Los Ovnis - Bailando Con Los Ovnis - LP

To arrive in Lima in the 70s. The smog, the traffic, the chaos, the slums, the shacks. It is not the panorama of one; it is the experience of thousands of migrants staying at the edge of a man-eating capital. It is their struggle not to be devoured. Any attempt to understand the place and the present is immortalized in vinyl recordings: the music that refers to work, the highlands, the arrival to the capital, is revered among dust clouds lifted by their feet in motion, their fingers pointing to the sky. Happiness and misery are danced on the same night, on the same dance floor no one knows whether to laugh or cry. An outdated and conservative part of Lima despises them for this, but they go on. They exist.

Every era has a background music, an undisputed soundtrack. This is that of Andean migrants who arrive in Lima in the second half of the 20th century. Men and women who dance a mix of huayno with cumbia that spreads throughout the new city. The genre (misunderstood and mistreated, perhaps by association with the precariousness and informality of the time) stands out successfully on the periphery, sells millions of vinyl records, congregates thousands of faithful fans every day and even fills stadiums; later, two or three decades later, the new generations will chant the same songs in upper-middle class districts, after hearing the stories of their grandparents reflected in the lyrics. Perhaps one of the clearest examples of the rise of the ‘chicha’ phenomenon is that of Los Ovnis, the band recognized as the first to interpret Andean tropical music. 43 years after its foundation, we review their history and the origins of the genre.