Cochabamba

A song addressed to a valley

The singer of “Oh Cochabamba querida” speaks to the city as though leaving it were a conversation. The lyric names the Tunari mountains and the Rocha River, asking the place not to forget this song if its singer goes away. Its author was Rubén Ramírez Santillán, known as Jaime del Río.

The song is a taquirari, a form associated with Bolivia’s eastern lowlands; its subject is the city and valley of Cochabamba. Over time it became closely identified with the region, and Bolivian law recognised its words and music as national intangible cultural heritage.

Among its interpreters is Enriqueta Ulloa, a singer from Tarija. Her version carries the river and the mountains named in the lyric into another voice, while the composer’s address to Cochabamba remains at the centre of the song.