Eduardo "gato" Alquinta's Obituary

Eduardo Alquinta Espinoza, called “gato” by his friends, family and followers, a famous songwriter and the vocalist of the group “Los Jaivas” died of a cardio respiratory arrest in a beach in Coquimbo at the age of 58.

He started to sing at the age of 12, learned to play music without his father noticing, he met Claudio Parra and Mario Mutis in high school in Viña del Mar.

In 1963 he started to study engineering in the Technical University Federico Santa Maria. Later, he leave the engineering career to start to study architecture, were he was classmate with Mario Mutis, career that neither would end. Furthermore, Gato with Mario Mutis, Claudio, Eduardo and Gabriel Parra integrate a tropical combo to cheer parties, and the name of the band was The High & Bass, there he played the guitar and also sang.

After a trip with his wife, he made a change on his music, presenting his ideas of break with establish and showing the style of music to his band mates. They accepted the ideas in a enthusiastic way and the new course of the band now called Los Jaivas, all this it is illustrated on the CD called La Vorágine, edited in 2004.

With the time, this process it was starting to transform into an unpublished fusion between folklore and rock, this is the seal of the group until now. He was the singer and played the guitar and a huge variety of Andean instruments, he also writes a few songs like “Mira Niñita”, “Pajaro Errante”, “Nubecita Blanca” and “Indio Hermano” among others.

He describes himself as the “Luthier of the band”, and also said: “I like to work with my hands and I made some instruments, not very complex, of course, like panpipes, “trutrucas” and reed flutes that we have collected in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. I am the mentholatum of the group; I am constantly changing of instruments” (Revista Vea, septiembre de 1981)

He was the vocalist of the band until january of 2003. He died on a beach near Coquimbo product of a cardiopulmonary arrest. On his funerals, the people showed their love to the band and to “Gato”, more than four hundred thousand people attended to say good bye to him.

On these days, “Gato” Alquinta has become an icon of the Chilean music; his name generates admiration and veneration by the young generation of musicians and by the Chilean people in general.