The Girls want to be singers Wayno

Wayno music, typically from the Peruvian Andes, has transformed itself in Lima, Peru’s capital.

Wayno music, typically from the Peruvian Andes, has transformed itself in Lima, Peru’s capital. Nevertheless, its popularity never waned. It was brought to the coast starting 1960 by myriad families that migrated from Andean communities to Lima.

Wayno has a nostalgic aura that reminisces the highlands, but it also sings about love and spite, and, in some cases, about life in the outskirts of Lima, which now occupy large land extensions and surpass in number the populations found in the city’s traditional neighborhoods.

Migrant women and their daughters are the protagonists of this genre. They sing and adorn themselves with bright-colored polleras, or skirts. These dresses blend traditional rural styles with elegant glamour and may cost up to 300 dollars.

Every weekend, thousands of people attend Wayno concerts organized in Lima’s outskirts in order to listen and dance those rhythms played by an Andean harp, an electric keyboard and drums, accompanied by sweet vocals.

Wayno has not been neglected by first-generation migrants. On the contrary, it is preferred above other music genres and it is thought that belonging to a Wayno band will provide fame and social mobility. Wayno bands —usually comprised by large families and their friends— deposit their faith in progress in these young female singers.

Young girls and teens become Wayno figures that emulate renowned local artists and, at the same time, earn money for their families. Small stages in neighborhood parties are the first gigs for many Wayno singers who start to seek wealth and fame.

This is the graphic photographic history of that aspiration to become Wayno singers. Girls singers, protagonists of this story are: Wendy Sulca, Yanet Acuna, Flor Romero and Doris Maria.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru. Flor Romero (14 years old) tested in the backyard, along with his aunt, who plays the harp. They live in the southern part of the periphery of the city of Lima.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru. Florcita Romero rests beside his cousin, after singing. They are inside the car of his father, which serves both to Camerin.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Dressing singing. Yanet Acuña is helped to make up by a friend also singer.
i

Dressing singing. Yanet Acuña is helped to make up by a friend also singer.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Yanet Acuna enters the ticket office of a local concert.
i

Yanet Acuna enters the ticket office of a local concert.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Yanet Acuña on the far right , listen Dina Paucar concert , who is the most recognized singers Huayno . Yanet Acuna 'm late to the concert so he could not sing in the turn that it corresponded .

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru . Wendy Sulca (16 years old) is the teenage singer Wayno more popular. In the picture, Wendy dances while shooting for a Peruvian TV channel.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Yanet Acuna se prueba el nuevo vestuario de cantante en el patiio de su casa. Su madre la ayuda a probarse la Pollera.
i

Yanet Acuna se prueba el nuevo vestuario de cantante en el patiio de su casa. Su madre la ayuda a probarse la Pollera.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Casting Huayno singers in a singing school
i

Casting Huayno singers in a singing school

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Yanet Acuna arrives home in Villla Maria del Triunfo. Yanet up with an ornament Quinceanera Party has been recovered. In the background is the neighborhood in which he lives. Yanet want to be singers Wayno.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru. Florcita Romero heard his recordings in a recording studio near his home. She is 15 years old and about to finish recording a new cd.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lime. Peru. Doris María (12 years old) enters a school, where she will give a concert. The van she is in is decorated with a picture of him. This vehicle is owned by her father, who has managed to buy it with the proceeds from the concerts offered by Doris María. Her parents are usually the agents or representatives of the young singers. Doris Maria enjoys a certain recognition because she participated in a miniseries on Peruvian television where she had a small role as an actress as a recognized wayno singer in Peru: Sonia Morales, during her childhood.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Flor Romero rests in his room after a concert.
i

Flor Romero rests in his room after a concert.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

District of Vitarte, Lima 2005. A young huayno singer waits her turn to enter the stage and sing in a venue near the central caerreyera in the eastern sector of the city of Lima.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru . Wendy Sulca (16 years old) is the teenage singer Wayno more popular.This photo was taken in Lima during Wendy Sulca’s 15th anniversary concert.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Lima. Peru. Florcita Romero looks in the mirror her new hairstyle, beauty salon in your neighborhood of Villa Maria del Triunfo in Lima Peru.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Yanet Acuña finishes singing at a concert in a wayno music venue. She had to travel about 35 kilometers to sing.
i

Yanet Acuña finishes singing at a concert in a wayno music venue. She had to travel about 35 kilometers to sing.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Yanet Acuña sings at the beginning of a Huayno music festival. Usually the teenage singers are the first to appear, in this case before a small number of people.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

The Huayno girl singer, Doris Maria, sleeps in the van her father drives and that takes her back to her house in Carabayllo, in the northern part of Lima, after giving a concert in the city of Huaral, 70 kilometers away. from your house.

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

Costume Detail singer Flor Romero. Usually in these skirts are the photographs of the singers as well as the character drawings allude rural origin: countryside landscapes, animals, etc..

© Max Cabello Orcasitas - Image from the The Girls want to be singers Wayno photography project
i

A music speaker above a drawing of a scene of a peasant woman during agricultural tasks in a bar where wayno music is heard. It should be noted that the Wayno with harp is of rural origin.

Latest Projects

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Stay in the loop


We will send you weekly news on contemporary photography. You can change your mind at any time. We will treat your data with respect. For more information please visit our privacy policy. By ticking here, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with them. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.