South American music and culture magazine

In Latin America mass demonstrations are putting at risk huge energy, mining and infrastructure projects. Thousands of peasants occupied the Azul, Mamacocha, Chailhuagon and Perol lakes, in the Cajamarca region of Peru. The Conga mining project proposes to relocate them, but the people fear losing their access to water. Continue Reading

The Crying Forest is a documentary about Ze Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, an Amazon rainforest activist, and his wife, who were gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon on May 24th 2011. Continue Reading

After 12 long years, Afro-Colombian communities have finally secured the legal right to their land. On 17 September 2011, in the presence of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Colombian Institute for Rural Development (INCODER) are awarding 43 communities with their collective land titles. Continue Reading

We really wanted to bring to your attention two documentaries on Mapuche culture in Chile, both of which are free to watch on Culture Unplugged, and can also be watched below. Continue Reading

It is a common belief that women in the western hemisphere enjoy greater rights than their global peers and that their socio-political emancipation has set a precedent. Although it is undeniable that women in Europe and North America have indeed come to be near to equal players in society, the idea that other cultures have yet to catch up is a premise that many indigenous women of South America are challenging. Continue Reading

The battle for the preservation of any language is a complex process which requires a large amount of understanding from both society and authorities. On the one hand, there exists the common belief that languages’ primary – even exclusive – mission is to help people interact with each other through the same verbal code. On the other hand, as globalisation reaches each and every corner of our planet, the cultural features from the people who inhabit it tend to merge and get closer rather than reinforcing their unique characteristics, and this does not seem like a tendency anyone can stop. Continue Reading

A deep, lush and luxuriant vegetation, winding rivers, an incredible wildlife, ancestral civilizations with their shamans and their extraordinary myths, and… oil fields. The legendary Amazon rainforest embodies what the planet has best to offer in terms of biodiversity and traditional cultures. But, today, it is threatened by oil pollution and deforestation. The Oriente, the Ecuadorian jungle, – which covers about half the territory, including national reserves with the most unique and richest biodiversity in the world – has been highly exploited by oil companies for decades, irreversibly damaging its environment and communities. Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, is blamed to be responsible for contaminating the rainforest during twenty-eight years and has to face a historic lawsuit that started in 1993. Continue Reading

“This 8th of November 2010 we return again to march and find you Mr President of the Miraflores Palace, in order to speak to you about the rights of the indigenous peoples, a march which is nothing less than a call to protect out planet and to deepen democracy within what your twenty-first century socialism proposes”. The pamphlet is bold and cuts no corners. Gathered out under the rain, some with faces painted, most with bare feet, a crowd has taken root in the centre of Caracas. A megaphone handed from one to another shouts out the demands, and pamphlets explain the gist. They will wait here in the main square and then march to Miraflores, Chavez’s residence, meet with him or the vice-president Elías Jaua and articulate clearly what needs to be done. For some, it is the first time they have come to the capital. For others, they have been here before and they won’t tire until they are heard out. Continue Reading

Sounds and Colours has been keeping a close eye on the situation that has arisen in Ecuador following damage that has been caused by the American Chevron company. With Chevron reluctant to atone for its mistakes, and most definitely to pay compensation, this could be a long battle, albeing a battle which only has one moral victor. Essentially this article is a press release from Karen Hinton at the Amazon Defense Coalition. We feel it is extremely important that as many people as possible are aware of this situation and can help in any way possible to exert pressure on Chevron, ensuring that the communities and land in this Amazonian region of Ecuador are protected and compensated for the wrongs that have been committed. Continue Reading

With the current issues in Chile, for the Mapuche people this is a timely documentary, and was clearly made before the unrest between the government and Mapuche really “kicked off” recently. The hunger strikes, in retaliation to the terrorist laws, started back in September but have since been mostly ignored by the international press due to the 33 trapped minors. President Sebastián Piñera must be very pleased – as his popularity has soared throughout the minors ordeal and it has allowed most Chileans to do what they would like to do – ignore the Mapuche problem. Continue Reading

This month marked 200 years since Chile achieved its Independence from Spain. Long before independence, however, even centuries before the first Spanish conquistadors led by Pedro de Valdivia made their claim to what is now Chile, this country was home to a group of thriving indigenous people known as the Mapuche. Continue Reading

Culture in Venezuela is as fluid and as diverse as its ever-stretching landscape. There exists no single identity, but a series of explorations of heritage and modernity that have come to define a country both proud of its varying folklores as of its sky-scraping bastions of western affluence in its major cities. From the cowboy plains of Los Llanos, with its four string guitar rippling out songs of love and peasant hardship, to its beating drums on the coast echoing tales of slavery and black resistance, to intimidating war chants that form a chorus with the toucans and the monkeys, soundtrack to the Amazon’s ever-continuing epic, to finally the children of the slum’s free styling verses taking over the corners of Caracas. Its relatively fresh constitution of 1998 has finally applauded its multicultural pluri-ethnic identity, and its people are now recognised as what they have always been. This diversity is unifying, as together they mix and melt in this Caribbean hot pot. As the national saying goes, “We are all milky coffee. Some with a bit more milk, some with a bit more coffee”. Continue Reading