A Chinchinero is an urban street performer in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, usually a man or young boy, who plays a ''

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

''-type percussion instrument with long drumsticks strapped to his back which also involves a rope with a noose tied around the performer's foot to play the cymbals which also form part of this improvised instrument. Said instrument has been invented and produced informally and can carry any rhythm or melody. The Chinchinero often works with an organillero,

street organ A street organ (french: orgue de rue or ''orgue de barbarie''; german: Straßenorgel) played by an organ grinder is a French-German automatic mechanical pneumatic organ designed to be mobile enough to play its music in the street. The two most co ...

player, possessing a hand-operated street organ. While the organ is played the Chinchinero plays and dances whatever it is playing -

foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

, or

cueca Cueca () is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially declared as such by the Pinochet dictatorship on September 18, 1979 ...

. These performers roam the streets and cities of Chile and have even performed by invitation outside of the country as far as Europe. The foreign performances are coordinated by Chile's Department of Culture within the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile ( es, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) is the cabinet-level administrative office in charge of planning, directing, coordinating, executing, controlling and informing the foreign policy formulated by ...

References

External links

Chinchineros.cl
Street performance Chilean culture {{Chile-stub