The first response many people have when I tell them I am Colombian is something along the lines of, "Oh, is your father involved in the cartel?," or "I love Colombian coffee! I bet you drink it all the time!"
Coffee, drugs, and violence, these are the major themes the media portrays to the American public about Colombia. Unfortunately, far too many people believe that those are the only characteristics of Colombia. What most do not know is that beneath the drug cartels and the violence television news reporters are obsessed with displaying, there is a beauty in Colombia that others have admired, respected, and lived. It is a beauty that stems from the roots of its history and evolved through its people and culture. Visiting Colombia's fertile green mountain ranges, searching for its valuable emeralds, and walking through a rich coffee plantation, are some ways of finding this inner beauty. Appreciating its music is another. Colombian music, however, displays this inner beauty in other ways. This beauty is within each and every Colombian who has suffered, who has loved, and who has danced. The music defines who Colombians once were, who they are now, and who they will be in the future. The love for music has not only brought a unity among the people of Colombia, but it has also set hope and optimism during times of pure suffering.
Cumbia is one of the most important genres of music in Colombia. It has given Colombia ways of expressing its national identity as well as given rise to many other rhythms. "Cumbia" itself has many meanings. First, cumbia is a general term for the rhythm, beats, and dances which many people consider cumbia. For example, el bullerengue, porro, and puya, all of which are cumbia rhythms, have a distinct beat that originated with the indigenous gaita and African drums. This mixture of Indian and African on the Atlantic coast is known as Zamba. Thirdly, cumbia refers to the dance that may have come out of the festival of La Virgen de Candelarias. At this festival people from all over South America travel to a designated place to celebrate and worship the Virgin Mary. Sharisse Seria attended a celebration one year held in Cartagena, a major city on the Atlantic coast of Colombia. According to Seria, people paraded down the streets of Cartagena singing, praying and dancing, all a while holding candles in their hands. Its a sacred, yet festive event in Colombia (Seria, November 23).
The cumbia dance is actually a couples dance, but because candles are part of its choreography, it is believed that the festival had some influence in its creation. The woman dances with shuffling steps, her hands up high, while the man zig sags around her in what seems like a romantic pursuit. It is customary to perform these dances at night because the woman holds lit candles in a colored handkerchief in her right hand as she dances (New Grove Dictionary 572). Scharisse Seria also had the opportunity in dancing cumbia in traditional costume while she was there. Traditionally, the man wears white pants, a white shirt with a red handkerchief tied around his neck. He also wears a "sombrero volteado," a hat made out of palm leaves and thick leather sandals called abarcas. The woman wears a long skirt that she fans while she dances, a collard long sleeve shirt, and her hair is tied back in a tight pony tail. The woman is either bare foot or wearing abarcas (Seria, November 23).
Cumbia is such a versatile word that an understanding of its origin is best sought through a description of its instrumentation. There are two different ensembles in cumbia: conjunto de cumbia and the conjunto de gaita. Conjunto de cumbia consists of five main instruments: caña de millo and four instruments for percussion, tambor mayor, llamador, and the bombo. Caña de millo is a transverse clarinet open at both ends with four finger holes pierced near one end and a reed cut from inside. This instrument is a modified version of the millet cane in the Sudanic regions of Africa. The tambor mayor is a drum held between the legs and played with both hands, while the llamador is a drum played on one knee with one hand. The llamador responds to the tambor mayor. Both drums are of African origin (New Grove Dictionary 572). The second ensemble is the Conjunto de Gaitas. Instrumentation here consists of two gaitas, or duct flutes, a tambor mayor, a llamador and maracas. There are two different kinds of gaitas used in this ensemble, the gaita hembra and the gaita macha. The gaita hembra, with five finger holes, is used for the melody. On the other hand, the gaita macha, with only two finger holes, is used for a "heterotrophic" part, where one hand plays the gaita while the other shakes the maracas to the beat (New Grove Dictionary 572). The gaitas and maraca are of Cuna and Kogi indigenous origin in the Atlantic coast. Some argue that "gaita" is really a music played by these indigenous groups. The music gaita uses gaita flutes, caña de millo, and maracas as instruments. As Africans began occupying the Atlantic coastal region, they added percussion to gaita music with drums. Thus, through this Zamba influence, the creation of cumbia began. It is this "Zambian" rhythm that most people associate cumbia with.
As stated above, cumbia can refer to a particular dance, a Zamba rhythm, and it can be a generalized term that describes certain rhythms and dances. One of the most interesting aspects of music is that different people from different places define it differently. What may be a cumbia for somebody in the Andean region of Colombia, may be something completely different to somebody on the Atlantic coast. There is no defining line in music. It is just as incorrect to say cumbia is solely restricted to certain rhythms and beats, as it is to say that cumbia is all rhythms and beats. The following are examples of what most people consider cumbia.
El bullerengue is one rhythm which people associate with cumbia. Traditionally, cumbia music was entirely instrumental with no lyrics. It consisted of either of the two conjuntos and the dance described above. The core rhythm and beat is that "Zambian" sound of cumbia. Yet unlike traditional cumbia, el bullerengue, has always had vocals. One reason many associate bullerengue with cumbia is how bullerengue developed its dance. During cumbia festivals, pregnant women (or women who were suspected of being pregnant) were not allowed to participate because of the fear of "stressing the fetus." Women who stayed at home while their husbands attended the festivals, decided to dance in secret. They danced an altered form of cumbia. They moved with their hands at their side, as opposed to holding their arms high carrying lit candles like they did in cumbia. Also unlike cumbia whose dress flatters a woman's waist line, the clothing worn dancing el bullerengue looked like nightgowns that ballooned at the waist. These costumes were that modeling maternity clothes (Morales 207).
The next rhythm that is typical to cumbia is el porro. "El porro palitiao" is also known as La Gaita. Its name, "palitiao", comes from the method in which the bombo drum is hit on its ring with two sticks making the sound of a cow's bell (Morales 209). Like the traditional cumbia, porro's origin is related to the African-Indian cultural union on the north Atlantic coast (Zamba). Porro was thus classified as the music of "black and vulgar people," allowed only to be played after midnight (Pelaez 3).
The third rhythm typical of cumbia is la puya, or "el porro tapao." Porro tapao refers to both its fast rhythm and the fast beat of the bombo drum. According to Guillermo Morales, author of Comprendo General De Folklore Colombiano, at one time it was also a choreographed dance of "phenomenal aesthetics" (Morales 210). Today, however, it has evolved into only a recreational couples dance.
Along with being the backbone to other rhythms, cumbia has become the backbone to Colombian national identity. In his article, "Music, Blackness, and National Identity...," Peter Wade discusses how music in Colombia, particularly coastal music like cumbia, has defined Colombia's national identity.
According to Wade, the Atlantic coastal region was not limited to only cumbia music. As a major area of business trade, and as a site for incoming immigrants, the Atlantic coastal cities were greatly influenced by other places of the Caribbean and Atlantic worlds. Immigrants from other countries introduced Colombians to Cuban rumbas, boleros, and Argentinean tangos (Wade 10). By the late 1930's the brassy sounds of the Cuban son were incorporated in the cumbia, creating what people know today as el porro. El porro had a great impact as to how Colombians defined their national identity. Coastal music was heard everywhere, from live performances in run-down towns, to hotels and night clubs of high class citizens.
Despite the fact that many people enjoyed coastal music, it did not exist without comment and criticism. Peter Wade discusses a music conference in 1936 where the speaker, Daniel Zamudio, disparages the popular cumbia rhythm (porro) as a threat to Colombia's national identity. He links el porro to Cuban styles, claiming that porro music is not only "black," but "foreign" since it is derived from the various influences that immigrants from Cuba and other countries have brought. In Zamudio's view, rhythms incorporating any black influence is primitive and should not belong as part of the modern view of Colombia's identity (Wade 11). Thus, if this were the case, Zamudio would want to eradicate all African influences of coastal music through a process he calls "de-rumba-lization" (Wade 11). The African influence is largely what defines cumbia and the majority of music across the world. To "purify" Colombian music by "de-rumba-lizing [its music]" changes the true essence of not only Colombian, but world history. Surprisingly, Zamudio was not the only Colombian with these incredible beliefs. In 1944 the Colombian daily came out with an article by José Gres which ridiculed coastal music, mocking its dance and calling it "sexually licentious" and "primitive" (Wade 11).
It is perhaps this very "primitiveness" that concerns some people. People wanted Colombia to be seen as elite and high class. Unfortunately, their racist beliefs lead them to think that positive black influences damage the image Colombia wanted to create. Other people, on the other hand, had more tolerant views. They felt that coastal music was particularly successful because it "captivated a variety of influences, while being at the same time Colombian" (Wade 12). These people claim that although coastal music, particularly el porro, was sexually suggestive, its music was really a celebration of life. It "exalts happiness and laughs at those who don't know how to enjoy themselves" (Wade 12).
From my experiences, the latter is the true meaning of the Colombian national identity. Although people may criticize coastal music as noisy and vulgar, nobody can deny its happiness and joyfulness. Granted, there will be the people like Zamudio that overlook the outside influences of Colombian music, and will do anything to deny its true roots. One must take into account that Zamudio's comment was made in the 1930's when racism predominated everywhere. I believe that most people today understand Colombia's roots and realize that its music is one of the many elements that bring joy and unity to such a diverse country. I can still hear the music that played in the neighbors house when I visited my aunt in Bogotá. It was the joyful beat of a porro, a music defining the people of Colombia. It was neither a weekend nor a holiday, yet these people found a reason to celebrate. This is the essence of Colombian music, particularly cumbia. Although most cumbias are still about 95% instrumental, the few lyrics they do have are filled with references to the enjoyment of life and love for the Colombian people. Take for example a cumbia called "Cumbia Soledeña" by Hernan Cortes Hurtado. This cumbia has only four lines of vocals, two of which are (translated),
The Cumbia Soledeña I enjoy with pleasure
I dance it continuously through sunrise
(Hurtado)
Perhaps some people like Zamudio are still ashamed of the African and Indian influences of cumbia and would rather define Colombian's music as strictly "white" or European influenced. This is obviously impossible. Unfortunately, for people like Zamudio, Colombians will continue to celebrate together despite their differences because the one thing they do have in common, that is the love for music, is the most important. This in itself is demonstrated by the fact the cumbia is heard in elite clubs and hotels as well as run-down peasant villages. Thus, cumbia, like all coastal music, defines Colombian's national identity by demonstrating the unity of Colombia's diversity. Like the Zamba rhythm that united African and Indian styles, cumbia unites the rich and the poor and the black and the white.
As Cumbia became a more popular music, it began to spread even more across the world. In the 1960's, Peruvian youth began to incorporate cumbia in chi cha, a music very representative of the second generation migrants of Peru. Today, cumbia is seen everywhere. In many places cumbia is referred to as a general term for salsa and merengue. There are even bands that claim to play "mexican cumbias." These are basically the Colombian cumbias with lyrics mixed a little with other beats that may or may not be of Mexican origin. For most Colombians, "mexican cumbias" are an insult since they feel Mexicans stole the Colombian rhythm, claiming it their own. I once talked to a Mexican friend of mine who believes "mexican cumbia" to be a modern rhythm unique to Mexico. This friend was reluctant to believe cumbia originated in Colombia and refused to believe Mexicans may have adopted the rhythm from Colombia to create a mix of cumbia and a Mexican rhythm. Yet, when I asked him what he thought of the new "colombian mariachi," he laughed and claimed there could never be such a thing.
This is an example of how cumbia, like other music across the world, have been incorporated into other cultures. In some cases, however, the origin of the rhythms get lost as people begin calling their music something that is completely different than what their music represents. For example, on Selena's last album, she has a song entitled "techno cumbia". This song has very little if any similarities to the traditional Colombian cumbia. Yet cumbia has become such a popular term across the globe, many musicians like to consider themselves cumbia artists even though their music sounds more like Spanish rock. As a Colombian myself, I am proud that Colombians developed such a unique rhythm everyone can enjoy. However, I do wish Colombians were given more credit for it. (Cont. in Part II)
Part II
