the huaralino empty is an unusual image. However, in the light of noon and with a stage under construction, the symbol venue of Lima Norte was born in solitude, strengthened with cases of beer —500 or 1,000 depending on the event— and later, under the logistics of Juan Pablo Fernandez Chavezspread sparkles and glory to receive a crowd that cries out for music. The 55-year-old from Piura synthesizes the prestige of this entertainment center with rhetoric: “What orchestra has not passed through here?”
The groups of cumbia with greater national echo they have left their mark at each concert and also on the wall. From left to right, and labeled with the statement “Music is life”, they parade on a XXL size vinyl Los destellos, Grupo Guinda, Deleites Andinos, Los Mirlos, Corazón Serrano, Los Hijos del Sol, Zafiro Sensual and around fifty of multicolored logos.
The photographs on the adjoining wall are also headed by a short but broad message: “Thank you very much, Lima”. The same gratitude has lived in Pablito —as businessmen and artists call him— for 35 years, when he left La Matanza, Morropón, and migrated to the capital. “A decision I made to stand out, because I grew up as an orphan”confess.
Saby Star and Saby Producciones around El Huaralino
The death of his mother and the music, in that order, gave another reading to his childhood. Sabina She was 32 years old, had seven children, and the responsibility of taking care of the farm despite a miscarriage.
“One day before he passed away he spoke to me. (…) ‘Pablo, take care of my girls’, he told me. These are words that sometimes move me.” The repetition of the first person is common in the city of eternal heat, but on that occasion they reflected a maternal plea, the same as the now administrator of the huaralino took as a challenge: “That made me do what I’m doing,” he says.
And it refers to the musical world. saby star and saby Productions are their business. The first is a radio station in his town and the second is a production company that guides groups like Megafiesta, a group from San Juan that he also owns.
“Music from San Juan is in my blood”tells the story of someone who was once an 8-year-old boy who, with cans and pot lids, formed a momentary and playful orchestra together with his neighborhood friends.
“Pablo, I am a friend of the administrator of El Huaralino”
When the boy grew up and was almost 20, he studied in Lima, in a night school, fourth and fifth high school. Then “it was all study and work, study and work”. “I entered Telefónica, I specialized in Telecommunications. I traveled to Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua. They sent me to do some work there. I resigned from Telefónica and set up a radio station on my land”, summarizes Pablo.
“And how did you get to El Huaralino?”
-That’s another history. I met a friend, he was a presenter at that time on Inca Sat radio, and he told me: “Pablo, I am a friend of the administrator of the huaralino”. I came, I talked to the man, we became friends and he asked me: “Hey, do you want to work?” I entered the company, then the man withdrew and I remained in charge as administrator.
Francisco Farronay, the first in command, had managed to turn the space for sporting events into a home for emerging groups. Therefore, when Pablo took guardianship in 2008, he continued with the transformation. “Before, in El Huaralino, an event was held every 15 days, but when I entered, we began to make logistics with my children. Before, only tropical cumbia and sanjuanera cumbia entered; instead now we are doing tropical cumbia, sanjuanera cumbia, rock, techno…”.
—What has been the business dynamic that has allowed you to sustain this place over time? It has even faced a pandemic.
—When the pandemic came in March 2020, we already had many separate dates with various orchestras at the venue. (…) We did not return the money, but we reached an agreement to reschedule. I also did not think that the pandemic was going to take a long time, I thought in two or three months, and it lasted for two years.
The measure that I took was that I gave the free premises to Diris in northern Lima. Here they installed a call center and there were 300 or 400 doctors a day. A patient who called, the doctors came out to do the test. In this place we save many lives.
—Have you been able to recover from the economic losses caused by the pandemic by canceling events?
—Well, not to recover, but I think that more than enough is that we are alive and healthy.
El Huaralino, a proscenium of faith
His audacity was also enough to cede the facilities without consulting the owners. She did not receive reproaches, but rather congratulations: she already had confidence. Today, a plaster virgin remains from this episode that the doctors left at the foot of the VIP area. “I put candles in it every week,” she adds. Her faith is not a pandemic novelty: before COVID-19 came to impose quarantines, she made a pilgrimage three times to meet the patron saint of Ayabaca, Señor Cautivo.
So, the conviction about his own limits led him to take one more risk: open the doors and promote the first face-to-face concert in 2021. “It took me more or less three months to be able to do the logistics, to be able to put together permits, knock on doors to the Ministry of Health, to the Ministry of Culture. The same day of the event I was afraid because I did not know what could come, we were in a pandemic and a complaint could fall on us ”. But the opposite turned out: July 3 was a milestone for the reactivation of the industry.
—Have you ever thought about buying El Huaralino?
-Nope. This place must be very expensive. Yes, I would like to have a place like El Huaralino, but it didn’t open my mind because I don’t think the owners will sell it. And if it were to happen, who wouldn’t want to have a place like this?
What does belong to him is a tight calendar of presentations in the remainder of 2022. “I am going to show you my agenda. I don’t have free dates: Saturdays and Sundays are full until December. I believe that this is due to the fact that we make logistics with which we support the organizer ”, he emphasizes.
It also did not reach the space for vacations: there has not been one since 2008, with the exception of 2015, when the administration was in charge of Agua Marina. “The day I want to rest is when the phone rings the most.” Vibrate the Android. Hanging. Vibrate again. Hang up again. “All of us who are in the music industry, on Mother’s Day, Christmas or December 31, we never spend it with the family, we always spend it working. It is a lifestyle, it is the circumstances of work”.
The 2023 agenda follows the same rhythm. Armonía 10, for example, knows the rule well —booking a maximum of one year in advance and a minimum of three months— and has already secured appointments with its fans.
—What kinds of events have not yet been held at this location, but would you like to see them take place?
—I would like to continue pushing the sauce a little more. (…) It is the only genre. Yes, it has given, but with large groups. If we do a dance like that alone, it’s still cold. I’m still struggling to position that genre, I would like it to be a boom in the huaralino.
“And you dance?”
“Yes, when you can. (laughs)
#Huaralino #house #cumbia #Northern #Lima #ventures #salsa #INTERVIEW