Illapu is situated into the category of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement that sought to play Latin American and Andean folk songs. Candombe para José tells the story of (apparently?) the only man of African ancestry in a rural village. While I am fascinated by the song's popularity as a cumbia (that seems to have a steady presence in set lists of cumbia groups in Chile), I am even more curious about the origins of the song.

Songs with themes referencing the African folklore and presence in Latin America were not uncommon during this period, with another example being Inti-Illimani's Fiesta de San Benito. According to Thinking about Music from Latin America: Issues and Questions by Juan Pablo González, the song was originally "an Afro-Uruguyan song composed in 1973 by the Argentine Roberto Ternán." But what does this really mean? What were its Afro-Uruguyan origins and what role did really Ternán play in its creation?