In the past few days, I've been picking up on some of the, como se dice, quirks of Chilean society. Of course there are the little ones, like how the women kiss people they've just met on the cheek, or how they add "po" as a sort of semimeaningless syllable to the ends of random words, but I've made a big discovery. The Chileans love The Beatles, or should I say Los Bitols. Now, I suppose you're thinking, "Well everyone likes The Beatles," or "Of course, they were a worldwide phenomenon," but I'm not talking, small scale, was-a-big-thing-in-the-60s-and-70s kind of thing. I'm talking about a cultural obsession with the fab four.
How did I come to this conclusion? Well it all started a few days ago in Santiago. Our student group was eating in the central market of the city at a fish restaurant, where I had a strange soup con mariscos varios (various seafood), which basically meant a random assortment of mussels, clams, shrimp and a few pieces of fish, stewed in a warm broth. As we were eating, I noticed two Chilenos approach the massive group of tables, toting guitars. They started playing and I realized I knew the tune. It was "Love, Love me do," and the duo began singing a slightly 'Chileanized' version of the song which was beautiful and a little sad. They finished and a few people clapped and they began another song, this time "She loves you (jah, jah, jah)." I thought it was a little strange that they were playing such old songs and that we'd come over 5,000 miles to hear someone play such non-traditionally Chilean music. I don't know, maybe that's just me, but I mean, when you think being serenaded by men with guitars in an open air restaurant in South America, you don't exactly imagine them singing "You know it's up to you / I think it's only fair / Pride can hurt you too / Apologize to her." I assumed it was just an isolated thing, I mean they were older gentlemen, and the thought passed as soon as they started coming around, asking Gringos for some money for their performance.
A couple of days later, the group went to a beautiful little bohemian artisan's camp in an old monastery outside Santiago. There were tons of little shops, all selling handmade trinkets like little pieces of jewelry or small toys or fantastic brick-oven-baked-empanadas. The buildings were old and Spanish-looking with clay roofs and a quiet brook running through. There were also numerous cats and dogs that belonged to the shop owners and a good number of trees along the soft dirt paths so there was always ample shade. When we entered however, there was a man outside one of the shops near the entrance who was sitting behind a large harp. At first, the almost surreally tranquil setting had us mesmerized and the harp was just another pristine facet to the jewel that was the artisan's camp. Then I realized he was playing a song I knew. He wasn't singing, but he was playing both the melody and harmony to "Hey, Jude." It was funny. Different people covering The Beatles twice in only a couple of days. I didn't mind. When he got to the "Na na na," part it was actually really cool sounding. I walked around the camp with some others and then we returned to the entrance to meet our group. The man and his harp had gone, but in his place there was a concert band, complete with trumpets, flutes, tubas, and all the required instrumentalists. The first song we heard them playing "When I'm Sixty-Four."
This was especially endearing since it's a fairly clarinet heavy song already, but also because the band was made up almost entirely of senior citizens. It was fun to listen to, but by that point, I was starting to realize something was up. When they finished, they played a few other songs, including the Star Trek Theme which was pretty cool as well as a few other well-recognizable classics.
In Valparaiso, my suspicions arose again. I was talking with my host brother and he was talking about a band they went to go see who was very good but also very funny. It was a Beatle's tribute band who was Chilean, but pretended that they couldn't speak or understand Spanish and that they were actually British. Then later I was talking with my host family about music. I told them I sang in the choir, and my school's jazz group. They asked what kind of music we played and I told them it was mostly vocal jazz, but also a bit of popular music. To that my host mother exclaimed "¿¿Como Los Bitols??" I explained that it was more of a modern popular music sort of thing, but she loved the idea that we sang Beatles songs and we talked about some of their hits for a while, including "Hey Yude," and "All ju need is Love."
It was curious. I'm not sure I have an explanation for the continuation of the British invasion here in South America, but the fab four's fanbase is still alive and well here in Chile. For example, there is a large amount of very intricate graffiti here in Valparaiso, especially when representing social uprising and change. In several of these street murals I've seen images of John Lennon, which isn't terribly surprising, but at the same time, there are more influential people in the realm of social change they could've chosen. Another time I was listening to a Chilean radio station on one of the busses we were riding from place to place, when I heard the modern British boy band hit "What makes you beautiful" by One Direction, immediately followed by "Hello Goodbye." I don't know if someone recently distributed a ton of free copies of their Number One Hits album or if it's always been this way, but regardless, the British invasion made it to Chile, and it's apparently here to stay.
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