By the 1920s, the vals, the more upbeat marinera and other musical inventions had penetrated every class and race of the otherwise incurably divided country; people high and low, Andean and coastal, reveled to the clear sound and aching lyrics of vals songs. (One example: “Hate me please, I beg you/Hate me without mercy, hate me true./If you hate me, I’ll know/There was a time when you loved me.”) The protagonist of “I Give You My Silence,” Toño Azpilcueta, is surely speaking for his creator when he calls the vals Peru’s greatest cultural contribution to the world.