Rosa Elena Vásquez Rodríguez, generally known as Chalena Vásquez, (1950–2017) was a Peruvian composer, music researcher and

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

. At the

Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (, PUCP) is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 with the support and approval of the Catholic church, being the oldest private institution of higher learning in the country. The Peru ...

(PUCP), she gave courses on folklore and anthropology of art and from 1992 directed the university's Music and Dance Centre. Her books document the history of Andean and Afro-Peruvian music. For ''La práctica musical de la población negra en el Perú. Danza de Negritos de El Carmen'' she received the Musicology Award from the Cuban

Casa de las Américas Casa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, ...

in 1982.

Early life and education

Born in 1950 in

Sullana SullanaRegional Tourism Office of Piuraciudad de Sullana. Consulted on July 8, 2009. is a city in Peru and the capital of the Sullana Province, Piura, in the north-western coastal plains of Peru on the Chira valley. The city is home to 162,500 p ...

Piura Piura is a city in northwestern Peru, located north of the Sechura Desert along the Piura River. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. Its population was 484,475 as of 2017 and it is the 7th most populous city in Peru. ...

, Rosa Elena Vásquez Rodríguez was the daughter of Héctor Vásquez Rey and Fornariña Rodríguez. She was given the name Chelana by her younger sister who wrote it while she was learning to read. It soon became her official name. From 1967 she studied piano and voice at the music conservatory Carlos Valderrama in Trujillo and then graduated in musicology in 1983 at the National Music Conservatory in Lima. She went on to take post-graduate studies in ethnomusicology and folklore in Venezuela (1977–78).

Career

In 1987, she undertook a comprehensive study of the carnival in

Ayacucho Ayacucho (, , derived from the words ''aya'' ("death" or "soul") and ''k'uchu'' ("corner") in honour of the battle of Ayacucho), founded in 1540 as San Juan de la Frontera de Huamanga and known simply as Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga) until 1825, i ...

. Later, in 2005, for the National School of Folklore, she completed a methodological proposal covering the entire process behind artistic production in regard to material, social and ideological relationships leading to the distribution and consumption of art. At the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), she gave courses on folklore and anthropology of art and from 1992 directed the university's Music and Dance Centre. There she edited CDs, DVDs and books while organizing workshops in Peruvian prisons and fighting the oppression of Peru's cultural minorities. Her major works include ''La práctica musical de la población negra en el Perú: Danza de Negritos de El Carmen'' (Musical Practice of Peru's Black Population: Danzas de Negritos from El Carmen, 1981); and in collaboration with Abilio Vergara ''¡Chayraq! Carnaval ayacuchano'' (Chayraq! The Avacucho Carnival, 1988) and ''Ranulfo, el hombre'' (Ranulfo, the Mam 1989) are masterpieces of Peruvian musicology. Chalena Vásquez died in Lima on 11 December 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasquez, Chalena 1950 births 2017 deaths People from the Department of Piura Peruvian composers Peruvian women composers Peruvian non-fiction writers 20th-century Peruvian women writers 21st-century Peruvian women writers Peruvian ethnomusicologists Women ethnomusicologists