On June 1, 2024, Words Without Borders Campus and the Brooklyn Public Library hosted an author talk and musical performance featuring two Quechua-Peruvian artists: author Marco Avilés and Latin Grammy-nominated musician Araceli Poma, playing with her band Afro-Andean Funk.
In his talk, Marco Avilés tells his own stories of migration-from the Andes to Lima, and then to the United States-and discusses ideas of uprooting and return in the immigrant experience. Avilés also shares examples of these concepts as they appear in poetry and fiction by other Indigenous Andean writers.
This event was organized by WWB and the BPL as part of the New York City Language Access Fund program, and supported with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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Read Marco Avilés's essay "I Am Not Your Cholo" on Words Without Borders: wordswithoutborders.org/read/...
Read a blog post about teaching Marco's essay in the classroom: wwb-campus.org/blog/2017/in-t...
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00:00 Araceli Poma sings "Valicha"
05:00 Araceli Poma sings "Matarina"
09:55 Marco Avilés introduces himself
11:45 Marco's migration and the story of Santos
17:44 Thinking about return: Marco's time in Maine
26:55 Why do we want to return?
29:00 Uprooting-Desarraigo
31:31 Examples of uprooting in Indigenous Andean literature
42:54 Losing and reconnecting to Quechua language and culture
45:48 How do we return?
50:37 Araceli Poma sings "El Canto de mi Abuela"