Carnival in Barranquilla, Colombia
A considerable portion
of the South American nation of Colombia is washed by the Caribbean Sea. In
fact, the cultures of Trinidad and Tobago and of all the nations washed by the
Caribbean Sea are very similar. And this is not really surprising, since the
most important defining element of these cultures is the African heritage. Very
few Trinbagonians realize that our term “mamaguy” comes from the Spanish
expression “mamagallar.” This
expression is dear to Colombians from the Caribbean region of that nation.
It should come as no
surprise that those Caribbean Colombians who pride themselves on being “mamagallistas” [mamaguyers] are also
fiercely proud of their Carnival. The city of Barranquilla is one of the most
important cultural centers of Caribbean Colombia. In the year 2000, the Fundación Carnaval [Carnival
Foundation](the equivalent of our National Carnival Comission [NCC]) of
Barranquilla, in conjunction with the nation’s Ministry of Culture, organized
the Primer Encuentro Internacional de
Carnavales [The First International Conference on Carniaval]. Twenty-three scholars from Latin
America and the Caribbean as well as from Europe were invited to present papers
on Carnival.
The organizers of the
June 2000 Carnival conference in Barranquilla did not know that in 1999 the
city of Port-of-Spain was host to what was billed as the third of a series of
world Carnival conferences. Our NCC, which was primarily responsible for the
1999 conference, was unaware of the existence of the Barranquilla Carnival
Foundation. Reciprocally, the Barranquilla Carnival Foundation knew nothing of
our NCC.
TO BE CONTINUED
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