This statue depicts Chabuca Granda, the legendary Peruvian singer and composer, singing one of her most famous songs, José Antonio. Granda wrote it in 1957 about José Antonio de Lavalle y García, a friend of her father and a horse breeder who recovered the Peruvian Paso breed when he passed away. The statue depicts Granda performing in her famous posture and clothes. Next to her is the statue of José Antonio, riding a horse dressed as is described in the song. The monument stands in the park named after her in the neighborhood where she grew up. The artist Fausto Jaulis created the statues, and the dedication ceremony took place on October 24th, 1992. A copyof the monument stands in the Plaza Chabuca Granda in Santiago de Chile. María Isabel Granda Larco (1920-1983) was born and raised in her first years in a small mining town in the Andes mountains. After the sudden death of her brother, the family moved to the Barranco neighborhood in Lima. There she first listened to the music of black Peru, sang in the school’s choir, and played tennis. Later on, she got married and had three children. When her marriage ended (not common in conservative Catholic society), she started singing at clubs and parties and working during the day as Helena Rubinstein cosmetics consultant. Her popularity grew, and she began performing her own songs. Her music started with the Creole genre, folk music, singing about romance and life in Peru, and later included Afro-Peruvian rhythms and political songs. She was a pioneering singer, wrote most of her songs, and elevated creole culture and music into the mainstream. Many of her songs became classics of Peruvian music. Read more...