga (also known as Ayacucho). Rivera is also a musician, and set up a music school through the association. She said she saw an urgent need to pass on Quechua to younger generations, before the language is forgotten in Peru.

“I speak Quechua, but not very fluently anymore because we don’t use it,” she said. “They teach a lot here, English, which is also really important because it’s the global language, but we can’t abandon our roots because this is ours, it’s a heritage that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to lose.”

More:
http://fusion.net/story/184114/this-peruvian-girls-michael-jackson-cover-will-make-you-want-to-learn-the-dying-language-of-quechua/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=/section/news/feed/

[SamKnause]

1. Beautiful.

Thanks for posting.

Hello Judi.

I hope you and those you love and cherish are doing well.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thank you for checking on the song. I was so surprised to find it!

Doing great here, hope you and your loved ones are very well.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Nice. And this is interesting, too: The first polyphonic music written in Quechua,

in 1631.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Unbelievably beautiful, sung in the New World language. Amazing countertenor.

I would love to find this, to keep personally.

Had to look up the Wiki on this wonderful work:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanacpachap_cussicuinin

This information referred to the simultaneous painting school in Cusco, which is described in this Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuzco_School

The hymn you posted is so overwhelming it's awful when it ends. So happy to have heard it. Thank you.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Lovely, isn't it?

All 20 verses are on this recording (which I have and just love), which also has some other wonderful music. http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67600

[Judi Lynn]

6. Finally got a chance to put absolutely everything aside and listened to your excerpts

tonight. That album is unbelievably good.

Discovered I can get my own CD right here in the U.S. of A., and I'm going to do it, now that I know what I can look forward to hearing completely.

Until I get my own CD, I can at least listen to the excerpts again!]

Thank you for thinking of mentioning this music. It will reach more people now that there's a new enthusiastic fan. It is wonderful to have access to this "new" skilled, exquisite music.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I do. It's great stuff.