Editor’s Note: Freelance writer Levi Bridges of Sedgwick is documenting the lives of several immigrants in Maine. Their stories will appear periodically in the Bangor Daily News.
In a small cafe in Blue Hill, I’m having coffee with cello player Juan Condori. Born in the South American country of Bolivia, Condori now lives in Blue Hill with his wife, Cathy. The Bolivian cellist has spent most of his adult years in Maine, where he has performed with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and taught music.
“I was born in 1957,” he said, “so I guess that makes me 52, 53 … I don’t really keep track of my age.” Condori was born in La Paz, a Bolivian city high in the Andes Mountains. Years ago, I visited Bolivia on a trip to South America. Standing in the mountains above La Paz one day, I stared at a jumble of concrete buildings below, where most of the city’s poor live, and considered how different life was there from in Maine.
With this thought in mind, I asked Condori to compare his adult years in Maine and childhood in La Paz. “They are two different worlds,” he said.
The sound of music
More than 60 percent of Bolivia’s 9.7 million people claim indigenous heritage. Most indigenous peoples in Bolivia come from two groups: the Aymara and Quechua Indians who have inhabited the Andes for centuries. The youngest of four children, Condori was born in La Paz to an Aymara Indian mother. The family lived in a typical Spanish colonial building of apartments with adobe walls built around a square, open-air patio. Condori’s mother ran a small food store in the apartment to provide for her children.
Amid these humble beginnings, Condori’s older brothers developed an interest in art. The eldest, Octavio, connected with artists and intellectuals who frequently gathered at the Condori home. In the small apartment, the young bohemians threw parties as a thick cloud of cigarette smoke floated out above the patio into the chilly Andean night.
One evening, a young musician suggested that Octavio’s youngest brother, Juan, try studying music. And so, at age 9, Condori began taking guitar lessons with a Spanish immigrant who had fled to Bolivia during the Spanish Civil War. The Spaniard taught the young Aymara boy how to play guitar.
Condori went on to study cello and attend the National Conservatory of Music in La Paz. When he was only a teenager, he displayed such an aptitude for the cello that he was accepted to play in the National Symphony.
From mountains to Maine
Condori first left Bolivia in his early 20s, when he and three other young musicians were invited to play at an international music festival in Venezuela. There, they met Julia Adams, a violist from Portland who invited them to attend a string quartet workshop at Sugarloaf.
“We came to Maine the following summer,” Condori said, “and our bodies had no immunity to the black flies here. Their bites swelled on our skin like bee stings.”
Despite a few acclimating difficulties, the visit blossomed with opportunities. At the workshop, the chairman of the music department at the University of Southern Maine heard the Bolivians perform and offered them each a small scholarship to study at USM.
In 1978, the four Bolivians began studying at USM and were placed with host families around Portland. Living in America was a big adjustment.
“I wasn’t used to feeling so comfortable,” Condori said. “Eventually, I realized how hard life was in Bolivia.”
For Condori, being in America was liberating. Bolivia had been a Spanish colony for centuries, and, even after the country gained independence, wealthy elites, mainly of Spanish descent, still owned the majority of Bolivia’s land. The situation forced most of Bolivia’s overwhelmingly indigenous population into extreme poverty.
“There was a sense of racism against Indians in Bolivia that always bothered me,” Condori said. “I didn’t feel like I was treated as a human being until I came to America.”
A new audience
In Bolivia, the young musicians often hiked into the mountains overlooking La Paz and played folk music, the sounds of flutes and violins filling the mountain air. For centuries, the Spanish had suppressed indigenous culture and music in Bolivia.
“But in Portland, we played Bolivian folk songs in public,” said Condori. “It was fun to bring the music to new audiences.”
Condori paid for part of his education at USM by playing gigs in Portland. After graduation, he married an American cellist and performed with orchestras in New York, Canada, Mexico and Spain. Condori soon resettled in Maine where he played in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra for 20 years. He became a U.S. citizen.
Condori credits his return to Maine to Werner Torkanowsky, conductor of the BSO from 1981 to 1992. “Torkanowsky constantly challenged the musicians of the Bangor Symphony and improved the technical level of the entire symphony,” said Condori. “It was a highlight of my career.”
After many rewarding years with the BSO, Condori recently chose to retire and focus on teaching. He gives cello lessons to children in Ellsworth and Orono.
“I love working with kids,” Condori said. “But the experience is doubly rewarding here because parents in Maine have such an appreciation for the music their children play.
“Maine is unique in its demand and appreciation for art,” he says. “You just don’t find that everywhere.”
Levi Bridges grew up on a farm in Sedgwick and attended high school in Blue Hill. A graduate of Alfred University in New York, he has traveled extensively and studied abroad at universities in Mexico, Spain and Russia. He lives in Portland. If you or someone you know has a Maine immigrant story that you think should be told, e-mail Levi Bridges at losbridges@gmail.com.