Glossary of Andean Terms

Charango - An instrument originally made from an armadillo (whose hair if it grows long after its dead is good luck....though not for the armadillo); affectionately known as a Bolivian potato bug to people in Texas, most professional quality charangos are vegetarian versions, sans armadillo and made of wood.

Chuspa - Indigenous, woven bag usually used to carry the coca leaf and llijilla.

Cueca - A coquettish dance from the Colonial Period. Roots are in the Zamba-Cueca of Argentina. Also known as Reodelada (slide) in Chile, Marinera in Peru and La Chilena in Mexico. Each country has its own distinctive style and choreography.

Campesino - Rural dweller, country person, Indian. In 1952, after the agrarian revolution of the MNR, the term Indio (Indian) was changed in official matters to campesino, in hopes of improving the attitude of city dwellers towards their rural counterparts.

Morenada - A dance recalling the African slaves brought by the Spanish to work the silver mines of Oruro and Potos”. The richly decorated colorful costumes represent the wealth of the slave owners. The protruding eyes and tongue convey the fatigue and soroche (altitude sickness) suffered by the slaves.

Pe–a - A meeting place in the village where inhabitants gather to play. In the cities it refers to a cafe or club where folk music is performed.

Polleras - The skirts worn by native women. There are successive layers of polleras on the women dancers of the Waka Waka.

Quechua - The language and culture of the descendants of the people conquered by the Incas.

Quena or Kena - A pre-Colombian period resonant, notched, cane flute traditionally made of stone clay or the bone of a condor. From the word khena meaning many holed thing.

Salte–a - An oven baked pastry traditionally served between 10:00 AM and Noon. Generically known as empanada. The source of the recipe comes from a woman who lived inPotos’, Bolivia, then travelled to Salta, Argentina and again returned to Potos’. Hence, a Bolivian pastry with an Argentine name.

Saya - A dance that has its roots in African heritage and folklore of the African-Bolivian Yungas people of La Paz, Bolivia. This dance is actually a more metropolitan version of dances performed today in Yungas communities thrghout Bolivia.

Socavan - The deepest part of a mine shaft.

Siku - Aymara word (Antara in Quechua) for the family of wind instruments consisting of various lengths of bamboo tubes arranged from smaller to largest and tied together in single file. Traditionally, two people shared one set of instruments alternating notes betweenthe players to produce the melody. The most popular sikus is commonly called the zampo–a.

Tinku - A stylized dance of ritual confrontation between two communities usually in the region of North Potos”, Bolivia. The dance is a mock fight between the two communities which ends when a warrior from either side is felled and mortally wounded.

Toyos - A large, deep-sounding pair of sikus measuring up to four and one-half feet in length.

Waka Waka - Waka means cow, or bull in Quechua. The Waka Waka is a dance combining the colonial element of the Spanish conquistadors’ bull fight with the tradition of the multi-pollera clad milk maid who can still be found walking their cows from door to door selling fresh milk.

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