The Spanish website, www.cancioneros.com, prints an excerpt from a book of memoirs: "Gonzalo Benitez: tras una cortina de anos." Written in the first person, this book has at least one chapter about how "Vasija de Barro" came to be written. Sr. Benitez, as you will see, claims to have composed the music for the song. Here is my attempt to present some quotes in English; the original is in Spanish. The setting is Ecuador's capitol, Quito.

"In Guayaquil street, I met with the painter Oswaldo Guayasamin. He invited us, then, to a party at his home on Friday, the 7th of November, 1950, to begin at 7 in the evening. But we were not free before half-past nine that evening. He says: "Come whatever hour you want to, and please invite your singing partner (Luis Alberto Valencia, whose nickname is El Potolo).

"It was half-past ten by the time the two of us got there, and the party was well and truly underway....some 80 people had been invited, amongst them poets, painters, students and graduates of the School of Bellas Artes de La Alameda. We sang at their request, and after we were done singing, we broke up into groups. Valencia went with the hard-drinking bunch, and I went where people were drinking less rather than more.

"Jorge Carrera Andrade was looking over a canvas painted by Oswaldo, so recently that the paint was barely dry, enough to stain the fingers. In this painting, there was a great vessel of clay, and inside of this, were depicted the little bones, the skeletons, of children. Oswaldo explained his depiction of a burial tradition of the Incas. When a member of an Incan family died, his surviving relatives would bury his remains inside of a clay jar, together with something to eat. At this, Jorge Carrera was much impressed. Our group watched as he headed for the bookshelves in the house's private study. There he took up one book, and on the blank flyleaves, he wrote down one single stanza:

"Yo quiero que a mi me entierren
como as mis antepasados
en el vientre oscuro y fresco
de una vasija de barro. "

Translation:
I want them to bury my body
the way my ancestors were buried,
in the dark, cool womb
of an earthen vessel.

More to come in future posts.