What's so special about the Tucuman moon?

If there is a symbol that mixes the poetic, the musical and the deepest part of our being, it is the Tucuman moon. Perhaps it was ever since Atahualpa Yupanqui expressed it with a fairness in his words that surprised. And he made it clear, as he expressed in his song “Luna Tucumana”, that he did not sing to the moon because it was light and nothing else. In an interview many years ago, Don Ata told the story about why he composed that song, which is really a mime to the soul. There, when solitude comes, Atahualpa found a companion on the moon .

In the words of the Master

I started doing my horseback trips between Tucumán and Tafí del Valle. To do that thirty hour trek uphill, downhill, three hills, some ravines and a long skirting in the Carreras Valley to enter Tafí, I had a mule in Acheral. A delicious village I knew, loved and never forgotten... Acheral of Tucumán!

There was my mule and from there I went out eight or ten times for eight or ten years in a row. I never drove to Tafí del Valle, always to the mountain, from Acheral to Tafí del Valle. That eventually brought me this faculty and this bunch of memories and ideas. And the desire to tell my love and affection and my permanent memory to Tucumán, Acheral and above all to the Tucuman moon.

Because I went out at 5:00 in the morning, at 4:00 in the morning, saddled my horse, my mule, and went out. And I was just dawn on the skirtwork, halfway through the road... I was just dawn! It is worth saying that the moon always accompanied me, so I say in the verses “I do not sing to the moon, because it shines and nothing else, I sing to her because she knows about my length walk.”

Atahualpa Yupanqui

The original song

Although the authorship is by Atahualpa, this song is part of the northern essence, and hundreds of bands and artists include it in their repertoires. Here are some of them