Chola y Gitano (CHILE)

NORTH JAZZ STAGE
FRIDAY 5:00pm-5:45pm

SOUTH STAGE
SATURDAY 12:45PM-1:30PM

CENTRE STAGE
SUNDAY 12:00PM-12:45PM

Chola y Gitano is a Chilean global music duo consisting of Belén Rojas and Damián Gallardo and based in Punta Brava, on the beautiful coast of Valdivia. Its contagious vitality comes from Latin American and flamenco rhythms, and lyrics that derive from a particular concept of the Mapuche people called “itrofill mongen” (all life without exception), which asserts that many lives simultaneously share the same space. Chola y Gitano’s live performances are highly multidisciplinary, incorporating poetry and flamenco dance.

The duo 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.