It has been a long road for the Chilean music group Inti-Illimani. Over its 40 years of touring, the group has survived a dictatorship, exile from Chile and the loss of three original members. Despite all of this, Inti-Illimani has continued to bring its original sound to countries around the world.
Visit their website to find out more about Inti-Illimani
The group will be rapping up its 40th Anniversary Season tour of North America this Friday at the Quick Center. The Mirror got a chance to speak with George Coulon, one of the founding members, about the epic journey the group has experienced over the past 40 years and what lies ahead.
Inti-Illimani was formed in 1967 by five young students from the Universidad Tecnica del Estado in Santiago, Chile. The group’s name, Inti-Illimani, is Aymara, the language of the native people in the Andes, meaning ‘Sun of the Illimani.’ The name embodies the band’s style: a fusion of popular music with traditional Latin American folk music.
“We fell in love with the sounds of the Pompi, the Andes [two indigenous cultures of the area],” said Coulon. “We asked ourselves, ‘Why don’t we do music with these musical figures? Why are we looking in television or radio? It is always the same music.'”
Inti-Illimani was not alone in its way of thinking; during this period, a movement of political folk music arose in Latin America called Nueva Cancion.
Much like folk music in the United States, it became the voice of the people – which was silenced by political figures, such as Augusto Pinochet, a general who took power in 1973. Pinochet forced many artists like Inti-Illimani to live in exile.
Coulon, who was tour with Inti-Illimani, was unable to return home to Chile.
“Culture is a problem for dictatorships. Many Chilean artist were exiled and many of them were killed by the dictatorship,” said Coulon.
For 14 years the band was unable to return to Chile, but being away did not stop the group from fighting for democracy. “We were living in exile in Rome. With other people exiled from Chile, we organized meetings to take a stance against the dictatorship to get back democracy,” said Coulon.
Although Coulon claims his music was never meant to be overtly political, it is difficult for the listener to separate politics from the personal. The group’s songs about love, work and social life began to be understood as a stance against the government.
Coulon said the politics are best described on the Inti-Illimani’s Web site.
“We have never been so political that it was propaganda. We are not a political group in that sense, but we have always been politically engaged,” he said. “We have a concept of society and about the relationships between human beings, and we try to translate our ideas into our sound, not to be part of one political party or another, but in the sense to bring about a better world.”
In 1988, Inti-Illimani was allowed to re-enter Chile. From that point on, the group has become a figure of national pride.
In 2001, Inti-Illimani lost three of its original members: Jose Seves, Horacio Duran and Horacio Salinas. Despite this setback, the group has added new members and a new sound. Coulon said he believes it is part of the nature of the growth to constantly be going in new directions.
“This has been a group that has been always changing and always having something different in its music,” he said.
There seems to be no end in sight for the group. With 43 albums already under its belt and 40 years of touring, there seems to be no stopping Inti-Illimani.
It is a passion for performing live that propels its members. In a day and age where music has become background music, Coulon said that live concerts are the best places to engage with the music.
“Live music continues to be the best moments of music because it is the ritual between us and the audience,” said Coulon, who will bring this live music to campus.
“We had an idea of Connecticut as place of rich people who work in New York. We have discovered that there are wonderful people there, lots of Chilean and Latin American people living there,” he added.
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