Last Friday, March 24, the Ministry of Culture, through the Decentralized Directorate of Culture of Callao, announced the 2023 cultural activities plan, within the framework of the Centenary of the Birth of the First Guitar of Peru, Óscar Avilés Arcos.
PHOTO: TVROBLES.
In coordination with Servicios Postales del Perú SA-Serpost SA, the chalaco singer’s postmark was presented, which will be applied to all correspondence that is distributed nationally and internationally, for a period of 30 days, from March 24 to April 24, at the Serpost Callao headquarters, located at Av. Dos de Mayo 437.
Amid applause, the arch. César Benavides, director of the DDC Callao, received the Avilés family, made up of Óscar Avilés, Lucy Avilés, and relatives.
At the event, the head of the DDC Callao, presented the list of cultural activities scheduled for 2024, which will honor the musician, for his great career in Creole music.
The afternoon became a revelry with the musical accompaniment of the Goyburu and the Avilés family themselves, who to the rhythm of the guitar and the cajón filled the attendees with joy.
PHOTO: TVROBLES.
about the artist.
Óscar Avilés was a singer, guitarist, composer, arranger and disseminator of Creole music, he was born in Callao (March 24, 1924), at Calle Zepita 653, Callao, in the midst of social gatherings with neighbors and friends, loudly and music from his father.
He began his professional life at the age of 15, when he was summoned by Rosa Dolores Ascoy, to play with her group. With her he worked as a cajon player and guitarist. Subsequently, the chords and musical silences of his guitar accompanied him on stage along with great artists such as Arturo “Zambo” Cavero, Los Morochucos, Fiesta Criolla, Chabuca Granda, Lucila Campos or Alicia Maguiña to name some greats of our criollismo.
In 1942, together with the Avilés-Núñez-Arteaga string trio, he won the radio contest organized by the journalist Roberto Nieves, from the newspaper La Noche, as a result of which he obtained the title of “The First Guitar of Peru”, which accompanied him for the rest of his musical life, for his constant and inexhaustible creative contributions to the sound of Creole music.
Óscar Avilés has produced the discography of all Creole music and other genres that were recorded at IEMPSA (Industrias Eléctricas y Musicales Peruanas SA) from the 1960s to the 1990s.
He is the creator of a school to play Creole music, the same one that the guitarists of the following generations continue. His great contribution revolutionized the criolla guitar. He made it a leading instrument for our music and transformed the style of playing it until then, which was with low notes. He incorporated high notes, different musical arrangements, new sounds and effects with non-traditional instruments, especially percussion and wind such as trumpets, trombones, castanets, güiro, bongo, tumba, organ, cowbell, among others.
His great expertise in Creole music made him worthy of a distinction granted by the Organization of American States (OEA) as “Musical Heritage of America” (June 3, 1987), in recognition of his exceptional merits and his relevant action to favor of music; he was awarded by the United Nations (UN) in 1990; he received recognition from the Municipality of Callao, with a diploma and gold medal as favorite son of the Constitutional Province of Callao; he was named Symbol of Criollismo of the first half century, on the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Creole Song Day Law; and he received the Medal of Honor of Peruvian Culture from the Ministry of Culture -then the National Institute of Culture (INC)- for his work promoting, disseminating and conserving Peruvian music.
PHOTO: TVROBLES.
Thanks to the love for Peru, which he professed throughout his life, he was a symbol of Peruvian identity for many years and through his songs and contributions to music, he awakened national identity in children, youth and adults, without distinction.
