“Colors and Textures of the Jahuay” by Daniela Godoy Casa de la Cultura ( House of Culture)
@ Nuestras Raices Baltimore

The “Jahuay” is an active vulnerable musical genre demonstration. Its fragments can be heard sporadically in remote areas of the provinces of Chimborazo and Cañar (Quilloag), Ecuador in times of the harvest of wheat and barley, and in some indigenous music festivals. Most “Paquis” soloists or cantors who knew all the songs, or thematic sequences of the Jahuay were octogenarians ( 10 years ago), and they only remember fragments of the repertoires. Many of these songs have been lost. Now there are only a few wise cantors or "Paquies.", There are less than twenty, in the province of Chimborazo and two in the province of Cañar (Quilloag).

The musical genre Jahuay and its repertoires are an intangible cultural heritage, an expression that contains the memory and history of its people. It reflects the Puruhá knowledge, aesthetics, ideology, cosmological vision, and philosophy of the indigenous peoples of the provinces of Chimborazo and Cañar. Upon its imminent danger of disappearance, and to ensure the conservation of these ritual repertoires it is of extreme urgency the inclusion of this heritage property in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage [UNESCO] for urgent safeguarding.

In 2012 I worked as a photographer in the Jahuay research project which sought to document and preserve the Jahuay the harvest ritual song( genre) of the Puruhá people that dates to at least 500 years. My dad ( Mario Godoy Aguirre) led the project as a musicologist with the support of the Institute of Cultural Patrimony of Riobamba tried to convince the Ecuadorian government to present it to UNESCO to be declared a cultural Patrimony of Humanity but were unsuccessful. Choosing to support the declaration of the Pasillo (a mestizo musical genre instead).

Bringing awareness to the preservation of the Jahuay is personal because my maternal grandmother was of Puruhá descent and my entire family and I are from Chimborazo, Ecuador. She worked ( as a cook ) in one of the largest haciendas of Ecuador for most of her life, against her will. I chose to represent the Puruhá people to connect with my grandmother's roots which she scarcely taught her children about. Indigenous people in Ecuador and most parts of the world have been historically marginalized. My grandmother knew that and wanted to protect her children from it. She chose not to teach most of her children the Quichua language so they wouldn’t be discriminated against.

The acrylic paintings depict specific parts or characters important to the ritual. These paintings are an homage to this group of people who are historically responsible for fighting the injustice of governments even to this day. The "Ponchos rojos"(red ponchos, nickname for which they are known for) uprisings helped eradicate the abuses that indigenous people suffered at the hands of colonizers and their descendants. The figures in watercolor are alone because they are puzzle pieces of each other's communities. My bright color palette mirrors the bright clothing colors the Puruhá are characterized by. The puzzle pieces are also a metaphor for the artist's ancestry lineage, which is a mystery due to what little the family knows of my grandmother’s family. The subjects in the paintings become a part of the artist and the viewer who perceives them because they are no longer invisible. Our bonds to other humans remain broken when we ignore or refuse to perceive the common humanity and beauty that exist in those “different" from ourselves.

My goal with this series combined with my watercolors which are portraits studies of the Puruhá people I met during the research project is to revive the urgency to preserve and promote cultural importance and contribution to humanity, with the goal to have it declared an intangible cultural Partimony of Humanity. Doing so enables these communities to be seen and heard & valued for their unique and unparalleled contribution with their wisdom and the cosmology that this genre of music holds. I believe in the invaluable importance of preserving