“I do not want tributes. I just want Peruvian music to be loved and respected.” These were the words of the Peruvian composer Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de Morales when interviewed in her 80s for a tribute organized by her students. She grew up in Lima in a deeply musical household. Her mother was a soprano, and her father was a baritone who had studied in Paris. Her parents had three great passions—music, teaching, and conversation—that they passed on to their children, who were fortunate to grow up with a family that routinely held gatherings that featured performances by the most outstanding professional musicians of the day.  

Thanks in part to this strong musical upbringing, Rosa Mercedes became a professional composer and choir conductor, who devoted herself to upholding the musical traditions of her native country. Among her many compositions is the Antiguos Pregones de Lima (1939), a collection of songs that emerges as a testament to her commitment to preserving and transforming traditional Peruvian music. The pregones (town cries) were recitations that hawkers shouted to sell various products to passersby. Dating back to the 17th century, these chants capture the essence of everyday life in Lima, encapsulating the stories and experiences of street vendors consumers in the city of Lima. In her song collection she recasts the chants as compositions for voice and piano, memorializing the pregones tradition; her songs are invaluable artifacts that reflect the resilience and vibrancy of Peru’s cultural heritage, preserving this historical music legacy and also serving as a bridge connecting past traditions to contemporary audiences.  

Despite Rosa Mercedes’s profound contributions to Peruvian music, her works remain largely unexplored, in part because recordings of her music, as well as commentary about it, are scarce. The recordings below spotlight one of her pregones, “La Tamelera” (The Tamales Vendor), as well a song not drawn from the Antiguos Pregones, entitled “Trujillo Mío” (My Trujillo), which expresses homesickness for Trujillo, a vibrant coastal city in northwestern Peru.

Additional Resources

• Alonso Cueto. Rosa Mercedes Ayarza: La música, su vida… Ser peruana, una pasión. Lima: Edelnor, 2009. [The definitive biography of Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de Morales. Includes numerous photographs, a detailed account of her life and career.]
• Palma, Ricardo. Tradiciones peruanas. Segunda serie. Lima: Patronato del Libro Peruano, 1956. [Especially useful is the chapter “Con días y ollas venceremos,” which vividly describes the daily sequence of Lima’s street vendors and their pregones—the very tradition that inspired Ayarza’s Antiguos Pregones de Lima.
• Tord, Luis Enrique. Lima y sus Pregones. Lima: Edelnor, 2006. [An illustrated history of Lima’s street cries and the vendors who inspired Mercedes’s compositions.]