Q'eros Music Documentary

Summary of Project:

     The Q’eros are a Quechua-speaking people who live high in the Andes Mountains of southeast Perú. Q’eros is also the name of the cultural region that comprises the eight Q’eros’ communities of Kiku, Hapu, Hatun Q’eros, Q’eros Totorani, Marcachea, Pucara, Q’achupata, and K’allacancha, which are located in the province of Paucartambo, approximately one hundred miles east of the ancient Inkan capital of Cusco. These communities all have their own corresponding annexes or hamlets, consisting of small isolated clusters of houses. Five of these communities, (the first five listed above) recently banded together in a statement of solidarity to form the “Nación Q’eros.”

     This documentary is based on Hatun Q’eros, the largest and most remote of the Q’eros’ communities. Our goals are to document Q’eros’ musical rituals for the Q’eros community; to educate a larger audience (Perú and beyond) about Andean musical rituals; and ultimately to promote respect for indigenous cultures.

How You Can Help:

Click the "Buy the DVD" button, below, to visit Holly's main website, where you can buy the Q'eros Music Documentary DVD.

More Information About This Project:

     This documentary is made from footage shot by Holly Wissler during her field research for a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from The Florida State University, 2003 to 2007.

     Originally from Iowa, Holly Wissler has worked as an adventure travel guide in the Andes of Peru since 1982 and the Himalayas of Nepal since 1987. She still guides annually in Peru and does an occasional stint in Nepal for Wilderness Travel: www.wildernesstravel.com

     Holly holds master’s degrees from the University of Idaho, in flute performance and in music history. She is the producer of the video documentary Qoyllur Rit’i: A Woman’s Journey (1998), about Qoyllur Rit’i, the largest pilgrimage festival in the Peruvian Andes and her inside role as mayordoma (sponsor) of a dance group. (This documentary is also available for purchase here.)

     From 2005 to 2007, Holly conducted research toward a doctoral dissertation on the musical traditions of the Q’eros community. She was funded in 2007 by a Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation research abroad fellowship. She is currently writing her dissertation for a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, Florida State University.

About The Quechua:

• The various dialects of Quechua were widely spoken throughout the Andes long before the rise of the Inca state in the 15th century. The Incas made one dialect of Quechua (Classical Quechua, the ancestor of Southern Quechua) their official language; as they expanded their empire by conquest, this dialect became pre-Columbian Peru's lingua franca, retaining this status after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.
• The oldest records of the language are those of Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, who arrived in Peru in 1538 and learned the language from 1540, publishing his Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú in 1560.
• Today, it has the status of an official language in both Peru and Bolivia, along with Spanish and Aymara. Before the arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction of the Latin alphabet, Quechua had no written alphabet. The Incas kept track of numerical data through a system of quipu-strings.

Where This Project Is Located:

This Project is located in Peru.

Facts about the Quechua Language:

Quechua II or Wanp'una (Traveler) is divided into three branches:

• Yunkay Quechua is spoken sporadically in Peru's occidental highlands.
• Northern Quechua is mainly spoken in Colombia and Ecuador, and in the Amazonian lowlands in Ecuador and Peru.
• Southern Quechua, spoken in Peru's southern highlands, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, is today's most important branch because it has the largest number of speakers and because of its cultural and literary legacy.