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The Song of the National Soul: Ecuadorian Pasillo in the Twentieth Century Author(s): KETTY WONG Source: Latin American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana, Vol. 32, No. 1

(SPRING/SUMMER 2011), pp. 59-87Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41348178Accessed: 08-04-2015 14:18 UTC

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KETTY WONG

The Song of the National Soul:

Ecuadorian Pasillo in the Twentieth Century

abstract: This article examines the social history of the Ecuadorian pasillo and its rise, decline, and pervasiveness as a musical symbol of the Ecuadorian national identity. It also explores the pasillo in relation to a widespread belief among Ecuadorians that being "sentimental" is a unique trait of their national character. I argue that the pasillos pervasiveness as a national symbol during the twentieth century is due to the multiplicity of meanings that it generates across age, ethnicity, gender and social classes.

keywords: Ecuador, nationalism, identity, popular music.

RESUMEN: Este artculo examina la historia social del pasillo ecuatoriano y su auge, ocaso, y permanencia como un smbolo musical de la identidad nacional ecuatoriana. Tambin analiza el pasillo en relacin a una creencia generalizada entre los ecuatorianos que ser "sentimental" es un rasgo particular de su carcter nacional. Sostengo que la permanencia del pasillo como un smbolo nacional durante la mayor parte del siglo XX se debe a la multiplicidad de significados que ste genera en grupos de distintas edades, etnicidades, gneros y clases sociales.

palabras clave: Ecuador, nacionalismo, identidad, msica popular

A foreign tourist who arrives in Ecuador and inquires about the country's most representative national music will be puzzled by the different answers he or she may get. Middle-aged and elderly Ecuadorians will favor the pasillo for its poetic and romantic lyrics that remind them of their youth, while younger generations will probably disdain it because of its sad and maudlin character. Many people, regardless of their socio-economic position, gender or other status, will claim that listening to pasillos is an invitation to drink heavily, especially when nursing a broken heart. Our foreign tourist may be surprised to hear many Ecuadorians proudly saying that the pasillo moves them to tears and that it is the song of the national soul. But he or she will find out a few days later that the music that Ecuadorians claim as emblematic of the nation is the least promoted by the government and the mass

Latin American Music Review, Volume 32, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2011 2011 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819


60 KETTY WONG

media. Are they all talking about the same music? How can a maudlin song associated with drunkenness be considered a national symbol? Why does the pasillo generate so many different reactions among Ecuadorians?

This article examines the rise and decline of the pasillo as the musical symbol of the Ecuadorian national identity. In Ecuador, as in many other Latin American countries, the hegemonic and, thus, elite conception of the national identity has been molded upon the ideology of mestizaje, a nation- building discourse which claims racial and cultural mixing of indigenous and Hispanic people as the essence of the nation. According to Stutzman (1981), this ideology styles itself as inclusive but is exclusionist in practice because it obliterates the unmixed Ecuadorian population (Indgenas and Afro-Ecuadorians) in the national imagination. Unlike in Mexico, where fos Vasconcelo's praise of mestizaje as a "cosmic race" discursively ele- vated the indigenous culture to a source of national pride, in Ecuador the ideology of mestizaje has been conceived as blanqueamiento (whitening). This is a process in which the indigenous people assimilate to the dominant culture, racially and culturally, in order to climb the social ladder to reach the privileges denied to indigenous people (Whitten 1981).

Culturally, the ideology of mestizaje is manifested in Ecuadorians' low esteem for the indigenous heritage of their national music, which is rooted in a colonial history of power relations in which "Indianness" has been constructed as synonymous with primitive, submissive, and back- ward people. The "whitening" of Ecuadorian national music is especially embodied in the elite pasillo, a musical genre that has been stripped of the indigenous elements feeding into the concept of the "mestizo." This pasillo, whose lyrics sing to feelings of love and nostalgia in an elegant poetry, is stylistically different from the working-class pasillo that emerged in the late 1970s in the aftermath of the massive rural-to-urban migrations and the processes of modernization, urbanization, and industrialization in the country. The working-class pasillo portrays the urban life experiences and aesthetic values of the subaltern populations and is scorned by the elites for its association with cantinas (bars) and working-class ambiences. The co-existence and popularity in the late twentieth century of both types of pasillo - the elite pasillo and the working-class pasillo - has given rise to a series of discussions and debates about the standing of the pasillo as a symbol of Ecuadorian national identity. I argue that the pervasiveness of the pasillo as an emblematic expression of "Ecuadorian- ness" throughout the twentieth century is due to the multiplicity of images, memories, and meanings it generates across age, gender, ethnicity and social status.

In addition to ethnic and class connotations of the pasillo, I examine its relation to a widespread belief among Ecuadorians that singing in a heartfelt manner, as if the singer had experienced the stories of unrequited


The Song of the National Soul 6 1

love and despair narrated in the lyrics, is a unique trait of their national character. Ecuadorians easily respond to emotional performances of the pasillo and are proud of being able to express their sensitivity in both dis- cursive and public ways. I argue that the pasillo has been an effective tool for the articulation of a national sentiment that stresses feelings of loss and despair as a mechanism of control and maintenance of social hierarchies. In this study, feelings and emotions are seen as identity markers shaped by the social and cultural milieu in which they are produced, rather than as simply personal expressions.

The pasillo has also been popular in Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa Rica,1 but only in Ecuador has it become a prominent and enduring symbol of national identity. I trace the history of the Ecuadorian pasillo from archival sources, oral histories, public discourses in the media, recordings, annotated songbooks, and interviews with music entrepreneurs, national artists and the general public. The first section of this article describes the musical characteristics of the pasillo and various hypotheses explaining its possible origin. Then I explore the stylistic changes this musical genre un- derwent throughout the twentieth century, from a lower-class expression early in the century to an elite cultural symbol in the 1920S-1950S to its re-appropriation by the popular classes in the late 1970s. The next sections examine the crystallization of an Ecuadorian national sentiment, the ambiguous image of the female figure in the pasillo, and the decline of the elite pasillo in the 1980s.

I. The Ecuadorian Pasillo

The pasillo is often defined as a poem set to music. In fact, this defini- tion actually describes the way in which popular composers wrote their songs in the 1920S-1950S; they selected poems written by upper- and middle-class intellectuals in a refined poetry. Although the pasillo may be performed in various ways,2 the standardized form features duet singing in parallel thirds accompanied by a guitar and a requinto (a small high- pitched guitar). The rhythmic accompaniment consists of a basic triple- meter waltz-derived pattern, made up of two eighth notes followed by an eighth rest, an eighth note, and a quarter note.

musical example i. Waltz and Pasillo Rhythm Patterns.

1J J J 1

waltz pasillo


62 KETTY WONG

The harmonic accompaniment is based on simple triadic chord pro- gressions (I-IV-I, I-V-I, and I-IV-V-I), often enriched with brief modulations to the secondary dominant in a major key. In the 1920s and 1930s, pasillos were written in three or four sections according to the number of stanzas in the poem, each of which introduced new melodic material. By the mid-twentieth century, a binary form, with predominance of minor keys and inclusion of an instrumental refrain between the stanzas, had become the norm.

In Ecuador, pasillos are distinguished according to their geographical origin - pasillo costeo (from the coast) and pasillo serrano (from the highlands). These pasillos display differences in tempo and musical character, but do not carry connotations of class. Pasillos serranos tend to be slower, melancholy, and in the minor mode, while pasillos costeos are faster, hap- pier, and harmonically more varied.

II. Origin Discourses about the origin of a musical genre often provide a forum for the study of identity politics and people's identification with particular ethnic or social groups. Rather than looking for concrete answers to the question of origin, which might be difficult to pin down, I examine this question as a site where discourses and foundational myths are created, legitimized, and manipulated according to the interests of dominant groups. In the first half of the twentieth century, Ecuadorian historians and writers claimed connections between the pasillo and musical genres of either Ecuadorian or European origin based on questionable arguments. To explain their particular stances, they have drawn attention to the etymology of the word, and to the musical character and lyrical content of the pasillo, but often es- chewed detailed musicological analysis. As a result, most of these hypotheses are subjective and only reflect the intellectuals' desires to locate the origin of the Ecuadorian nationhood in either the Hispanic or indigenous roots of the mestizo nation. Many people have taken these hypotheses for granted because of the academic and literary prestige of the authors, and also because these hypotheses have been repeatedly cited in the press.

From a Eurocentric perspective, historian Gabriel Cevallos Garca re- gards the pasillo as a local version of the German lied, while Humberto Toscano links its nostalgic character to the Portuguese fado (Guerrero 1996). The association of the pasillo with the lied and the fado is tenuous and lacks concrete historical or musical evidence. The pasillo most resem- bles the lied in that both genres set refined poetry to music, characteristic of many musical genres. The linking of the pasillo to the fado comes from the perception that both genres embody feelings of loss and nostalgia (the Portuguese notion of saudade ), sentiments highly valued in both Ecuador


The Song of the National Soul 63

and Portugal. This similarity alone, however, does not prove that the pasillo had its origins in the fado any more than it would for other genres of the Americas that also have that characteristic, such as the tango or the blues. Concrete evidence is required, but absent.

References to the pasillo in literary works by Jos de la Cuadra and Carlos Aguilar Vsquez suggest origins in the Basque zortzico and the French passepied, respectively, again without solid support for these claims. A folk- loric dance in 5/8 meter, the zortzico has no musical resemblance to the waltz-like pasillo. The common root of the words - pasillo and passe pied - does not provide enough evidence to link one genre with the other. The hypotheses suggesting a European origin for the pasillo reflect a desire to "whiten" the pasillo and find its origin in the Hispanic heritage of the mestizo nation.

By contrast, claims that associate the pasillo with native musical practices reflect a desire to vindicate its local origin. Musicologist Segundo Luis Moreno, the Ecuadorian Bla Bartk who in the early twentieth century compiled and transcribed many indigenous and folk melodies from the north- ern highlands, argues that there is a close connection between the pasillo and the extinct toro rabn , a triple-meter dance with a rhythmic pattern similar to that of the pasillo, which was apparently popular in the late nineteenth century (Moreno 1996: 71).3 Writers Gerardo Falconi, Arturo Montesinos, and Jos Mara Vargas suggest that the pasillo received influences from the sanjuanito, the yarav, and the pase del nio, respectively (Guerrero 1996). While the pasillo has been influenced by the melodic contours and typical cadences of the yarav and the sanjuanito in the early twentieth century (Wong 1999), these indigenous musical genres have a duple-meter rhythm that set them apart from the triple-meter pasillo. Finally, the ostensible association between the pasillo and the pase del nio (the passing by of the Christ-Child), an Ecuadorian villancico performed in Christmas processions in the city of Cuenca, is based on the etymology of the words pasillo and pase , rather than on musical similarities, of which none can be discerned.

From a diffusionist point of view - one that suggests that musics have spread geographically from one region to another - most music scholars agree that the pasillo was a local form of the European waltz, which came to current Ecuadorian territories from Colombia during the wars of independence. In fact, pasillo is a diminutive form of paso (step) and describes the short jump-like waltz steps of the dance. The popularity of the Austrian waltz in the first half of the nineteenth century, with the works of Johann Strauss (father and son), coincides with the emergence of the instrumental pasillo in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, which in the early 1800s were territories of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, and from 1822 to 1830 of the Gran Colombia Confederation. It is logical to assume that local forms of the Austrian waltz had immense popularity in


64 KETTY WONG

the newly independent republics, though it acquired a regional flavor in each country - the Colombian pasillo was influenced by the bambuco , the Venezuelan by the joropo, and the Ecuadorian by the sanjuanito and the yarav (Portaccio 1994, V. 2: 136).

The foreign origin of the Ecuadorian pasillo is a topic of frequent concern of upper-middle-class intellectuals. Historian Jorge Nez (1980), for example, describes the pasillo as "hijo bastardo de la independencia y hermano ge- melo de la repblica" (the bastard son of independence and the twin brother of the republic), pointing to its illegitimate (i.e., non-Ecuadorian) origin and close kinship with the Colombian pasillo. Many Ecuadorians I talked with also felt apologetic about the foreign origin of the pasillo, even though they believe that it truly reflects what it means for them to be Ecuadorian.

III. The Nationalization of the Pasillo

As in most Latin American countries, the independence of Ecuador from Spain in 1822 was basically an exchange of political power from peninsula- res (Spaniards born in Spain) to criollos (Spaniards born in America), rather than an emancipation of the subaltern populations (Quintero and Silva 1991). As a "Creole Nation," Ecuador maintained colonial forms of government and culture during the nineteenth century. In the performing arts, the elites cultivated European dances such as the mazurca, the cuadrilla, the schottische, and the waltz. As a local form of waltz, the nineteenth-century pasillo, was primarily an instrumental music performed by military bands and estudiantinas (ensembles of guitar-like instruments) in outdoor venues. The pasillo was also adapted into salon music compositions by middle- class composers with formal music training, such as Aparicio Cordova (1840S-1934) and Sixto Mara Durn (1875-1947).

It is well known that new cultural symbols emerge as national expressions when new groups come to power, and the pasillo is no exception. The Liberal Revolution of 1895 shifted control of the government from conservative and religious-oriented highland elites, who had concentrated economic power in the landowning system, to the coastal elites, a liberal group that had accumulated wealth and control of the bank system through a cacao-exporting economy. The Revolution sought the modernization and integration of Ecuador through the expansion of a market economy, the construction of a national railway system, and the secularization of educa- tion and civil society. Most importantly, the revolution brought to promi- nence new social actors - peasants, artisans, and workers - who were incorporated in the imagination of a white-mestizo nation.

The Liberal Revolution set the social, economic and political conditions for the emergence of the pasillo-cancin (pasillo-song) in the early twentieth century. From a purely instrumental form in the nineteenth century, the



pasillo was transformed into a love song frequently sung in serenades to the accompaniment of a guitar. The secularization of society facilitated the appearance in the early 1900s of Modernismo , a Spanish-American literary movement that expresses a "personal lyricism" and "the longing for a gen- uine American artistic expression" (Handelsman 1981). Modernist poetry was cultivated by the aristocracy defeated in the Revolution, who expressed their sorrows and loss of political power in poems depicting evasive feelings of love that are never reciprocated. It is unlikely that the pasillo could have emerged as a love song before the 1890s due to the religious fervor and conservatism of Ecuadorian society, which prevented the development of artistic expressions centered on worldly matters, such as the pleasures and bitterness of love. The fact that most music scores from the 1870s and 1880s found in national music archives are essentially salon music and military band music supports this view.

Many Ecuadorians believe that the pasillo has always been a romantic love song; however, this genre changed stylistically from a lower-class cultural form in the early twentieth century to a poetic song of the elite classes in the 1930s. The stylistic changes were not just the product of individual or random artistic choices but a reflection of a cultural hegemony imposed and naturalized from above.

A. The Early Twentieth-Century Pasillo

A close examination of El aviador ecuatoriano , a songbook from the early 1920s, reveals that the lyrical content and language style of some early twentieth-century pasillos were associated with the images and speech of lower-class ambiences. A type of pasillo, known in this period as cancin de maldicin (song of damnation), uses vulgar terms to express a man's anger toward an unfaithful woman who has deceived him. The pasillo "A mi amor pasado" (To My Past Love) by Julio Flores, for example, portrays the young woman the song is intended to describe as a "shameless whore" and "daughter of vice" who sells her body in "orgies" - very direct and explicit imagery not typical of the upper class.

Bien te conozco impdica ramera Comprendo tu existencia miserable Eres hija del vicio, eres artera Y es tu ideal el pecado abominable.

Hiciste de tu cuerpo mercancas Que cambiastes por oro a precios viles Y bebiste del placer en las orgas Cuando solo contabas quince abriles.


66 KETTY WONG

I know you well, shameless whore I understand your miserable existence You are the daughter of vice, you are cunning And your ideal is abominable sin.

You made your body a commodity That you exchanged for gold at high prices And you drank of pleasure in the orgies When you were only fifteen years old.

El aviador ecuatoriano also reveals what seems to have been a common practice in this period, namely, the paraphrasing of popular pasillos. "Te perdono" (I Forgive You), for instance, paraphrases the verses of one of the most popular pasillos in the national music anthology, "El alma en los labios" (The Soul on the Lips). A comment in the songbook indicates that the lyrics should be sung to the music of the famous pasillo composed by Francisco Paredes Herrera. Rather than a poetic declaration of love, as is the case in the original lyrics by poet Medardo ngel Silva, the new text makes public the complaints of a man whose woman has been unfaithful to him. The lyrics are dedicated to "H. I. G. F.," an "espiritual damita" (spiritual lady), as decent women from well-to-do families were called at that time.

Cuando t ya te canses de vivirme engaando y contemples con horror tus mentidas palabras. Vers qu mal te has hecho con haberme engaado al hombre que te amaba con todo el corazn.

When you get tired of always deceiving me And contemplate with horror your lying words You will see the wrong you've done yourself by deceiving me The man who loved you with all his heart.

Despite the immense popularity of the "songs of damnation," as their frequent inclusion in songbooks suggests, these early twentieth-century pasillos did not enter the national music anthology. In general, musical genres raised to the level of national symbols represent the aesthetic values of the upper-middle classes and undergo cleansing processes to eliminate textual and musical features that point to "undesirable" ethnic, class, or regional differences within a nation. Ochoa (2003), for example, points out the multiplicity of forms that the Colombian bambuco had as a regional music before its nationalization by the Andean elites, and how the musical features pointing to its African roots were eliminated to construct sonic images of a homo- geneous nation. In the next sections, I will examine the cleansing process of the Ecuadorian pasillo as well as the role of the media in its nationalization.



B. The Pasillo in the gos-ig^os The 1920s and 1930s were a period of political turmoil and social consciousness in the arts with the emergence of workers' unions, socialist parties, and progressive cultural movements in Ecuadorian literature and painting such as Indigenismo and Realismo Social. A group of left-wing writers and painters from the Costa and the Sierra - Jorge Icaza, Oswaldo Guayasamn, and the "Group of Guayaquil" - denounced the exploitation of montubios , cholos , mestizos , negros, and Indians in their novels and paintings, thus providing a complex picture of an ethnically diverse Ecuadorian population.4

Concurrently to these cultural movements, an aristocratic wing of upper- and middle-class intellectuals produced stories of unrequited love and despair in a cosmopolitan poetry that had little connection to the lives of the common people. In the 1920s, these poets appropriated and transformed the "songs of damnation" into "classy" songs that expressed national pride and an idealization of the female figure using a refined modernist poetry. Modernist poetry was easy to set to music because of its eloquent lyrics, consonance, and simple structure. In Ecuador, Modernismo found its best exponents in the "Generacin decapitada" (Beheaded Generation), whose poets - Medardo ngel Silva, Arturo Borja, Ernesto Noboa y Caamao, and Humberto Fierro - ended their lives tragically in early adulthood. Other upper and middle-class poets, such as Jos Maria Egas, Pablo Hannibal Vela, Abel Romero Castillo, Lauro Dvila, and Csar Maquiln, gave their poetry a more optimistic and romantic tone than did the "Generacin decapitada."

Csar Maquiln, a school teacher and author of some of the most popular pasillos in the national music anthology, described in his old age how middle-class poets and musicians cleaned up the "songs of damnation" and discussed the relationship of these artists to the aristocratic circles in the 1920S-1930S. In his youth, Maquiln and other middle-lower-class musicians and writers were often invited to social and literary gatherings in upper-middle-class homes. In these events, guests entertained themselves and each other by reading poems and performing songs composed by members of the group. Maquiln recalls that he and Nicasio Safadi, a well known singer/songwriter of pasillo, changed the lyrics and the music of "Isabel," a typical example of a "Song of Damnation." Instead of saying " Maldita tu trampa , vagabunda

" (Damn your tricks, vagabond woman), he

employed more subtle expressions to depict the man's anger and only indi- rectly referred to the pains of love. Maquiln stated, "I have never written out of hate or resentment. I have always sung about tenderness, emotion, sweetness, and true love."5

To transform this pasillo into a "classy" song, Safadi added musical features that were unusual for the "songs of damnation," such as adding an introduction and short instrumental interludes between the stanzas and embellishing the musical arrangement with brief modulations and


68 KETTY WONG

a walking bass line. I include the first strophe Maquiln wrote for this song, which was recorded in 1930 with the title "La divina cancin" (The Divine Song).

Al pie de tu reja te canto adorada, la dulce y sentida cancin del dolor; Despierta, te ruego, mi nunca olvidada, Despierta y escucha, mujer tan amada, Mi canto de amor.

At the bottom of your balcony I sing to you, my love, The sweet and heartfelt song of pain; Wake up, I beg you, my never-forgotten darling, Wake up and listen, beloved woman, To my chant of love.

It is often the case that popular musics raised to national symbols by the elites are more likely than the "songs of damnation" to express affection for a country's geography and to praise the beauty and bravery of its people.6 Obviously, the lyrical content by itself does not explain why these songs gain national status within and outside the country. The key factor leading to the nationalization of the pasillo in the 1920S-1930S lies in the recording and promotion of the pasillo as emblematic by the elites, the government, and the music industry.

C. The Mass Media In search of new music markets, Victor and Columbia Records recorded the popular music of several countries in the early twentieth century. At first, pasillos were recorded by studio orchestras in Italy, Spain, and Ger- many and were performed according to the performance practice of each country. Pasillos recorded in Spain, for example, were accompanied by cas- tanets and performed in a faster tempo than those recorded in Italy (Wong 1999). In the mid-i92os, vocal pasillos were recorded in Havana and New York by Latin American bel canto singers such as Margarita Cueto, Jos Mojica, and Carlos Mejia from Mexico (Pro 1997, 48).

What began as a business strategy to capture the local music market was perceived by Ecuadorians as international praise for the pasillo. The choice of the pasillo as the Ecuadorian music to be recorded raises ques- tions about the influence of international record companies in the articulation of a country's musical identity. Did these companies select the pasillo because of its local popularity, or was their choice based on parameters that had little relation to local preferences as, for example, the international



promotion of sentimental songs such as the tango and the blues in the early twentieth century?

In 1911, Antenor Encalada, an Ecuadorian music entrepreneur and representative of the German company Favorite Records in Ecuador, made the first local recordings of Ecuadorian music by military bands and popular musicians from Guayaquil and Quito (Pro 1997, 74). While the recordings were made in Ecuador, the records were manufactured in Linden. From a total of 272 pieces recorded, there were 67 pasillos, 47 valses , 43 canciones, 17 marchas , 13 polkas, 12 pasodobles, 10 habaneras , and fewer numbers of other genres such as chilenas, boleros, and bambu- cos (Pro 1997, 83). About 25 percent of the pieces were pasillos, and of these, soloists and duos with single-guitar accompaniment comprised the majority. It is worth noting that, with the exception of two yaraves, no other indigenous or mestizo musical genre from Ecuador was recorded in this first local production, which suggests that Encalada may have as- sumed that these types of music would not sell well among their intended upper-middle-class clients.

The year 1930 is significant in the history of Ecuadorian popular music because it was the first time that Ecuadorian artists recorded Ecuadorian music abroad. Until then, Ecuadorian music had been recorded by local singers in Ecuador or by foreign artists abroad. The "heroic feat," as the newspapers called this accomplishment, was the idea of Jos Domingo Feraud Guzmn, a visionary entrepreneur who financed the trip of Do Ecuador to New York. Do Ecuador was made up of Nicasio Safadi and Enrique Ibez Mora, two renowned pasillo interpreters and composers from Guayaquil.7 They recorded 38 songs for Columbia Records, most of which were especially composed for this trip. The promotion of these records was centered on the release of the pasillo "Guayaquil de mis amores" (Guayaquil of My Love), written by Lauro Dvila (lyrics) and Nicasio Safadi (music). This song, which has become a popular anthem of Guayaquil, was the first pasillo devoted to a city rather than to feelings of love and nostalgia and had an enormous impact on Ecuadorians' perception of themselves and their idea of nationhood. (See Figure 1)

T eres perla que surgiste del ms grande e ignoto mar y que al son de tu arrullar en jardn te convertiste, soberano en tus empeos nuestro Dios form un pensil con tus bellas, Guayaquil, Guayaquil de mis ensueos.

Si a tus rubias y morenas que enloquecen de pasin, Les palpita un corazn que mitiga negras penas, con sus ojos verdes mares o de negro anochecer siempre imponen su querer, Guayaquil de mis cantares . . .


70 KETTY WONG

You are the pearl that emerged from the greatest and most unknown sea And in the sound of your lullaby you became a garden, Steadfast in your efforts our God made a painting With your beautiful women, Guayaquil, Guayaquil of my dreams.

If your blondes and brunettes that make you mad of passion A heart beats in them that alleviates deep sorrows With her green eyes resembling the sea, or the dark evening They always impose their will, Guayaquil of my songs . . .

figure i . " Guayaquil de mis amores lbum musical ecuatoriano (n.d.). source: SAD RAM.

Guayaquil de mis amores Lyrics: Lauro Dvila Music: Nicasio Safadi

13 - - - - --

< Te-res per-la que sur - gis - te del ms gran-de igno-to ma - ar y que al son de tu a - rru llar

l'"f 1 Ipfflj 1 Pi FF 1[[[[1

/ en jar-din te con-ver tis - te, so-be-ra-noen tus em pe - os nues-tro Dios for-mun pen-

Ijplp

pe - nues-tro Dios for-mun

F F

l^'l" I rr I- I* F l'i 7 ( f F F F N i < si' con tus be -lias, Gua - ya - quii, Gua-ya-quil de mis en - sue - os.

1 1 Mf'ii 't 1"1


The Song of the National Soul 7 1

Ecuadorians regarded Feraud Guzmn' s initiative to record Ecuador- ian music in New York as the display of Ecuadorian music to the world. The Ecuadorian Consulate sponsored several concerts of Duo Ecuador on the WNYC radio station to commemorate two important civic holidays in Ecuador - the "First Shout For Independence" (August 10, 1809) and the Independence Day of Guayaquil (October 9, 1820). The latter concert was simultaneously transmitted in Guayaquil through a short-wave radio trans- mission. On their way back to Ecuador, the Ecuadorian Embassies in Ha- vana and Panama City sponsored several performances of Duo Ecuador.8

In Guayaquil, the recordings of Do Ecuador sold out as soon as they reached the music store. One advertisement in Diario El Universo an- nounced that 30,000 people, about 30 percent of Guayaquil's population in 1930, had gathered in the Plaza del Centenario (main square in downtown Guayaquil) to listen to the new releases. A newspaper cartoon from this period suggests the importance of these recordings for Ecuadorian people in increasing their country's profile on the international stage. Safadi and Ibez are drawn on a map of the Americas, depicted with the skyscraper city of New York at their backs and throwing records toward South America and the entire world (Figure 2).

"Guayaquil de mis amores" accompanied a silent movie of the same name, which was filmed for the triumphant return home of Do Ecua- dor. The film, also sponsored by Feraud Guzmn, was basically a love story

figure 2. Cartoon of Do Ecuador in New York. El Universo (1930). Source: Feraud Guzmn, J. D. Historia de una hazaa y sus protagonistas.


72 KETTY WONG

F i g R e . Newspaper advertisement promoting the film Guayaquil de mis amores (1930). Source: Feraud Guzman, J. D. Historia de una hazaa y sus protagonistas.

showing the landscapes, people, and architecture of Guayaquil. It also showed typical urban scenes of this port city, such as bullfights, soccer games, and scenes of elite people leaving elegant theaters in the downtown area (Figure 3). The film was so popular that 70,000 people, nearly 70 percent of Guayaquil's population, had seen it in just a few weeks (Granda 2004, 132).9

The pasillo "Guayaquil de mis amores" not only put the name of Ec- uador on the international music map but promoted the pasillo as an essential element of Ecuadorian identity. Subsequent pasillos devoted to the city reinforced this association: "Guayaquil, prtico de orow (Guayaquil, Golden Portal) by Carlos Rubira Infante, and "La nia guayaquilea" (The Girl from Guayaquil) by Nicasio Safadi. Pasillos dedicated to other cities and provinces also became symbols of regional and national pride, such as "Alma Loj ana" (Soul of Loja) and "Manabi."

Before the arrival of recording technology, pasillos were disseminated by military bands and estudiantinas and through pianolas and sheet music.



Records and radio, however, proved to be more effective and immediate outlets for large-scale dissemination. Live performances of pasillos had been limited to small audiences, but now radio was capable of reaching much larger audiences, and the low cost of receivers made the listening of pasillos much more accessible and indiscriminate. Radio stations, such as Radio Quito in the capital city, had their own orchestras accompanying daily transmissions and organized live music programs with professional and amateur singers. Well known national artists, such as Do Bentez- Valencia and Hermanas Mendoza-Suasti, started their artistic careers in Radio Quito.

It is worth noting that the elite pasillos from the 1920S-1950S are usually referred to as msica nacional. Msica nacional is a term widely used in Ecuador as surrogate appellation of the "official" Ecuadorian music.10 In Ecuador, to talk about msica nacional and the pasillo is to talk about a pantheon of venerated poets, composers, and performers from the Costa and the Sierra, whose names are frequently mentioned in annotated songbooks compiled by Ecuadorian-music enthusiasts. These songbooks re- count the stories of how the lyrics and the music of the most popular pasillos were written and include music scores, pictures and brief biog- raphies of well known poets, composers, and performers. The first anthology of this kind was Florilegio del pasillo ecuatoriano by Alberto Morls Gutirrez (1961), followed by many others published between the 1980s and the early 2000s.11

IV. The National Sentiment

Alejandro Pro (2004), a music collector of pasillo and tango records, argues that "Anybody can sing baladas, anybody can sing boleros; however, pasillos are not sung, they are interpreted" [my emphasis]. To support his view, Pro quotes the words of Hernn Restrepo Duque, a Colombian music researcher and record collector, who once told him: "What do you [Ecuador- ians] have to envy [referring to the tango], if the pasillo - in sentiment - is superior?" (Pro 2004, 68). Ecuadorian singers also express similar views regarding the importance of singing and playing the guitar with sentiment. Juanita Burbano, for example, recalls the words of a Peruvian friend who once told her: "I have paid lessons to learn how to play pasillos . . . with the same sentiment expressed by Ecuadorian musicians, but I cannot play like them."12 Teresita Andrade, another pasillo singer, proudly stated in an interview: "Ecuadorians are fantastic at interpreting songs with sentiment!" Her husband added: "Colombians also have pasillos, but they are different. . . . In singing their tropical music Colombians express another type of sentiment, one of happiness." Then, with even more emotion than his wife, he exclaimed: "Lo nuestro hace llorar!" (Our music makes people cry!).13


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Rather than questioning the truth of these statements, I am more inter- ested in analyzing Ecuadorians' ideas about the uniqueness of the pasillo to raise such a strong emotional response. When I asked people from different social classes why they thought the pasillo is an emblematic expression of the Ecuadorian national identity, they often stressed "suffering" and being "sentimental," instead of a more optimistic feeling, as salient attributes of their nationality. By "sentimental" I mean being overtly sensitive and emotional to pasillo performances, to the point of finding gratification in the idea of suffering and "crying" over the loss of someone or something important in one's life. But this notion of "sentimental" is not synonymous with "romantic," a more optimistic feeling that conveys the illusion of being in love without the melancholy, sufferings, and sense of loss that typify the pasillo. Why are Ecuadorians proud of a music that moves them to tears (hace llorar )? Why is a song that most Ecuadorians perceive today as sad and maudlin such a strong metaphor for the nation?

In his analysis of Guayaquilean identity, Benavides (2006) points to the importance of feelings and emotions in the production and maintenance of social hierarchies, which are shaped by ethnic, racial, class, gender, and generational aspects. The elites' articulation of a national sentiment seeks to discipline people's ways of thinking, feeling, and acting; once internalized it becomes a sort of doxa that remains uncontested and is reproduced unconsciously (Bourdieu 1977). In other words, it becomes an internalized form of domination that guarantees the reproduction of a hierarchical social order from above, but disguised in what people think is a "way of being" of Ecuadorians.

According to Benavides, Medardo ngel Silva (1898-1919) crystallized with his modernist poetry "structures of feelings" that were just beginning to emerge during his lifetime and slowly became a dominant social formation. For Benavides, Silva's poetry "captures centuries of defeat and rejection by a colonial past and a postcolonial rereading of the past" (2006, 38). Following Raymond Williams's "structures of feelings," he analyzes the social experiences that shaped Silva's life and poetry as a "cultural hy- pothesis" that needs to be reassessed once the "structures of feeling" have been formalized and institutionalized. To these ends, Benavides examines Silva's poem "El alma en los labios," as well as his lower-class origins and the aristocratic circles in which he moved as a poet.

"El alma en los labios" is a well known poem that has been imbued with tragic meanings due to the fact that Silva wrote it a few days before commit- ting suicide at age twenty. Journalists and literary critics have interpreted this poem as a forewarning of his death because one of its verses alludes to his thought to end his life the day his beloved woman leaves him. Ac- cording to annotated songbooks, Paredes Herrera, who was in Cuenca at the moment of Silva's death and had met with him a few years earlier in



Guayaquil, read the poem in the newspaper and, impressed by the content and lyricism of its verses, set it to music a few days later. Once released, the song became a national hit and has maintained a life of its own. Current associations of the pasillo with images of sadness, suffering, and suicide greatly derive from this poem and the mysterious circumstances of Silva' s death. Most Ecuadorians know this story well not only because "El alma en los labios" is one of the best-known pasillos in the msica nacional anthology and the story of Silva' s death has been frequently recounted in newspapers and songbooks, but also because the study of Silva's poetry, as the most representative expression of Modernismo in Ecuador, is required in high school literature programs.

Cuando de nuestro amor, la llama apasionada Dentro tu pecho amante contemples ya extinguida Ya que solo por ti la vida me es amada El da en que me faltes me arrancar la vida.

When the passionate flame of our love You see has already been extinguished within your loving chest Since it is only because of you that I cherish life The day you leave is the day I will end my life.

"El alma en los labios" has been central to the cultural production of a feeling of loss, of not attaining, of not being able to hold on to the object of one's desire (Benavides 2006). Although the lyrics refer to the loss of a woman's love, the loss can also refer to a loss of a mother, a homeland, a dream, or any significant loss that leaves one with feeling hopeless and abandoned. For Benavides, the man's identity in the pasillo is based on self-rejection, which arises from "the anguish and pain that come from not fitting in," both ethnically and socially (2006, 93). He argues that Ecuador- ians' self-rejection developed through years of colonial rejection of the native population and that the expressions of unrequited love and despair are intimately related to a postcolonial reality of repressed desire, which makes suffering an essential element to the constitution of the self (idem).

Following this line of thought, I suggest that the pervasive feelings of loss and non-fulfilled love depicted in the pasillo reflect to a great extent Ecuadorians' denial of the indigenous heritage in their mestizo national consciousness as a result of the colonial experience of oppression and stigmatization of indigenous people. Espinosa Apolo (2000) argues that Ecuadorian mestizos have developed a "negative ethnic identity" since the colonial period as a result of trying to differentiate themselves from indigenous people in order to reach opportunities denied to the latter group. This attitude produces a rupture between their external and inner selves


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because while in public mestizos seek to "whiten" their look and style of living, thus giving the impression of assimilating to the dominant culture, in the private sphere they keep alive their cultural values and traditions. For Espinosa Apolo, mestizos live a life of constant simulacrum, which produces a rejection of, or low esteem for their culture. In my view, these feelings of self-rejection are expressed in the pervasive images of loss and despair in the pasillo.

While feelings of loss and nostalgia were embodied in the lyrics of "El alma en los labios," they were not yet present in its musical performance in the 1920S-1930S. A recording of this pasillo by Margarita Cueto illustrates the absence of these feelings. Despite its sad lyrics, she sings this song in an up-beat tempo suitable for dancing. Other pasillos recorded in this period, such as those by Do Ecuador in 1930, also maintain a lively and danceable tempo. These performances greatly differ from the pasillos recorded in the late 1940s and 1950s by Duo Benitez-Valencia and Hermanas Mendoza-Suasti, as well as from current performances, which tend to be in a slower tempo and in a weeping tone.

I suggest that the pervasive discourse that Ecuadorians are sentimental people arose and became a dominant social formation in the mid-twentieth century. The elite pasillo could not have been considered a nostalgic and sentimental song in the 1920s and 1930s, as many Ecuadorians think today. First, it was the center of public attention and a source of national pride as a result of the "heroic fea achieved by Do Ecuador in New York. Second, the pasillo was a means of socialization in retretas , a courting song in serenades, and a music Ecuadorians happily danced to in social gatherings. Third, the national music anthology was not yet established because many of the songs that were to appear in it had yet to be composed. Finally, most poets and composers who were born at the turn of the twentieth century were in their youth or early adulthood looking to the future for opportunities, rather than experiencing nostalgia for yesteryear.

I propose that Ecuadorians' current perception of the pasillo as sad and sentimental music was "constructed" in the aftermath of Ecuador's loss of half of its national territory in the Rio de Janeiro Protocol. This was a treaty signed in 1942 to resolve a longstanding and bitter border dispute between Peru and Ecuador (Quintero and Silva 1991), which marked a breaking point in the crystallization of the "structure of feelings" that was in early formation in Silva' s poem. This loss was a painful experience for the Ecuadorian people, who saw themselves defeated and mutilated in their sovereignty.4 To overcome this psychological trauma, Benjamn Camn, writer and founder of Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana (1944), put forth his thesis of the "gran nacin pequea" (great small nation), which held that if Ecuador could not be a great nation through its military forces, politics, and economy, it would be one through its culture and arts (Carrion 2002, 21-22).



Greece and Israel, he asserted, were excellent illustrations of his thesis because of the enormous influence their cultural legacies have had on modern times. It is worth noting that the Ecuadorian culture advocated by Carrin was a "highbrow" culture, rather than the culture of the common people.

By the mid-twentieth century the pasillo was performed in a slower tempo and had lost its danceable character. New pasillos with strong over- tones of loss and nostalgia for an idealized past were composed in the 1940s, such as "Romance de mi destino" (Romance of My Destiny), a poem of Abel Romeo Castillo set to music by Gonzalo Vera Santos. Castillo, a journalist and writer from a well-to-do family from Guayaquil who owned Diario El Telgrafo, wrote this poem out of nostalgia for his homeland when he was studying in Chile in the 1930s. According to the annotated songbooks, Vera Santos wrote the music in the early 1940s and, due to the border conflict with Peru, this pasillo immediately became a popular song among soldiers.15 The poem describes one's inability to keep the object of desire, a leitmotif in Ecuadorian popular music and a theme that aptly expresses the sad feelings Ecuadorians were experiencing in this period.

Todo lo que quise yo tuve que dejarlo lejos Siempre tengo que escaparme y abandonar lo que quiero Yo soy el buque fantasma que no puede anclar en puertos Ando buscando refugios en retratos y en espejos. En cartas apolilladas y en perfumados recuerdos.

Por ms que estiro las manos nunca te alcanzo lucero Jugo de amargos adioses es mi vaso predilecto; Yo me bebo a tragos largos mi pcima de recuerdos Y me embriago en lejanas para acaricias mis sueos.

Everything that I loved, I had to leave far away I always have to depart and abandon what I love I am the ghost vessel that cannot anchor in ports I seek refuge in portraits and in mirrors. In moth-eaten letters and in perfumed memories.

However I stretch my hands, I never reach my star Juice of bitter farewells is my favorite glass I drink slowly my potion of memories And I get drunk in the distance to pet my dreams.

It was also in the 1940s when the pasacalle, a duple-meter and up-beat dance-song derived from the Spanish pasodoble and the polka, emerged on the national music scene forging a sense of pride for the place of


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birth. Pasacalles were composed to reaffirm a local identity and also to elevate the morale of people who saw their country geographically dimin- ished. These songs became popular anthems for the towns, cities, and provinces they were devoted to, markedly different from the sentimental and nostalgic lyrics of the pasillo. "Guayaquileo madera de guerrero" (Guayaquilean Spirit of Warrior), "Ambato, tierra de flores" (Ambato, Land of Flowers), and "Chola cuencana" (Beautiful Girl from Cuenca) are examples of the many pasacalles composed in this period of national healing and identity reconstruction.

Ecuadorian scholars often state that the dominant classes were unable to articulate a national culture that would support their leadership position and impose their class ideology (Silva 2004). A closer examination to the social history of the pasillo, however, reveals the opposite. While progressive artists and writers were denouncing the exploitation of the subaltern populations through expressionist paintings and literary works that brought their histories of oppression to the public attention, the elites were simultaneously spreading their class ideology and aesthetic values through the feelings of loss and despair expressed in the pasillo. Ecuadorians have internalized these feelings to such a degree that being sentimental has become an uncontested and highly valued cultural marker of "Ecuadorian- ness." It is worth noting that the message in the paintings and literary works stood no chance of contradicting or counterbalancing the message in the pasillos because relatively few people were exposed to these art forms, whereas the vast majority of Ecuadorians sang and listened to pasillos on the radio and in the streets.

V. The Golden Period of the Pasillo

The 1950s and 1960s were a period of political stability, economic pros- perity and modernization of the country due to the banana export boom. It was also a period of splendor for the pasillo due to the advancement of sound technology, the emergence of television programs, and the appearance of a new generation of performers who innovated the pasillo singing style. Hermanos Mio-Naranjo, Do Aguayo- Villamar, and Los Montalvinos maintained the duet singing tradition in the early 1960s with an upbeat tempo and new vocal arrangements. The most dramatic change for the pasillo, however, was the emergence of the trio format in the late 1950s with the influence of Tro Los Panchos. The addition of the requinto and a three-voice harmonic arrangement produced what Mullo and Guerrero have called the "bolerization" of the pasillo (Mullo & Guerrero 2006). Tro Los Brillantes, made up of Argentine singer Olguita Gutirrez, requinto player Homero Hidrovo, and guitar player Hctor Jaramillo, gave the pasillo a romantic overtone and more international appeal with their



polished singing style, which was markedly different from the sentimental style of previous performers such as Do Benitez- Valencia and Hermanas Mendoza-Suasti. Concurrently with the trio performance appeared a new generation of soloist singers, such as Julio Jaramillo, who broke the tradi- tional duet-singing practice.

To a great extent, the golden period of the pasillo was made possible by the development of the Ecuadorian recording industry, led by two prominent businessmen from Guayaquil - Luis Pino Yerovi and Jos Domingo Feraud Guzmn, who founded IFESA (1946), and FEDISCOS (1964), respectively. These two family-owned companies controlled production and distribution networks, including recording studios, radio stations, magazines, outlet stores, and printing houses, which gave them total sway over the popular music industry. With the goal of promoting its records, IFESA published Revista estrellas , a bi-monthly magazine that regularly devoted articles to Ecuadorian singers, composers, and poets. In this period, Ecua- dorian music competed with international music for the top rankings in the Ecuadorian billboards, and Ecuadorians were proud of their national music and artists.

VI. The Decline of the National Pasillo

If the 1960s was a period of splendor for the elite pasillo, the late 1970s was a period of decline. The pasillo lost commercial visibility with the influx of new international musics such as the cumbia, salsa, nueva cancin, halada romntica, rock, and disco music. Middle-class Ecuadorians, who were the main consumers of msica nacional, were awash in new musical options that pointed to modernity, happiness, romantic love, and social protest. In search of larger audiences, radio and television stations devoted more time to international music in their daily programs. Even Revista estrellas, which had supported Ecuadorian artists since its launch in 1964, began to feature more interviews with international singers.

Government tax policies also contributed to the decline of the pasillo. In 1971, President Velasco Ibarra imposed a substantial tax increase on public performances, from 20 percent to 27 percent. The increase of seven percent over the previous tax greatly affected msica nacional entrepreneurs because they were required to pay 27 percent of the box of- fice, regardless of the number of tickets actually sold. Unable to recoup their investments, they stopped organizing concerts, leaving Ecuadorian singers without performance and revenue opportunities. Ironically, the tax increase worked against the government's interests because it did not produce the expected incomes.

By the 1980s, the music industry centered on the pasillo had almost disappeared due these policies and the lack of support by entrepreneurs


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and the media. Music piracy also drove music stores and small record companies that had previously promoted national music into bankruptcy. As a means of surviving in the music market under these conditions, I FE SA and FEDISCOS, recycled old 33-rpm and 45-rpm recordings of pasillos into cassette format and, as of the 1990s, onto CDs - which required less capital outlay than the sponsoring of new productions. As a result, the youth of the 1990s were hearing the same pasillos in the performance of the same singers that had been popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Artists such as Hermanos Mio-Naranjo and Hermanas Mendoza-Suasti, whose artistic careers have now spanned more than a half century, continue singing today and attract a vast audience of elder and middle-aged Ecuadorians.

Because there has been little innovation in the repertoire and singing style of the elite pasillo, the younger generations regard it as "old national music" and thus not representative of their generation. It is worth noting that young people eventually turn to more conservative musics like pasillo as they reach middle age or when they leave their home country and feel nostalgic. The change of attitude toward the pasillo helps us understand how the pasillo continually gains new enthusiasts and is not in danger of dying out completely.

VII. A Pasillo Rocolero

The decline of the elite pasillo in the 1970s did not necessarily entail the decline of the pasillo as a musical genre per se . Middle-lower-class composers wrote new pasillos with a working-class aesthetic that reflects the urban experience of the subaltern populations. These pasillos maintained the rhythmic pattern, the guitar-and-requinto arrangements, and the themes of unrequited love characteristic of the elite pasillo, albeit expressed in col- loquial language. One example is "Diecisiete aos" (Seventeen Years), a song written by Fausto Galarza and popularized by rocolera singer Segundo Rosero in the early 1980s, whose lyrics praise the beauty of a teenage girl who is coming of age. Unlike the elite pasillo, which is played exclusively on a guitar-and-requinto ensemble, the working-class pasillo includes the electronic sounds of a synthesizer, especially the organ timbre. Slower tem- pos and a nasal, sobbing, high-pitched vocal production are reminiscent of the indigenous preference for high-pitched timbres, which is characteristic of Andean cultures. In general, the elites scorn this type of pasillo and refuse to recognize it as such because of the extra-musical characteristics associated with rocolera ambiences.

Rocolera music is a term widely used in Ecuador to describe a style of music associated with drunkenness, shantytown environments, and a stigmatized working-class population. The term "rocolera" has no connection with rock music but with the rocola, the old jukebox usually found



in the cantina (bars in lower class neighborhoods). Rocolera music has become an umbrella term for boleros, valses, and pasillos from the 1970s and 1980s. The boleros and valses rocoleros are reminiscent of the "songs of damnation" from the early twentieth century in that the lyrics usually deal with themes of love triangles, treacherous women, and revenge.16 Although the lyrics of working-class pasillos are devoid of these images, Ecuadorians nevertheless associate it with rocolera ambiences because renowned rocolera singers, such as Segundo Rosero, sing them in the rocolera concerts. Turino argues that it is through co-occurrence, or repeated experiential associations, that particular singers and musical styles become indexical signs (something that stands for something else and cre- ates an eifect in the observer) for different types of identity. The association of working-class pasillos with rocolera ambiences is also reinforced by the fact that Ecuadorian liquor companies sponsor and sell their products during the concerts, which sometimes end in episodes of violence. Needless to say, national artists, known for their performances of elite pasillos, do not sing pasillos rocoleros, as rocolera artists do not sing elite pasillos in their concerts.

In the early 1990s, academic composers decried the commercialization of the national pasillo and recommended that it be renovated and mod- ernized. Some proposed "dressing the pasillo in a tuxedo," i.e., having bel canto singers performing pasillos with arrangements for the symphony or- chestra. Other intellectuals called for harmonic innovations, such as the introduction of jazz and rock harmonies, so that the music would be more appealing to younger audiences. Some musicians have incorporated these suggestions into their works; however, none of these experimental forms is conspicuous in the music market and they remain unknown to a vast majority of Ecuadorians.

VIII. Female Figure in the Pasillo

Pasillos are invariably written from the man's point of view and display a series of ambivalent images and feelings toward the woman. She is the subject of idealization or revenge, the object of love or hate. She is the "Other" against whom the man positions himself, usually as a victim. In many pasillos from the highland region, the man is abandoned by a female figure, be this a lover who has left or a mother who has died. An illustration of the latter is "Encargo que no se cumple" (Duty That Cannot Be Fulfilled) by Marco Tulio Hidrobo. In this song, a man cries at his mother's tomb because he has not been able to carry out the last promise he made to her in life, which was precisely not to cry when he visits her tomb.

In the national pasillos from the 1920S-1950S, the elites transformed the female figure into a sublime human being who is idealized to such a degree


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that she is always unattainable, intangible, or unreal. As a mother or as a beloved woman, she is a pristine figure and a spiritual being who embod- ies the ideal of the motherland and becomes a suitable metaphor for the nation. Literary critic Natasha Salguero points out that pasillo lyrics avoid expressions alluding to a woman's body or sexuality (Salguero 1995). For example, the woman portrayed in the pasillo is loved not for her body but for the tender feelings she inspires, as the verse of the well known pasillo "Como si fuera un nio" (As If I Were a Child, 1930s) by Paredes Herrera indicates: "Yo no amo en t la carne, amo en t el sentimiento" (What I love about you is not your flesh, but your feelings).

Unlike the "songs of damnation," where the man expresses misogynis- tic feelings and blames the woman for his misery and sufferings, in the elite pasillo that replaced them, the man presents himself as the cause of the breakup for his inability to make her happy. She is not an object of revenge or the cause of despair, but a sublime human being. She abandons him not because she is unfaithful but because he does not deserve her love. The woman, hated in the "songs of damnation" but idealized in the elite pasillo, is the object of love and desire that is never fulfilled.

In my view, the ambivalent figure of the woman and the evasive feelings of the man toward his object of desire symbolically represent Ecuadorians' ambiguous feelings toward the indigenous roots of the national identity, here represented in an Oedipus-complex relationship. If the idealized and spiritual woman depicted in the pasillo represents the indigenous heritage, the man represented in the pasillo might be thought of as a mestizo who rejects his ethnic self through evasive feelings for what he most loves and desires.

Conclusion

A brief examination of the social history of the pasillo allows us to understand the contradictory views that may have puzzled our foreign tourist in the introduction of this article. When Ecuadorians talk about the pasillo, they may be referring to any of several different styles of pasillo, which represent different ideologies, historical periods, and musical aesthetics. Al- though there are clear stylistic differences between pasillos favored by the elite and the lower classes, Ecuadorians generally talk about the pasillo as if there were just one kind. It is often the case that new styles of music are labeled with new terms to highlight their novelty17; in Ecuador, however, all types of pasillo are simply called "pasillo," without a hyphen or an adjective qualifying the stylistic innovation.18

As with most national musics, the pasillo is a polysemous genre that generates multiple and different meanings for its listeners according to



their age, gender, ethnicity and social status. The pasillo is associated with the birth of Ecuador as a republic, with the military and aristocratic circles in the nineteenth century, and with the popular and upper-middle classes in the twentieth century. It was a courting music, an upbeat popular dance, a salon music, and a song of pride and despair.

Some Ecuadorian scholars have examined the pasillo outside of its historical context, making assertions that have obscured our understanding of the processes that made the pasillo be considered the musical symbol of Ecuador. In the late 1970s, for example, Jorge Nez (1980) coined the term cancin del desarraigo (song of uprootedness) to refer to the working-class pasillo (pasillo rocolero) that was emerging in this period, when rural-to- urban migration was at its peak. Other Ecuadorian scholars began using the same term, "Cancin del desarraigo," for all styles of pasillos indiscrim- inately, although elite pasillos, such as "Guayaquil de mis amores," have no association with the uprootedness theme or with the social processes that led to the appearance of that theme in pasillo.

Several newspaper articles pointing to the decline of the pasillo as a national symbol appeared in the mid 1980s and 1990s. Headlines in newspaper stories, such as "Don't Die, Pasillo,"19 "The Pasillo is Still Alive on the Lips of the Ecuadorian People,"20 and "The Pasillo Has Been Abused,"21 reflect the concern of upper-middle class intellectuals in maintaining the elite pasillo as a dominant national music. These assertions, however, overlook the existence of the working-class pasillo from the 1980s, such as "Dieci- siete aos." Another prominent view portrays the pasillo as cortavenas (lit- erally, music by which to slash one's veins) because people often turn to it when they are drowning their love frustrations in alcohol.

Changes in musical style have generally reflected changes in society (Blacking 1973). As I have shown in this article, stylistic changes in the pasillo reflect the profound social, economic and political transformations Ecuador has undergone in the twentieth century. The elite pasillo from the 1920S-1950S stresses the Hispanic heritage of the mestizo nation and has been "whitened" with its poetic lyrics, guitar accompaniment, and upper- middle-class performance settings. In contrast, the working-class pasillo from the 1980s is not seen as a national identity expression, or even as a pasillo, because it is imbued with musical and extra-musical elements that point to the indigenous heritage.

The most important change in the pasillo, however, has been the construction of public discourses and performance practices that underscore the sentimental nature of Ecuadorians as a distinguishing feature of the Ec- uadorian national identity. In the early twenty-first century, the pasillo has had a sort of renaissance due to the large numbers of Ecuadorians from all walks of life who had left the country in search for better opportunities as a


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result of the economic crisis of the late 1990s. Once abroad, Ecuadorian mi- grants revalorize their national music for the soundscapes and memories of place it recreates in the diaspora. Despite the many debates questioning the standing of the elite pasillo as a national symbol in the late twentieth century, Ecuadorians within and outside the country keep singing the song of the national soul with the emotions and heartfelt sentiments they have learned to praise and value.

Notes

Research for this article was supported by a Graduate School Continuing Fellowship and a College of Fine Arts Dean's Fellowship from the University of Texas- Austin. I am grateful to the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador for providing financial support to pursue graduate studies in the United States. I would also like to thank my mentor, the late Gerard Bhague, as well as Robin Moore and the anonymous re- viewers for their feedback and criticism on earlier versions of this paper.

1. In Colombia, the pasillo was an important national music from the Andean region in the first half of the twentieth century, second only to the bambuco (Wade 2000). In Costa Rica, marimba renditions of pasillos are popular in Guanacaste, the border region with Nicaragua (Acevedo n.d.). In Venezuela, the pasillo was popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

2. Pasillos were performed by military bands, estudiantinas, orchestras, piano, organ, ensembles of harps and guitars, guitars and accordion, or any other combi- nation of instruments.

3. In La Msica en el Ecuador (1930), Moreno transcribed a toro rabn he heard on one of his trips to the countryside early in the twentieth century. It is not clear whether this piece is an example of toro rabn as a musical genre or whether the former genre was simply referred to in the title of the song he heard, because no other references to toro rabn have been found other than this one.

4. Jorge Icaza and Oswaldo Guayasamn represented the Indigenismo trend in Ecuadorian literature and painting, respectively. Writers Jos de la Cuadra, Enrique Gil Gilbert, Demetrio Aguilera Malta, Joaqun Gallegos Lara, and Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco were known as the Group of Guayaquil and represented the Realismo Social trend.

5. Estrellas, 5, no. 65, 14-17. 6. Examples include the Peruvian vals criollo and the Brazilian samba. "Flor de

la canela" (Cinnamon Flower), a vals criollo by Chabuca Granda, sings to the beauty of the city of Lima. "Aquarela do Brasil" (Brazilian Water Colors) is an example of music exaltation to the beauty of Brazilians landscapes.

7. Safadi was born in Lebanon but arrived in Ecuador at age two. He received the Ecuadorian citizenship days before his trip to New York in order to represent the country.

8. Estrellas, 14, no. 124, 3-7. 9. Unlike Mexico and Argentina, which developed a strong film industry for the

dissemination of cancin ranchera and tango at national and international levels, respectively, in Ecuador sound movies never became a vehicle for the popularization



of the pasillo because Ecuador lacked the infrastructure and economic resources to develop such industry.

10. Every country has a national (typical) music that identifies the country and its people at national and international levels; however, nationals normally refer to their music with the name of the country - "msica cubana," "msica mexicana," "msica peruana" - rather than with the term "msica nacional." 1 1 . Other anthologies include Antologa del pasillo Ecuatoriano (Anthology of the

Ecuadorian Pasillo) by Isabel Carrin (n.d), Florilegio de la msica ecuatoriana (The Flowering of Ecuadorian Music) by Mario Godoy (1988), Pasillos clsicos (Classical Pasillos) by Pablo Daz Marmolejo (1996), Pasillos y pasilleros del Ecuador (Pasillos and People Who Cultivate the Pasillo from Ecuador) by Guerrero Blum (2000), Lo mejor del siglo XX (The Best of the twentieth Century) by Oswaldo Carrin (2002), and Antologa de la msica ecuatoriana (Anthology of Ecuadorian Music) by Ermel Aguirre Gonzlez (n.d).

12. Interview with Juanita Burbano, May 2003. 1 3. Interview with Teresita Andrade, May 2003. 14. There is a long history of rivalry between Ecuador and Peru, which stems

from the time of the conquest of the Shyris (in what is now Ecuadorian territory) by the Incas (whose centre of power was in Cuzco, Peru). It continued in the colonial period with the Royal Audience of Quito, which was a part of the Viceroyalty of Lima. In the early 1820s, both countries obtained their independence; however, the failure to establish clear territorial boundaries at the time remained an issue, eventually leading to the Rio de Janeiro Protocol.

15. Estrellas 5, no. 52. 16. Similar types of songs are known m other Latin American countries as ba-

chata (Dominican Republic), carrilera (Colombia), brega (Brazil), and cebollera (Peru). 17. Examples include the samba complex (samba-cano, samba de morro, pagode,

bossa nova, etc.) and the huayno (chicha, cumbia andina, tecnocumbia). In Ecuador, some researchers have used categories such as pasillo cancin and pasillo de reto to refer to early forms of pasillo. However, the public and the mass media rarely use these terms.

18. I use the terms "elite pasillo," "national pasillo," "working-class pasillo," and "pasillo rocolero" as analytical categories to distinguish the different styles of pasillos in the twentieth century. Ecuadorians do not normally use these terms.

19. El Comercio, B-9. August 16, 1992. Quito. 20. Semana, 2. May 29, 1988. Guayaquil. 21. El Comercio, B-3. July 3, 1994. Quito.

References Acevedo, Jorge Luis. n/a. "El pasillo." Conference Paper Manuscript. San Jos, Costa

Rica: Centro de Documentacin e Investigaciones Musicales y de Artes Plsticas. Benavides, Hugo. 2006. The Politics oj Sentiment. Imagining and Remembering

Guayaquil. Austin: University of Texas Press. Blacking, John. 2000 (1973). How Musical is Manr Seattle, WA: University ot Wash-

ington Press.


86 KETTY WONG

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of A Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press.

Carrin, Benjamn. 2002 [1944]. El cuento de la patria. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana.

Cueva, Agustn. 1976. Entre la ira y la esperanza. Quito: Ediciones Solitierra. Feraud Guzmn, J. D. 1976. Los aos de almacenes de msica J. D. Feraud Guzmn.

Guayaquil: Grficas Feraud. . 1977. Historia de una hazaa y sus protagonistas. Guayaquil: Grficas Feraud. Granda Noboa, Wilma. 2004. El pasillo. Identidad sonora. Quito: Corporacin Musi-

colgica Ecuatoriana. Guerrero Gutirrez, Pablo 1996. El pasillo en el Ecuador. Quito: Corporacin Musi-

colgica Ecuatoriana. Guerrero, Pablo, and Juan Mullo. 2005. Memorias y reencuentro. El pasillo en Quito.

Quito: Museo de la Ciudad. Handelsman, Michael. 1981. "Un estudio de la poca modernista del Ecuador a

travs de sus revistas literarias publicadas entre 1895 y 1930." Cultura, 3, no. 9. Quito: Banco Central del Ecuador.

Ibarra, Hernn. 1999. "Que me perdonen las dos: El mundo de la cancin rocolera." In Antigua modernidad y memoria del presente, edited by E. Kingmand and T. Salman, 311-325. Quito: n/a.

Moreno Andrade, Segundo Luis. 1996. La msica en el Ecuador. Quito: Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito.

Morls Gutirrez, Alberto. 1961. orilegio del pasillo ecuatoriano. Quito. Nez, Jorge. 1980. "Pasillo: cancin de desarraigo/' Cultura, Vol. 3, no. 7: 223-230. Ochoa, Ana Mara. 2003. Msicas locales en tiempos de globalizacin. Bogot: Grupo

Editorial Norma. Ortega, Abelardo. 1922-1930. El Aviador ecuatoriano. Guayaquil. Portaccio Fontalvo, Jos. 1994. Colombia y su msica. Vol. 1-2. Santaf de Bogot. Pro Meneses, Alejandro. 1997. Discografia del pasillo Ecuatoriano. Quito: Ediciones

Abya Yala. Quintero, Rafael, and Erika Silva. 1991. Ecuador. Una nacin en Ciernes. (2001) 4th

edition. Quito: F LAC S O- Abya Yala. Salguero Bravo, Natasha. 1995. "Cancin del amor que se anida en mi pecho." El

libro del pasillo. Quito: CONMUSICA (manuscript). Silva Charvet, Erika. 2004. Identidad nacional y poder. Quito: Abya- Yala. Stutzman, Ronald. 1981. "El mestizaje: An All-Inclusive Ideology of Exclusion." Cul-

tural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador, 45-94. Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press.

Villacis Molina, Rodrigo. 1989. "Qu hacer con el pasillo." Revista SYTSA 5, no. 5: 37-39-

Wade, Peter. 2000. Music, Race and Nation : Msica Tropical in Colombia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Whitten, Norman Jr., ed. 1981. Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Williams, Raymond. 1977. Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.



Wong, Ketty. 1999. "The Polysemous Pasillo : Debate around the Musical Con- struction of Ecuadorian National Identity." Master's thesis: The University of Texas-Austin.

.2007. "La msica nacional: Changing Perceptions of the Ecuadorian National Identity in the Aftermath of the Rural Migration of the 1970s and the Interna- tional Migration of the Late 1990s." PhD Diss.: The University of Texas-Austin.

Other Research Materials

Songbooks: El aviador ecuatoriano, 1920s. El cancionero del Guayas, 1910s.

Magazines: Revista estrellas (1964-1986). Revista Cine Radial (1950S-1970S).

Newspapers: El comercio. El universo.


Documents

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