Bolivian Beginning for Musician

Bolivian beginnings for musician

“I was born in 1957,” he said, “so I guess that makes me 52, 53 … I don’t really keep track of my age.” Condori was born in La Paz, a Bolivian city high in the Andes Mountains. Years ago, I visited Bolivia on a trip to South America. Standing in the mountains above La Paz one day, I stared at a jumble of concrete buildings below, where most of the city’s poor live, and considered how different life was there from in Maine.

With this thought in mind, I asked Condori to compare his adult years in Maine and childhood in La Paz. “They are two different worlds,” he said.

The sound of music

More than 60 percent of Bolivia’s 9.7 million people claim indigenous heritage. Most indigenous peoples in Bolivia come from two groups: the Aymara and Quechua Indians who have inhabited the Andes for centuries. The youngest of four children, Condori was born in La Paz to an Aymara Indian mother. The family lived in a typical Spanish colonial building of apartments with adobe walls built around a square, open-air patio. Condori’s mother ran a small food store in the apartment to provide for her children.

Amid these humble beginnings, Condori’s older brothers developed an interest in art. The eldest, Octavio, connected with artists and intellectuals who frequently gathered at the Condori home. In the small apartment, the young bohemians threw parties as a thick cloud of cigarette smoke floated out above the patio into the chilly Andean night.

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