Answer to Question 1
The 1990 field recording made outside Ibarra, Imbabura, Ecuador is by a group of African-Ecuadorian musicians from the Chota River Valley located in the highland Imbabura Province (see map in Worlds of Music). These African-Ecuadorians may be descended from the slaves first brought to Ecuador from Africa in the sixteenth century, and subsequently set to work on plantations by Jesuit missionaries.
Answer to Question 2
The composer of the song believed himself to be dying and meant the song as his final statement to posterity. The words represent his desire for everyone to remember his music and dance to it after he was gone.