Nayda Gutiérrez

Tunantada is a traditional Andean music-and-dance genre from the Mantaro Valley in Peru, especially centered in the city of Jauja (Junín). It accompanies a festive, satirical dance in which masked performers portray colonial-era characters—most notably the Spanish “chapetón”—to both celebrate and critique the social hierarchies of the past. Musically, tunantada is performed by orquesta típica (regional wind-and-string ensembles) that foreground clarinets and saxophones, supported by violins, brasses, harp or guitar (in some lineages), and a marching-style percussion battery of bombo, redoblante (snare), and platillos (cymbals). The pieces often have a dignified, processional lift reminiscent of European marches and pasodoble while maintaining Andean melodic contours and ornamentation.