<i>Chicha</i> in the shanty towns of Arequipa, Peru

Abstract

Chicha , a fermented maize beer, traditional in the Andes and brewed by Andean migrants in the shanty towns of Peru's cities, has given its name to a musical movement, which first emerged in the migrant squatter settlements of Lima in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s chicha was the most well-known and wide-spread form of urban popular music in Peru (Romero 1990; Rowe &amp; Schelling 1991, pp. 121–2), widely played, sung and danced in impromptu chichodromos , set up in walled-in vacant lots or back yards.