“Let This Circle Open; Let It Close Again”: The Construction of Identity Through the Singing of Coplas

Abstract

In the province of Jujuy, especially in the regions of the Quebrada de Humahuaca and the Puna, the practice of singing coplas is a phenomenon that remains alive within the social practices of native communities.

This paper aims to analyze the function of copla singing in relation to the identity construction of its performers, both in the individual dimension that distinguishes the singer as a subject with a specific social role and in the collective projection that the singer and the song have for the community to which they belong.

Two festivities that acquire ritual tones are the object of this study: the “Encuentro de Copleros” of Purmamarca, held annually in the first days of January, and the “Topamiento de Comadres”, which takes place on the Thursday before Carnival celebrations. On both occasions, the singers organize themselves in rounds or circles that constitute true scenarios for the formation and circulation of figurative processes, through which the subject constructs himself or herself as such and configures a model of the world.

Within the circle, the performer’s voice and body play a central role. These elements appear in the discourse of a subgroup of coplas referring to singing, the singer, and performance.

In this paper, I analyze, from a semiotic perspective, the ritual celebration of the circle of copla singers, establishing discursive relations with the texts recorded during the aforementioned festivities.