The Virgin of the Sun God

She was my music

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

At an age so young I may not have known what “virgin” meant, I used to sing the “Virgin of the Sun God” right along with Yma Sumac. On my father’s record player — vinyl, can you imagine? I marveled at the diva’s Inca-princess costume on the cover of the Voice of the Xtabay album.Yma Sumac had a four-and-a-half octave range. Well, maybe it was four. Or maybe it was five. She’s a legend, after all, and…