Inti-Illimani来自Ayamara的方言，Inti是太阳的意思，Illimani则是靠近玻利维亚的一座山。这个乐团的原始团员，本是圣地亚哥科技大学工学院的学生，由于对南美原住民音乐的爱好，让他们成立了这个乐团。在当时，他们与智利推动在地音乐的音乐家合作，所用的管弦和打击乐器结合现代和传统，歌词也多与社会运动和推动国家民主化有关。
1973年，智利的总统被军政府所推翻，许多本土艺术家被杀或被关。当时正在欧洲巡回演出的Inti-Illimani，发现他们的护照被军政府所注销，从此流亡意大利长达14年之久，直到1990年才重回祖国智利的怀抱（有没有很熟悉啊？）。他们的音乐广受世人欢迎，这样的背景更让他们被视为南美的音乐大使。读完这样的简介让我很震撼，也更加期待他们的演出。
For well over 30 years, Inti-Illimani (the name translates as Sun God) has held a beacon for Chilean music, both the traditional folk styles and the more contemporary nueva cancion. Back in 1967 a group of students at Santiagos Technical University formed a band to perform folk music. Taking their name from the Aymaran Indian language of the Andes, they began playing traditional music — something few did back then — and quickly earned a reputation around the capital, becoming more and more adept on their instruments. By the 70s theyd grown into a political beast, taking on the nueva cancion (literally new song) of many young groups, and being quite outspoken lyrically — enough to be forced into exile in 1973, where theyd stay for 15 years. However, they refused to be cowed by the Chilean dictatorship. Basing themselves in Rome, Italy, they continued to record, and toured more heavily then ever before, earning a powerful reputation around the globe, and becoming very unofficial ambassadors of Chilean music, as well as opponents to the ruling regime. In addition to performing with a number of famous, political figures like Pete Seeger and Mikis Theodorakis, they were included on the famous 1988 Amnesty International Tour, along with Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Bruce Springsteen. It was, perhaps, their highest profile moment, at least in worldwide terms, and set the stage for their return to their homeland, where theyve continued to be outspoken. While theyve remained a force in world music, their career in the U.S. was hampered by the lack of any consistent record deal until 1994, when they signed with Green Linnet offshoot Xenophile. Prior to that, only a few of their 30-plus discs made it into domestic U.S. record bins. The eight-piece lineup remained stable until 1996, when Max Berru decided to retire from music after almost three decades, shortly after the group had been celebrated with a Best Of disc in Italy (not to be confused with the 2000 Best Of on Xenophile, which collected tracks from their last four releases only). Instead of replacing him, theyve continued since as a septet. 1997 saw the band honored with a U.C. Berkeley Human Rights Award for their labors in the past. Since then, although theyve continued to release albums and tour, theyve cut back on their earlier hectic schedule, but also widened their musical horizons, as 1999s Amar de Nuevo looked at the complete spectrum of Latin roots music and its Creole heritage.
