Delfín Quishpe. Screenshot from one of his songs shared on YouTube. Many in Latin America have heard of this singer, or at least have seen his videos on the Internet. From the beginning of his music career, Delfín Quishpe has been a rebel in his fashion and music choices. The song that went viral and made him famous both within and outside of Ecuador was Torres Gemelas, or “Twin Towers” in English. In this song, Delfín tells the story of his sweetheart, who had traveled to the United States and then died in the attacks of September 11, 2001. “Who knows the truth? Who did it, and why did they do it?” Delfín asks himself at a certain point in the song's music video. Those questions were what millions of people had contemplated since the violence occurred, but the song nevertheless earned him a flood of mocking. There is a reason for this. His music aside, Delfín has faced a challenge since the beginning of his career: being indigenous while asserting his own style. A total of 7% of Ecuador's population is indigenous, and Delfín, who is Quechua from El Chimborazo area, is probably one of the greatest champions of the country's indigenous groups within the music world. Torres Gemelas, according to Delfín's own account on the news portal Vice, was not given airtime on radio or television due to the author being “small and brown”. He invested $1,500 into producing his music video and a friend suggested that he try the free platform YouTube. Today, Torres Gemelas has 14,571,988 views — and that's not even the official version, but one uploaded by a YouTube user named Donmaco. In 2011, he was nominated as the “Web Celebrity of the Year” by the TV channel MTV Latin America, and in 2012 he participated in the second broadcast of YouFest, celebrated in Madrid. Delfín recently created a buzz within the Latin American community once again with his reinterpretation of the song Cuando Pase el Temblor (“When the Trembling Stops”), by the legendary Argentinian band Soda Stereo. Delfín, now known as the creator of “Andean Techno-Folklore,” performed his cover on an Ecuadorian television program a week after the second anniversary of the death of Soda Stereo's Argentinian singer and leader Gustavo Cerati. As expected, he received comments for and against his performance, and for several days his performance intensified the debate over what is good or bad in the realm of music. This is similar to what happened a few years ago with Wendy Sulca, a Peruvian singer of Andean music, and her version of Like a Virgin (one of the biggest hits of US singer Madonna). What is Delfín like, beyond the YouTube videos? How does he receive criticism? After a week of trying to find him and sending him several messages via social networks, Global Voices was able to get in contact with the singer. From his native city Guamote (an Ecuadorian canton of the Chimborazo Province), he answered some questions. GV: When did you start with your music? Delfín Quishpe (DQ): Yo canto desde niño, pero a nivel profesional lo hago desde el 2000. En ese año grabé mi primer álbum, pero en mi tercer disco nació el éxito de las Torres Gemelas; pocos saben que la melodía de esta canción ya estaba lista antes de 2001 y se llamaba “Cuando me voy a Guayaquil”. Delfín Quishpe (DQ): I have been singing since I was a little boy, but at a professional level I have been singing since 2000. In that year, I recorded my first album, but it was on my third record that the success of Torres Gemelas was born; few people know that the melody for this song was already prepared before 2001 and was called Cuando me voy a Guayaquil [“When I go to Guayaquil”]. GV: Your latest work, the cover of Cuando Pase el Temblor by Soda Stereo, has got many people talking and received quite a lot of media coverage. Many are wondering if you had known of this rock band, one of the most important in Latin America, for a while. DQ: Yo siempre fui fan de Soda Stereo y también de quien en vida fue Gustavo Cerati, y a raíz de eso nacen mis apreciaciones musicales por los artistas internacionales. También admiro al compositor guatemalteco Ricardo Arjona, e incluso grabé la canción “El mojado”. Puedes buscarlo en Youtube. DQ: I was always a fan of Soda Stereo and also of who Gustavo Cerati was in life, and from this my musical appreciation for international artists was born. I also admire the Guatemalan composer Ricardo Arjona, and have even recorded the song El Mojado [“The Wetback” — a pejorative term for migrants in the US]. You can find it on YouTube. GV: What do you think of the criticisms you are receiving because of your latest work? DQ: Yo creo en la libre expresión. Cualquiera puede hablar piedras, lo que sea, lo que le salga de las tripas y a mí no me resiente ni me anima.