El Salvador Perspectives

Our friend Polycarpio recently included this review on his SuperMartyrio blog :    The first single from The Project’s album “Martyrs Prayers” is a heartfelt tribute to Archbishop Óscar Romero called simply, “ Romero .” The unique and inspired album pays tribute to martyrs ancient and new from various Christian denominations. In addition to Romero, whose tribute song also appears in Spanish and Portuguese (the only martyr so honored among those selected), the album features songs about Saints Thomas Becket , Ignatius of Antioch, the martyred Pope Clement, Carpus of Pergamum, Quirinus of Neuss, Sadoth of Seleucia, the orthodox Maria Skobtsova and the Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The selections reflect the diversity of the contributing artists who include Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, Methodists and Anglicans as well as varying political persuasions. The result is an honest, earnest and authentic vision that strikes a fitting balance between celebrating the...

Chanchona music, a style local to eastern El Salvador, is a spirited folk music played with violins and an upright bass. PRI's The World recently introduced listeners to chanchona music with a story about the group Los Hermanos Lovo  who play the folk music. It is a music for joy and partying they say: : Chanchona music comes from eastern El Salvador, from the three, largely rural departments of Morazan, La Union, and San Miguel. The name “chanchona” literally means “sow,” – it’s a nickname for the heavyset upright bass that anchors chanchona groups. Many groups, Los Hermanos Lovo included, are made up of extended family, and the music is passed down from parents, aunts, and uncles.  The music’s roots probably stretch back to the early 20th century. In the ‘50s and ’60s, radio spread Colombia’s infectious cumbia music throughout Latin America. Chanchona music picked up cumbia’s distinctive, two-step rhythm.  That chanchona music kept its joy through the 1980s an...