Lyrics of Peruvian cumbia:
While most lyrics are about love in all its aspects, nearly all songs reveal an aspect of the harshness of the Amerindian experience displacement, hardship, loneliness and exploitation. Many songs relate to the great majority of people who have to make a living selling their labour and goods in the unofficial "informal economy", ever threatened by the police.
Los Shapis' standard "El Ambulante" (The Street Seller) opens with a reference to the rainbow colours of the Inca flag and the colour of the ponchos the people use to keep warm and transport their wares. "My flag is of the colours and the stamp of the rainbow / For Peru and America / Watch out or the police will take your bundle off you! / Aye, aye, aye, how sad it is to live / How sad it is to dream / I'm a street seller, I'm a proletarian / Selling shoes, selling food, selling jackets / I support my home."
Current exposure of all social classes of Peru to Chicha as well as a renovation in lyrical content, to include expressions of animation have led to its revival.
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