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Wilmer Machaca takes us on a musical tour of chicken-inspired popular local classics
With additional research by Amaru Villanueva Rance
cuando tienen hambre cuando tienen frío.
La gallina busca el maíz y el trigo
y les da la comida y les presta abrigo.
The next song on our tour is Pío Pío, composed by Javier Unsihuay and Farino Erazo in the mid-80’s. The onomatopoeia in the title curiously seems to reference the previous song, or at any rate it is unthinkable to imagine they are unrelated. But unlike Los Pollitos, the primary audience for Pío Pío are the lovesick, and often drunk, dancers in rural areas. This huaylas is generally accompanied by a vigorous zapateo. Well known across Andean communities, it is generally found on long-wave AM radio stations.
Este pollito que tu me regalaste,
este pollito que tu me regalaste
“pío pío pío” me va diciendo
“pío pío pío” me dice así
Our next stop is Azul Azul’s hit single Mamá no Quiero Comer más Huevo, the musical expression of a son’s lament at his mother’s insistence in only cooking him eggs. We have not been able to detect a figurative meaning to these lyrics: no double entendres, no innuendo; just the predicament of a man tired of eating eggs.
Mama no quiero comer más huevo,
cuando tengo hambre me da un huevo,
y si no me lleno da otro huevo
,mami no me gusta para nada…
The final song is Monterrojo’s hit from the late 90’s titled Paola. The genre, which the Uruguayan band describe as ‘tropical’ has elements of cumbia, pop, dance, merengue and bachata. Paola captures a man’s infatuation with an eponymous girl, to whom he asks for a chance (ultimately to get her drunk and take her to bed), assuring her that he will make a serious effort (or ‘poner huevo’, which alternatively means to lay an egg—an act which undoubtedly does require great effort, especially for a man).
Y dale dame bola dame bola vos Paola
Porque yo te quiero y pongo huevopongo huevo pongo huevo en el amor yo pongo huevo y dale vos
Bonus tracks:
MIR - Cancion de la VictoriaHymn to the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria party. Read the article on El Gallo to learn about the background and impact of the MIR in the 80’s and 90’s.
Miliki - La Gallina Turuleca
Popular children’s song about an egg-laying hen, both its lyrics and authorship have been a cause for controversy. Originally in portuguese, Galinha Magricela (meaning ‘skinny chicken’) never gained the wild popularity of its Spanish version. While there’s no doubt it was made famous by Gabi, Fofó and Miliki, it has been plagued by accusations that it is an exact copy of Gallina Papanatas by Monreal.
The chicken wing takes off
The first chicken wing restaurant – straightforwardly named Chicken Wings – started up in July 1995. It was founded by Maria Elisabeth Pierce along with four of her friends. They came up with the idea of opening a chicken wing restaurant while they were having dinner one night. The other partners have left the business over the years, and María is now the only one left.
Chicken Wings is a small restaurant with proper plates (no plastic trays), comfortable lighting, and wooden tables and chairs.
The instant success of María’s Chicken Wings restaurant helped her break even quickly. The restaurant offered four variations of wings: chicken-Cracker, Buffalo, BBQ, and Original. They originally came with a choice of four side orders: rice, noodles, coleslaw, and chips. The restaurant hauled people in without doing much publicity, and became well known despite only using flyers.
Chicken supply
Like many companies in Bolivia, Maria gets her chicken delivered by the company Pollos Sofia, which has become the largest poultry distributor in the country.
Maria has only been with them for a year. She used to get her wings from Supermercado Ketal, but an unhappy mix of inconsistent deliveries and higher prices forced her to switch, though she is still unsatisfied with the service. ‘I’m not too happy with them’, she tells me, ‘they don’t cut the chicken very well’.
Some of María's customers may be left wondering what happens to the rest of the chicken seeing as she only uses a small part of it. Maria assures me that as the king of the chicken market, Pollos Sofia is so large, they make sure every last bit of every bird is used.
Up until the mid 80’s, chicken was considered a luxury meat. Over the past decades, improved production techniques have made it increasingly accessible to the general population, and is now cheaper than beef, pork, lamb or fish. Yet Maria tells me this is only the case if you buy whole chickens. As the demand for chicken wings has soared, the price for a kilogram of chicken wings has risen from under Bs. 10 in the early days of the restaurant to around Bs. 24 Bs today.
‘I get deliveries about 4 times a week, and sell approximately 120 Kg per week.’ 1 Kg. of wings, Maria works out, is about 4,5 portions of 6 wings.
The War of the Wings
The chicken wing market didn’t take off until 2010 when Factory, and American-style restaurant, entered the market in the newly opened Megacenter. With it, the growing popularity of chicken wing restaurants has been a mixed blessing for María. While demand for wings has multiplied, so has competition in the market. Maria now has to do spend more publicity to maintain her average number of customers.
Still, Maria has carved out a niche for herself by being a pioneer in the market. Even today, Chicken Wings maintain an edge in originality and innovation, serving 14 different wing options and constantly adding new items to the menu.
‘I think my restaurant is more popular’, she says, ‘because I also have chicken fingers now. The combination of the two draws people in’.
‘I am a little bit worried about the informal restaurants growing bigger’, María tells me, ‘I know I have a lot to do to keep up with the market. I’m thinking about something new like BBQ ribs and a new flavour of chicken wings – bourbon wings’.
What makes an egg better than another?
Don Manuel, who sells criollo eggs in Rodríguez market, tells me that the size of an egg is proportional to the age of the hen; the older she is, the bigger they will be. As he drinks a glass of Papaya Salvietti, he explains how the shell color is white if the chickens are white, and light brown if the hen’s feathers are reddish-brown. He does point out, however, that this pigment does not affect the quality, taste, or nutritional content.
But not all eggs are laid equal. I meet engineer Erick Rolón and his wife Marta Rios de Rolón who introduce me to their revolutionary yolks. The couple founded Avícola Rolón in 1963 in the city of Cochabamba. They have been pioneers in the orange egg yolk phenomenon. Their secret? An especially formulated chicken feed, through which they have achieved eggs with super high nutritional value, doubling the standard values of A, D, and E vitamins, as well as iodine and Omega-3. These supereggs have been met with wide approval from consumers and have raised competition in the Bolivian egg market. And it is no surprise these eggs have even been chosen to part of the largest cake in South America, produced to commemorate the 203rd anniversary of La Paz’s first cry of independence with more than 11,000 eggs donated for the occasion (the relation between eggs and independence is still unclear to us though).
