Los Manseros Santiagueños

When Los Manseros Santiagueños take the stage, the sound that comes from their guitars and the bombo legüero doesn’t feel like museum folklore. It’s music that breathes in the present, with those gatos and escondidos that dig into the body like a call to dance, but also with the ability to tell stories that seem written yesterday. It’s no coincidence that their most remembered songs — like Eterno Amor, Entra a mi Hogar, or Canto a Monte Quemado — work just as well at a festival as in a provincial courtyard: they have that mix of nostalgia and warmth that makes the audience feel those lyrics were written by someone in their own family. The trick lies in how they balance tradition with a pulse that never stays still, even when the melodies seem ancient.

The group was formed in 1959 as a duo between Leocadio Torres and Onofre Paz, but their sound was defined when they added Carlos Carabajal and Carlos Leguizamón in the 60s, forming a quartet with three guitars and a bombo that became their trademark. This lineup led them to record their first album in 1963 and to perform at the Cosquín Festival in 1967, a step that cemented them as an unavoidable presence in Argentine folk music. What’s interesting is how, despite changes in members — such as when Guillermo "Fatiga" Reynoso joined on bombo in 1965 or when Cuti Carabajal was part of the group between 1978 and 1984 — they maintained a sound identity that you always recognize, even if you don’t know the names of everyone who passed through.

Chacarera 1950s

1 Albums

1 album|s · 1988

Full discography

1988

Madre Chacarera

Chacarera

Share stage, decade and obsessions

Related artists

Los Huayra

Abel Pintos

Mercedes Sosa

Bersuit Vergarabat

Details, awards, members and more

More about Los Manseros Santiagueños

Biography

There are two collaborations that marked turning points in their career. The first was with Leo Dan in 1980, when they recorded Santiago Querido, a song that instantly became an anthem and led them to repeat the formula in 1999 with Encuentro Santiagueño. But perhaps the most striking moment wasn’t musical, but in 2017, when Onofre Paz fired his son Martín Paz mid-show at the Festival del Carbón, an episode that made headlines but, beyond the scandal, didn’t overshadow decades of work. Today, with Hugo Reynoso (son of "Fatiga") on bombo, they’re still touring, and in 2025 the Konex Foundation awarded them as one of the five best folk groups of the decade in Argentina. It’s not an empty fact: it’s confirmation that, after more than sixty years since starting as a duo in Santiago del Estero, they still sound like the group that never left.

Details

Born: 1 Jan 1959
Country: 🇦🇷 Argentina
Genre: Chacarera

Members

guitar · 1959–present: Onofre Paz
· 2007–2017: Martín Paz
· 1979–1984: Cuti Carabajal
· 1963–1966: Carlos Carabajal

Links

Spotify Instagram Twitter Wikipedia

Learn your instrument.