Credited to Bolivia. There is no clear evidence for a single place or date of origin. A competing theory holds that the charango came to Potosí from the Ayacucho region of colonial Peru. Peru and Bolivia did not yet exist as states, and the question is still debated between the two countries.
How it began
The charango is a small stringed instrument of the lute family made by Quechua and Aymara people of the Altiplano after the Spanish brought European stringed instruments. A leading theory is that it reached its present form in the early 18th century in the city of Potosí, in what is now Bolivia, through contact between indigenous people and Spanish settlers. The Bolivian player and historian Ernesto Cavour points to carvings on the Church of San Lorenzo in Potosí, finished in 1744, that show two mermaids playing what he takes to be charangos.
Before it existed
According to the Duke University instrument collection, there were no string instruments in the Americas before Europeans arrived. Spanish colonizers brought the vihuela, an ancestor of the classical guitar. It is not certain which Spanish instrument the charango descends from. It may have developed from the vihuela, the bandurria or the lute, and Cavour maintains that it is a direct descendant of the vihuela.
How it works
A charango is about 66 centimeters long. It typically has ten strings set in five pairs, and all ten are tuned within one octave, which gives a strong sound from a small body. The back was traditionally the dried shell of an armadillo, called quirquincho, with a wooden top and neck. Makers now usually carve the body and neck from a single block of wood, with a rounded back that copies the shape of the shell.
How it spread
The first published historical record may date to 1814, when a cleric from Tupiza wrote that local people played small guitars that were called charangos in the Andes of Bolivia. The instrument spread through the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, and it exists in many local forms with four to twenty strings.
Where it stands today
The charango remains one of the most popular stringed instruments along the Andes. Because the armadillo is now listed as endangered, modern instruments are made of wood. Solid-body electric and acoustic-electric versions are also made. It is played mainly in traditional Andean music, and a player is called a charanguista.
