Cumbia, gateway to the rhythm and color of the Colombian Caribbean

Laia Mataix Gomez San Jacinto (Colombia), 21 Mar Cumbia, the gateway to the rhythm and color of the Colombian Caribbean, is the living heritage of one of the most representative genres of its folklore that now has a route to make this music and dance known to the world. The Route of Cumbia and Caribbean Music, recently opened by the Colombian Ministry of Culture, is a tribute to this musical genre that brings together seven departments in its sounds to enhance the rhythms of this region with the drums and bagpipes that characterize them. The initiative covers 1,300 kilometers of the Caribbean in a total of 23 municipalities that share a common sound tradition derived from indigenous and Afro-descendant sounds. “This project means a lot to us because it is the root and essence of the Colombian cumbia that makes us proud, that we take to the world. We are leaving the children this beautiful tradition that our grandparents left us”, explains to Efe Gabriel Torregrosa, director of Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, one of the main groups representing this musical genre. Although cumbia is present in different Latin American countries, in Colombia it has a particular sound, as well as a characteristic dance, which is derived from the instruments with which it is played and lived. Traditionally cumbia is danced in pairs in open places, revolving around the group of musicians while the dancers rotate on themselves. LIVING CULTURE Cumbia is “magical, it makes you fall in love, it makes you return to your roots, return to the village, get to know all our culture, the mountains, how people live”, says Torregrosa, now leading a group that was born in 1954 and that “although all its pioneers have died”, continues “with tradition and heritage”. In addition to having the responsibility of continuing the legacy of cumbia, the pipers want “the new generations to do it too”, to soak up the cumbia to continue this living heritage. This is the case of Sofía Landero, who at the age of 9 is already taking to the stage to play the accordion and delight the audience with the footsteps of cumbia. Sofía says that she “learned to dance cumbia alone”, although it is something familiar, her brothers are also imbued with this Caribbean genre. It is a familiar thing, explains to Efe Rober Landero, director of the Andrés Landero Foundation and the Cumbia International Festival, and also father of Sofia. “It runs through our veins, we inherited it from Master Landero, the King of cumbia, and now we teach the heirs, responsible for continuing our legacy to preserve it”, since “cumbia is magic, it is the most beautiful thing that God could bring us”. MUSICAL TRADITION “Preserving the legacy and fighting for a gender that identifies us,” Torregrosa says about the focus of his efforts. Cumbia is an exponent of “how people eat, how they live”, besides the gaita, the instrument par excellence of cumbia, is “indigenous, made of a cactus, with a wax head, with a duck feather and brings out all the tradition that always accompanies us”. “We want to continue with this and without mixing it with any instrument to follow the tradition,” he explains. In addition, cumbia is something that accompanies those who live it throughout their lives, such as Juana Mendoza, who has been dancing for 70 years because of her father's inheritance, or Pedro García, who is going to turn 88 and continues to move to the rhythm of the gaita and accordion. Both of them from San Jacinto, say that it is an “old family ancestry” that they plan to continue as long as they live. The Cumbia Route therefore faces a task as important as it is valuable: to continue to promote and support the genre that has been setting the pace in Colombia's Caribbean for centuries so that heritage and legacy remain alive. CHIEF lmg/joc/jga/cfa (photo) (video)