Aztra - "Acústico en Vivo" (2010)

AZTRA "Acústico en Vivo"

Year: 2010
Genre: Acoustic Folk / Native American Folk Metal
Country: Ecuador
Label: Discos Florencia

Track List:

1. Amor Bajo El Sol
2. Un Largo Andar
3. Lamento
4. Compañera
5. Octubre 18 (junto a Paola Villacís)
6. Alturas
7. Sin Opción
8. El Mañana
9. Carula (bonus)
10. Manifesto (Victor Jara - bonus)

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This live album is the most recent release by Aztra. It consists mostly of acoustic versions of their older songs, but there also are a few new tracks, and a cover version of "Manisfesto" by Victor Jara. Track #5 has female vocals, and its name is a reference to the infamous events of 10 October 1977 on the sugar factory "AZTRA" (hence the name of the band), when the striking workers were massacred by the government forces.

The music is also strongly influenced by indigenous American folklore and mythology. Interesting enough, many of South American leftist rebel groups pay much homage to Native American beliefs too. For example, there was a guerilla movement in Peru called Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA), whose name is a reference to a legendary indigenous Peruvian freedom fighter Túpac Amaru II. Revolutionary groups like Partido Comunista de Ecuador - Sol Rojo ("Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun") and Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") are also known for assuming their ideological leader, Abimael Guzman, to be an incarnation of Red Sun god ("Puka Inti" in Quechua). It's worth noting that PCE-SR and Sendero Luminoso are far more authoritarian than MRTA, and SL have got a very bad name in Peru because of their brutality. There was also a rebel group in Ecuador called "Alfaro Vive, Carajo!", whose name can be translated as "Alfaro Lives, Dammit!", and refers to Eloy Alfaro, a progressive Ecuadorian president murdered by religious fanatics in early 1912. In the popular imagination of Ecuadorians, the name Alfaro is synonymous with rebellion (though Alfaro himself wasn't a socialist, just a radical liberal and a strong opponent of the church). The first action of AVC, when they broke into a museum and stole swords which had been used by Eloy Alfaro, was rather a symbolic magical action than a political one.