Augusto Polo Campos, 4 years after his death: this is how it was done with you Peru, composed in 15 minutes, always remembered

“We are very sorry for your absence. Four years have passed and we feel very sorry, but also very proud because he has left a fairly large and important legacy.” tells us Marco, son of Augusto Polo Campos, by evoking the figure of his father, an emblematic composer of our Creole music. So emblematic and still present that, according to his son, all the great stars of Creole music have recorded his songs, except Los Embajadores Criollos. “It was not for something personal, much less, but for circumstances that occurred”, remember him.

Although they did not specify figures, according to Apdayc, the Polo Campos songs that generate the most royalties after his departure are Contigo Perú, When my guitar cries, Every Sunday at twelve after mass, And it’s called Peru, Come back, Sweetheart, Sweetheart bad, good darling, this is my land or I have a pity. According to the same institution, the composer is currently among the 20 most productive authors in the country.

That is just a sample of its validity and its permanent presence, which is also clear when one goes to Spotify: more than 2,800,000 people have heard “Y se llama Perú” on that platform. And more than 1 million 800 thousand have done the same with Every Sunday at 12. As if their own audience were singing to Augusto Polo Campos: When you have to leave/ I want you to know/ That I’ll be thinking of you/ All my days…

With you Peru, 15 minutes for an eternal anthem

Although many know the story of how the song that is considered our second national anthem was written, Marco Polo Campos does not hesitate to recall a decisive anecdote: “During the Velasco government, my father had composed Y se llama Perú. Years later, when Morales Bermúdez was already president, he called him to meet with one of his ministers, Augusto Vinatea. Seeing that the ’78 World Cup was coming, they asked him to make another song. My dad told him: last time I charged 10 thousand, this time I will charge 15 thousand. Vinatea replies that there is no problem and that she gives him 15 days to do it and bring it to him to listen to it and see if it works. My dad, then, highlighted the irony that he has charged him 15 and that Vinatea gives him 15 days. He had a lot of influence on that: 15 and 15, 15 and 15, until he flew out of the Government Palace and, after asking a young lady who worked there for a blank piece of paper, he sat down at one of the tables at the Café Haiti – which was then in the old Plaza Pizarro, next to the Palace-, and began to write. Before starting, he realized that no more than 3 minutes had passed since he had left the meeting with Vinatea. And then he began: “When my eyes wake up and I see… that I’m still living with you Peru”, at the same time that he imagined the music. While I was writing, I kept looking at the clock: 6 minutes, 7, 8… at 13 minutes the song was ready. He ran out of Haiti and rushed back to the Government Palace. At that time, Vinatea was in another meeting with a confederation of fishermen. But my dad passed by the secretary, while she asked him what had happened and opened the door of the office where the minister with whom he had spoken moments before was. Vinatea then asked him “What happened, Augusto? Have you forgotten something?” To which my father replied: “You told me 15, right?” “Yes, 15 days,” Vinatea replied. “And I’m going to charge you 15?” My dad asked again. “Yes, 15 thousand”, says Vinatea, already somewhat disconcerted. “Well, look at your watch, how long has it been?” my dad asked. “It’s been 15 minutes,” the minister told him. “Well, your song is ready.” So my father stood on a chair and told the fishermen that they would be his jury. “If this song works for you, it will work for everyone.” She began to sing it and, when she got to the part where she says “I will give you my life and when I die, I will join you on earth with Peru…”, according to what my father told me, Vinatea was covering her face with the lapel of her polish she was wearing so her tears wouldn’t be seen. The fishermen were also crying. Then, the Avilés, Cavero and Polo Campos triumvirate came together again to record this anthem of the people, the anthem that we Peruvians chose. Few know all the complete verses of the national anthem, but millions know Contigo Perú”.

pretty darling

According to Marco, seeing that thousands of Peruvians sang it at the World Cup in Russia, when our team participated in one again, was a very strong mix of emotions for the family. On the one hand, a great joy, on the other, a sadness, because Augusto Polo Campos had left a few months before and could not get to see how proud Peruvians felt of that song, so many thousands of kilometers from their homeland. It is worth remembering that the Peruvian was chosen as “The best fan in the world”. This striking achievement was achieved, in large part, thanks to Contigo Perú, a theme that also accompanied us during the first months of the pandemic, when in various corners of the country, at 8 pm, millions of Peruvians who were in quarantine sang the theme to give each other strength. A very important mental support in one of the darkest periods of our recent history. “This song, and somehow Creole music with it, will survive for many, many years”Marco tells us. “Children who were 5, 6 or 8 years old when the World Cup in Russia was going to sing it in 10, 20 or 30 years or when they are 80, because they will always associate it with the classification of Peru. Contigo Perú is the only Creole song that is guaranteed to be heard again in the distant future”.

The artist’s son highlights other songs written by his father, such as Y se llama Perú, Every Sunday at 12, This is my land or Come back, which many associate with Lucha Reyes, but which is also his composition. However, when another composer told him: “Your father is the best of us”, Marco clarified the panorama: “It cannot be said that it is the best, because there are many tastes. It is better to refer to Augusto Polo Campos as the most successful composer, because he is the one who obtained the most number 1s within Creole music. And we are not talking about 4 or 5 songs, but more than 25 songs that were. It is the one that more Peruvians can identify their songs today”. Pride seeps out of his pores. “For all his children it is a great pride to be able to represent in some way, all of us, the image he left as a composer and as a hero of Peruvian music. Because if the same composers of the national anthem, José de la Torre Ugarte or Bernardo Alzedo -both buried in the Panteón de los Próceres-, are considered that way, there was also a composer who wrote another anthem, the one that the people chose. My father must also be considered a martyr, because he is on the same level. The anthem composed by Alzedo and de la Torre is superior in many aspects, of course, but Contigo Perú is superior in others as well”.

Although Marco assures that the family prefers not to talk about money, they do accept that his father’s compositions continue to generate many benefits, 4 years after his departure. That, despite the closure of premises due to the pandemic. There is no virus that contains the art embraced by the people.

His days in Apdayc

Another aspect of the composer’s life that is rarely remembered were his days as president of Apdayc. As he recalls, they were times of intense struggle, in which he had the constant support of colleagues like Chabuca Granda, but in which he also had to stop the opposition of some composers to his most innovative and modern concepts. “It was a difficult stage, in which my father achieved many things, despite the obstacles that were placed on him. His second presidency was a little more organized. Then, in fact, my father was vice president on other occasions. He was able to do a lot for several composers, not only like Apdayc but like Augusto Polo Campos”, he assures. Marco maintains that Polo Campos was a very humble man and a philanthropist who distributed the money he earned among those who needed it most. Sometimes, he even collected his royalties and distributed the money among the workers of Apdayc itself. In this sense, he remembers artists who left in his arms or the support he gave to several by organizing crusades for their health. “Some called him arrogant. But he was only arrogant with the arrogant, never with simple people “says Polo Campos son.

Along these same lines, he recalls one of the bastions of criollismo, friend of Felipe Pinglo, Pedro Espinel, whom Polo Campos hired for many jobs, due to the great respect he felt for his talent. “He never wanted the great glories to be poor or live poorly. The same thing happened with Rómulo Varillas, whom he took to the Montefiori Clinic and helped a lot with his health problems”, tells us Marco Polo Campos. Despite the fact that Los Embajadores Criollos never recorded any of their songs, the two had a great relationship. Probably the most striking case, due to the media coverage it had in those years, occurred in the 1960s, when Polo Campos entered a cage with a lion inside to fulfill a challenge and thereby earn money so that Jesús Vásquez could, finally have a home of your own. Part prank, part act that epitomizes his nobility. As another song of his says, dedicated to that city on whose anniversary week he departed: If Lima could speak / I would ask his heaven / To become a handkerchief / To start dancing.