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I
was born in 1978, in a small city in the Peruvian Andes, called
Jauja, situated in the midst of the prodigious Mantaro Valley.
In a city and a time where after centuries of a bloody conquest
and devastation the scars were still healing. I passed the first
years of my life secluded from the goings-on of the outside world.
Over there, advancements of communications and technology had
barely reached. I grew up there with a large family, my parents,
my three sisters, my brother, my forty cousins, my aunts, uncles,
my grandmother Zoyita and my dear grandfather Jesus.
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My
father and my mother taught us, when we were still very young, music
and arts. We were taught to love and respect our culture and our music.
Something that made us different from the rest of the children, and
other young people (cultural alienation is also very strong in the Andean
mountains). Our school education also differed greatly from the rest.
My mother was the principal of one of the few elementary schools in
Jauja. We were thus exempted from attending everyday to school. She
always said that going every day was not necessary, and instead left
us at home with other type of chores and homework. My oldest sister
for instance, learned how to read at age four and so we all read books,
learned songs and played instruments, at home.
A big change for the family came in 1990. I was twelve years old, and
for the first time in my life attended school everyday (I had finished
the elementary school). On July that year, my father was elected as
a congressman of the Peruvian Republic. We had to move to Lima, the
capital with him. It was a difficult period for all of us. We had bodyguards
and even a chauffeur. Terrorist attacks were in its peak and we were
the target as the children of a member of the government. It all finished
(or worsened) in 1992. Fujimori, the elected president, decided to get
rid of congress. Thus was my father left without a job and faced prosecution
by both sides: the new dictatorial -government and the terrorists.
In May, 1993, we arrived Miami with a few dollars, two bags, and our
instruments. At first we had to sing in the streets. We still go by
South Beach sometimes, and remember when we were still kids singing
at Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive. After many nights like this, we were
finally enrolled in schools and with the help of many, in special a
Mexican lady called Martha and a Baptist church we got a place to live
and then began going to school.
And so time has passed, and I am now 22 years old. We still play anywhere
we are invited. We recorded our first CD, and wish we can stick together
for some time more to do more things. Except the youngest of us (who
is still a senior at high school) we are all attending college and have
jobs. I finished up my high school education at Dash, (Design and Architecture
Senior High School). I am now attending Florida International University
with the hope of obtaining my degree in Computer Science. My love for
arts and music has not diminished, and one of my greatest dreams is
to become a computer graphic designer and find the way to help in anyway
the people in Peru, who are still in suffering. I believe that the day
we are free of the old demons (caused by our self-oppression for some
centuries now) we will be free to accept our new race and move on to
something new and better.
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