“My contact with music is frank, sincere, honest and very transparent. It makes me happy to create a song that is a beautiful way to communicate,” says the singer, composer and producer. Jorge Rojas days after presenting “Principio y destiny”, his new album in which he once again demonstrates that he is one of the best voices that folklore has ever given.
He was born five decades ago in Cutral-Có, province of Neuquén, where his parents were for work reasons, although when he was very young, the family returned to his grandparents’ house, in the Marca Borrada area of the Chaco of Salta. There he had a happy childhood and began to understand that, with the tools of knowledge, reality can be changed.
From a very young age he dedicated himself to music and joined the group “Los del Cerro”, with which he competed in the pre-Cosquín, the previous selection to perform at the traditional Cordoba festival. Later he would join “Los Nocheros”, and for 12 years he would add records and countless recitals throughout the country, Latin Grammy nominations and more than two million albums sold. In 2005 he released his first solo album and dedicated himself to building an important career in which he has released more than 20 albums.
Father of five children and young grandfather of two grandchildren, he found his place in the world in Anisacate, Córdoba. There he built his house, a state-of-the-art recording studio, and an amphitheater. In his free time he enjoys his park and the animals he raises.
News: What was your childhood like in the Marca Borrada area?
Jorge Rojas: It is the place that marked me in a very profound way in many aspects of my life. The fact of being so far from urban centers meant that, from a very young age, I had a deep connection with nature. My great-grandparents worked in the mountains, just like their grandparents. And far, always very far from the city. The closest was Tartagal, 200 km away by dirt road. So that experience in full contact with nature has made it very special. We learned to love her, and respect her, and know that she gives absolutely everything. Another thing that also marked me a lot was that there are settlements of aboriginal communities, of almost seven different ethnic groups, and it allowed me to see how an indigenous people lives from the inside.
News: And the first contact with music?
Red: I remember that there were times when social or religious meetings were held. The meeting of many neighbors and relatives where they got together and lived holidays. The parties lasted for many days. There was the contact with music and live with the violin. From what one has done a little research, you understand that this instrument came from the Jesuits. It became entrenched in the Chaco of Salta in a very strong way. There the history of music is identified with the violin and the chacarera. With those two instruments plus a legüero bass drum, the parties and dances were put together.
News: Is it true that since you didn’t have a guitar, you made one with branches and sticks?
Red: (laughs) My dad had a kind of workshop with tools where he worked on different things. Imagine that there you were not going to buy it in a hardware store. So he managed it for me. I grabbed the saw, cut wood, trying to give it the shape of the instrument. I took some fishing lines that my old man had and improvised a kind of guitar. During those naps, which are always very hot there, they rest, they go under the bower to get a little shade. My old man always took a nap, and I thought that at that moment they didn’t see me, but they had been watching me working in the workshop. Some time later, he took a trip to the city, brought me one as a gift, and that’s when I started playing. He was about 10 years old, and the same instrument house gave him a little book of music chords, and that’s how I started to learn. I wanted to spend all day with the guitar.
News: In the towns and cities of the interior there is a more daily, more direct contact with music, right?
Red: Living in rural areas means that music has to do with the landscape, customs, traditions. Out there in the large urbanizations you already get information from everywhere. At that time, when I was a child, the only thing that connected us a little with the outside world was Radio Nacional, which is what my grandfather tuned in to. He sat down in the afternoons to listen to folklore programs, and he was the only contact we had with music that could come from somewhere else.
News: I read that your dad told you and your siblings to take off your sneakers to go to school.
Red: (laughs) The thing is that we had a pair of sneakers that we used to go to school, and we had 8 km of road to get there. So we did that journey with work espadrilles and, a while before arriving at school, we changed our shoes to take care of them and maintain them. It was a way of learning to take care of what we had.
News: Did your family transmit a spirit of solidarity to you?
Red: Definitely. There everything is part of a very supportive social chain. When you are very far from urban centers, what generally happens is that whoever produces something exchanges it with his neighbor. Having an Aboriginal community nearby, in which many were dedicated to crops and harvesting, I remember that they came to my house very often with honey that they got in the mountains, and generally it was to exchange for something.
News: Somehow he transferred it to the Native Culture Foundation that he presides.
Red: Yes. Obviously times have changed a lot. It is a reality that the mountain is no longer the same, anywhere in the world. The resources that were previously used or had, that allowed communities to live off nature, are no longer there today. These settlements are made up of people who were left very unprotected, and without the possibility of being able to insert themselves into a consumer society like the one we live in. It was completely left out of the system, and today a very difficult reality is seen in those communities. That has made us organize ourselves and that is where this idea of being able to generate a space, an institution where we could achieve some collective aid was born. In health, which is the most difficult thing that the Chaco of Salta has, we work on a solidarity medicine program. Also in education, to try to get places, contacts, scholarships so that the children begin to prepare knowing that, by having knowledge, reality can be modified. In a very few years, the agroindustrial growth that our country has had took away the native forest and ended up affecting the people who lived off it.
News: Knowing about your work at the Foundation, have you ever been offered to participate in politics?
Rojas: Yes, many times (laughs).
News: I see you didn’t accept…
Red: I think that to get into politics you have to get fully into it. Today my work with music, and the one I have with the Foundation, takes me full time. It is a different life that I would have to lead if I had to dedicate myself to that, and the truth is that, at this point, I don’t know it, I should learn a lot. From where I am, music has given me the possibility of reaching many sectors of society, many institutions, and achieving concrete help. Music gives me a lot of possibilities to open doors, so it is a path that I am traveling, that does not make me think about anything else. This is what I respond every time they try to seduce me to occupy a space, or to lead some work teams. I don’t know in the future. If I ever managed to learn more, but today, I believe that with what I know and the experience I have, in the space where I am, is where I can help in the best way.
News: Did you dream of your successful present?
Red: No, not really. Music makes me happy alone. Even if I’m alone, sometimes here in this space, composing songs or recording or singing. I spend many more hours singing alone than in front of an audience. Most of the time you make music for yourself. As a child I also felt that being around music made me very happy. Over time I met the guys from “Los Nocheros” and that made me live an absolutely different reality. At times it seemed like it was something unreal when music connects you with so many people. That contact with the public is another absolutely different experience. Thank God there have been very nice and positive things in my life. Living through all that whirlwind of things that happened to us taught me to be able to move forward with my projects, convinced of the place one occupies. Today I know that I will always make music.
News: Would you sing with the group again?
Red: I don’t know, it’s possible. A little while ago, Mario (Teruel) had a tremendous loss with the death of his wife (Noemí Laspiur, La Moro, composer of many hits from “Los Nocheros”). I stopped by his house and we talked for a long time, we shared a day. As time went by we were able to rescue that affection and we had a great time. I don’t think that at the moment I’m ready to do something artistic again, but from an emotional point of view, yes, I felt that we were getting closer.
