Clotilde Arias

Arias was born in 1901 in Iquitos, Perú, on the shores of the Amazon. She spent many of her early years in Barbados, where she attended elementary school.

She began writing and composing songs during her teenage years. Arias's artistic talents in music, painting, and composing – including playing for silent movies – emerged early in Iquitos. She achieved scholastic and artistic recognition, with numerous honors. Her perfect pitch and exceptional ability to sight read made her a highly sought accompanist. Throughout Peruvian history, the Charango was a common instrument of their culture. While Arias focused on composing, she also mastered this instrument as a young child.

She moved to New York City in 1923 to study music.^[3] She married José Anduaga, another Peruvian artist, in 1929. They settled in Brooklyn and had a son, Roger. By the early 1940s, Arias had divorced Anduaga and moved to Manhattan with her son. In 1942, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.^[2]

Arias mastered multitasking at a time when women commonly did not work outside the home. Throughout her life she did many different things, including working as a translator, composer, musician, journalist, copywriter, activist, educator, and of course, mother. She was sometimes all of them at the same time.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Arias gained success as a composer in the male-dominated advertising industry. Her skills were in great demand, even during the Great Depression, but especially during World War II when U.S. companies tried to expand their markets in Latin America, and ad agencies drafted into the war effort helped create campaigns to develop a favorable image of the United States. She worked for advertising agencies and composed jingles for Alkaseltzer, the Ford Motor Company and the Campbell Soup Company.^[4]

Arias composed other serious classical songs, including "Idilio Roto (Broken Idyll)," as well as songs in the popular style of the 1930s, some of which she sold door to door to help support her family. Later, she collaborated with notable composers and writers, including Marjorie Harper, Andy Razaf, Albert Gamse and Irving Caesar. Best known were her Spanish lyrics to song hits "Rum and Coca-Cola" (English lyrics by Morey Amsterdam) and "Managua Nicaragua" (English lyrics by Albert Gamse). In 1945, after the Division and Cultural Cooperation of the Department of State, along with the Music Educators National Conference, called for translations of the United States' national anthem,"The Star-Spangled Banner," to be translated into Spanish and Portuguese so that it could be read in the countries that speak those languages. It had already been translated into Spanish twice, but a truly artful singable translation had yet to be realized. Arias took on that task, and translated it as closely as she could into Spanish. Arias' version remains to this day the only official translation of the national anthem allowed to be sung.^[5]

Amongst her numerous compositions, "Huiracocha" may be the best known. Named for a god of the Incas, the song retells the legend of his emergence from the depths of Lake Titicaca to create the sun, moon, and stars, and to breathe life into Allcavica, ancestor of the Inca people. According to Arias's own program note, this song is "dedicated to the Indian, the Forgotten Man of the Americas". It tells of the "sadness of a race calling to the ancient god of their forefathers, who no longer hears his children".

On December 9, 2006,^[6] "Huiracocha" was performed at London's Barbican Hall by tenor Juan Diego Flórez. A separate 2009 performance of Huiracocha on YouTube is also available for viewing.

In 2013, "Huiracocha" was recorded by Ward De Vleeschhouwer on the album Chicha Morada in a version for piano solo.

Her lyrical Spanish translation of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is on display in The Star-Spangled Banner exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.^[7]

An exhibit with a display of her cultural achievements in the arts and writings opened at the Albert H. Small Documents Gallery September 27, 2012, and was on display until April 2013.^[3]

On October 30, 2020, the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. posted a tribute to Arias on their Instagram account @amhistorymuseum.⁷

• List of 20th-century American women composers