Chola y Gitano is a Chilean global music duo comprising Belén Rojas and Damián Gallardo and based in Punta Brava, on the coast of Valdivia. Its contagious vitality comes from Latin American and flamenco rhythms, and lyrics that derive from humanity’s love and protection of Planet Earth and all its beings. Chola y Gitano’s live performances are highly multidisciplinary, incorporating poetry and flamenco dance.
The ensemble formed in 2013, and initially built its repertoire through Latin American song compilations that spotlighted various traditions such as the Peruvian waltz, cueca, landó, and Cuban son. In 2017, Chola y Gitano released its first EP, “Mi Estrella La Tierra,” which is an exploration of hybrid sounds such as tonada (a Spanish folk form), transposed guitar and Latin fusion.
In 2018, the band took this album to the theater with the production “Perfo-concert Mi Estrella La Tierra,” in which it collaborated with folk music duo Camila y Silvio and toured across cities in the south of Chile and Argentina. Last July, it released Selva Soberana, an 8-track Latin fusion album recorded, mixed and mastered at Madre Selva studios in Santiago. Chola y Gitano’s lyrics are once again a call to territorial action: inspired by the precious beauty of the Valdivian Coastal Reserve and the Los Ríos region, it reminds listeners to protect their daily connection with Paradise Earth and all things great and small that inhabit it.