National Anthem Comparison
Ecuador vs Peru
3
Shared themes
✗
Different moods
44
44 years apart
✓
Same continent
Comparison Analysis
Ecuador and Peru, both South America nations, take distinct approaches to their national anthems. Ecuador's "Hail, Oh Homeland" was written in 1865, while Peru's "National Anthem of Peru" dates to 1821.
Both anthems share themes of freedom, independence and battle / war. Ecuador additionally explores god / faith and ancestors / heritage, while Peru also touches on revolution.
The emotional tones differ: Ecuador's anthem is majestic, while Peru's is defiant.
Peru's anthem predates Ecuador's by 44 years, having been written in 1821 compared to 1865.
Shared themes
Ecuador
🕊 Freedom 🗽 Independence ⚔ Battle / War ✝ God / Faith 🏺 Ancestors / Heritage
Peru
🕊 Freedom 🗽 Independence ⚔ Battle / War 🔥 Revolution
Shared themes:
🕊 Freedom 🗽 Independence ⚔ Battle / War
Metadata
| Ecuador | Peru | |
|---|---|---|
| Written | 1865 | 1821 |
| Adopted | 1948 | 1821 |
| Lyricist | Juan Leon Mera | José de la Torre Ugarte (first stanza anonymous, added by Law 1801 of 1913) |
| Composer | Antonio Neumane | José Bernardo Alzedo; restored and orchestrated by Claudio Rebagliati |
| Language | es | es |
| Region | South America | South America |
Lyrics Side by Side
Ecuador
Salve, Oh Patria
Original
Coro:
¡Salve, Oh Patria, mil veces, oh Patria!
¡Gloria a ti, gloria a ti!
Ya tu pecho, tu pecho, rebosa,
gozo y paz ya tu pecho rebosa;
Y tu frente, tu frente radiosa,
Más que el sol contemplamos lucir.
Los primeros, los hijos del suelo
que, soberbio, el Pichincha decora,
te aclamaron por siempre señora
y vertieron su sangre por ti.
Dios miró y aceptó el holocausto
y esa sangre fue germen fecundo
de otros héroes que atónito el mundo
vio en tu torno a millares surgir.
¡A millares surgir!
Coro
Translation
[Chorus]
Hail, oh Homeland, a thousand times, oh Homeland!
Glory to you, glory to you!
Your breast, your breast now overflows,
With joy and peace your breast now overflows;
And your brow, your radiant brow,
We behold shining brighter than the sun.
The first ones, the children of the soil
That proud Pichincha adorns,
Acclaimed you forever as their sovereign
And shed their blood for you.
God looked and accepted the sacrifice,
And that blood was the fertile seed
Of other heroes whom the astonished world
Saw rise around you by the thousands.
Rise by the thousands!
[Chorus]
Peru
Himno Nacional del Perú
Original
Coro
Somos libres: seámoslo siempre;
Y antes niegue sus luces el Sol,
Que faltemos al voto solemne
Que la Patria al Eterno elevó.
VII
En su cima los Andes sostengan
La bandera o pendón bicolor
Que a los siglos anuncie el esfuerzo
Que ser libres, por siempre nos dio.
A su sombra posemos tranquilos
Y al nacer por sus cumbres el Sol,
Renovamos el gran juramento
Que rendimos al Dios de Jacob.
Coro
Somos libres: seámoslo siempre;
Y antes niegue sus luces el Sol,
Que faltemos al voto solemne
Que la Patria al Eterno elevó.
Translation
Chorus
We are free: may we always be so;
And sooner may the Sun deny its light
Than that we fail the solemn vow
That the Homeland raised to the Eternal.
VII
Upon their summit may the Andes hold
The two-coloured flag or standard,
That it may announce to the ages the effort
Which made us free for ever.
In its shade may we rest untroubled,
And when the Sun is born above its peaks,
May we renew the great oath
That we made to the God of Jacob.
Chorus
We are free: may we always be so;
And sooner may the Sun deny its light
Than that we fail the solemn vow
That the Homeland raised to the Eternal.
Interesting facts
Ecuador
- 1. Juan Leon Mera, the lyricist, is also famous for writing 'Cumanda,' considered one of the first significant novels in Ecuadorian literature
- 2. The music was composed by Antonio Neumane, a French musician who moved to Ecuador and became a key figure in the country's musical life
- 3. A decree of 11 March 1977 dropped the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth stanzas from singing to make the anthem shorter, which is why only the chorus and the second stanza are sung
- 4. Ecuador has marked National Anthem Day every 26 November since 1965, when the military junta then in power set the date to celebrate the anthem's centenary
Peru
- 1. No score of the song Alzedo submitted to the 1821 competition survives. The music played today goes back to an arrangement the Italian musician Claudio Rebagliati made in 1869, which he presented as a restoration agreed with the elderly Alzedo.
- 2. For most of the 20th century Peruvians sang the anonymous first stanza, about the oppressed Peruvian dragging his chain; official practice moved to the seventh stanza from 2009, and Law 32251 of January 2025 settled it in statute.
- 3. Law 32251 names the documents that hold the anthem: the three official scores (piano, orchestra and band) listed in a Supreme Resolution of 27 May 1901, and a letter Alzedo wrote on 8 June 1863 containing the original lyrics. The Ministry of Culture keeps them at the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru.
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Ecuador
Peru
