Los Cuadros Vivos
A few weeks ago, I traveled to Galeras, Sucre to visit a fellow volunteer during the Festival de la Algarroba. Algarroba is carob, a sweet bean used to make drinks and desserts. However, the main reason I traveled for eight hours on two buses and three taxis to get to Galeras is to see the cuadros vivos. Cuadros vivos, which translates as live paintings, are a cross between theater and visual art, performance art basically. Each day of the festival, starting early in the morning, participating galeranos “dress” the street where that night’s cuadros are to be displayed. They create elaborate sets with props and lighting. Each cuadro features actors dressed in costume and posing in perfect stillness to depict a scene. On the last night, the best ones are repeated and prizes are awarded.
Many of the cuadros had religious themes – biblical scenes, modern moral subjects or memento mori. My favorite of the religious cuadros vivos depicts two men in a fishing boat on the water casting their nets. Instead of fish, the symbols for various social media apps float in the water. Entitled “Deja tus redes y sigueme,” the piece uses a clever play on words: the Spanish word redes means nets but it is also used to mean social media (social networks). What at first seems like the scene from the Gospel of Matthew where Peter and Andrew leave their nets to follow Jesus is also a commentary on overreliance on social media to simulate connection. Jesus’ promise to make Peter and Andrew fishers of men is even more poignant in the social media age. While it may seem like social media is the optimal place to be fishers of men, fishing for likes, shares and retweets is not the same as building meaningful relationships. What Jesus is actually calling us to, the cuadro vivo makes clear, is authentic personal relationships. Leaving behind the redes frees us to be present to those around us.
Even more interesting than the religious cuadros were the ones that broached subjects that I have not heard many costeños talk about. It’s quite possible that these topics are widely discussed, just not with the gringa who says things that don’t make sense sometimes. In any case, it was interesting to see what subjects they deemed worthy of spending hours bringing to life.
Political commentary: Two very powerful cuadros reacted to the high number of assassinations of social leaders, many of whom were indigenous, in Colombia in the past year. My favorite of the two, “Quebranto” features a woman dressed in white grieving over the body of a dead man also dressed in white. A single tear of blood runs down her face. In front of the man’s body are the photographs and names of eleven social leaders killed last year amid an array of broken glass. On a wall behind the woman in a series of concentric circles, like a target are the words: “Si callamos nos matan, si hablamos nos matan tambien, entonces hablemos. [If we keep quiet, they kill us. If we talk, they kill us. So let us speak.] Cristina Bautista. Justicia. Paz. Respeto. Solidaridad. Responsabilidad. En 2019 fueron asesinados mas de 150 lideres sociales. [In 2019 more than 150 social leaders were assassinated.] Cauca primer departamento con mas de 36 asesinatos. Segundo por Antioquia con 20 casos. Nariño con 17 casos. Paz. Paz. Paz.”
Genre scenes: There were a number of historic genre scenes depicting everyday life in the past. Interestingly, many of these depicted women doing household chores with antiquated tools and one even showed a woman giving birth at home assisted by a midwife. One of these old-timey genre scenes was contrasted with a present-day genre scene of young people sitting in front of the TV staring blankly at their phones. In the past, basic household tasks consumed most of the time. Then technology freed up a lot of time, and now that extra time is spent consuming technology. The cuadro seems to ask: what was the point of using technology to free up all that time if we’re just going to spend it using other technology?
Origins: The fifth prize winner, “Legado de una cultural ancestral,” is an elaborate gilded scene paying homage to Colombia’s indigenous culture. The third prize winner, entitled “Miscegenacion, mezcla de tres troncos raizales,” refers to Colombian culture’s blend of African, European, and indigenous elements. Three figures surround a tall platform: a Spaniard in a colonial-era military uniform sitting in a thinker pose, a black man holding a set of discs and standing in front of a set of drums, and an indigenous woman with face and body paint plays a flute. On top of the platform surrounded by tree branches stands an enigmatic (to me anyway) figure. A large double helix winds its way around the cuadro uniting the four figures. The conception of race here is a topic that fascinates me, but I don’t I understand it well enough to write about yet. I intrigued to find that the mix of races and cultures was not only the subject of a cuadro but also a prize winner.
My last day in Galeras, I was asked to give my thoughts on the cuadros vivos for a video about the festival. As I stumbled through the interview in my gringo Spanish, I realized the cuadros vivos remained a mystery to me. The cuadros have titles but no accompanying information, as you would find in a museum, no descriptions, no names of the actors or creators. Now as I’m writing this post, I’m realizing that my interpretations are the result of all the cultural references I’ve accumulated over the course of my life and that there were several cuadros that I did not understand at all. I simply had no context or reference for them. In hindsight, I wish I had asked other festival goers what they thought of the cuadros vivos. I wonder what they saw that I didn’t.
El Festival Folclorico de la Algarroba
When: first weekend in January
Where: Galeras, Sucre
Getting there: Take a Brasilia bus to Sincelejo from the Terminal in Barranquilla (about 4 hrs) or from the Terminal in Cartagena (about 3.5 hrs). You can reserve bus tickets online from Brasilia’s website. From Sincelejo, walk or take a short taxi ride to the Galeras Terminal where you can get a shared taxi to Galeras (about an hour). Taxis stop running to Galeras after 5pm, so it’s best to arrive in Sincelejo as early as possible.
Lodging: Galeras does not currently have a hotel or hostels, but you can stay with a host family. Your best bet to arrange a family to stay with is to send a message to Corporación Mixta de Gestión Cultural Cuadros Vivos de Galeras on Facebook.
