My Village Does Not Forget Me

My village is the most musical in the world. My village does not forget me and I do not forget my village; it calls me from afar, calls me with drums, gaitas, and bandola. My village is the Montes de María, the Mompos Depression, Casanare, the Eastern Plains, the Páramos, the Savannas, and the deserts.

My village is made of cardón cactus, wax, charcoal, and duck feathers. My village sounds like the gaita hembra, the gaita macho, the Llamador, the Alegre drum, and the tambora. It is Carmen de Bolívar, San Jacinto, San Juan de Nepomuceno: my village is indigenous gaita. It is Ovejas and its festival, it is San Onofre and Rosario Island: it is Black gaita. My village sounds like a delicious merengue by Paito: El Faroto, la Flor del Melón, it sounds like a Son by Medardo Padilla: el Magdalena, el Pondito. It is solemn like the Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Mañe Mendoza, Toño García, the Laras, the Yepes, or the Salcedos: it sounds like Son del Diablo, El Pensador, La Acabación, Campo Alegre, El Fin Del Mundo. My village is played until the body can take no more, like the gaitas corridas, and is sung in immortal Porros. My village is frenetic like a Puya but also rhythmic like a Cumbia. My village is Cumbia. My village does not forget me and I do not forget my village.

My village is also played in 6/8 time and danced on an infinite plain that is the Eastern Plains in Colombia and the Western Plains in Venezuela. My village is Tauramena, Aguazul, Paz de Ariporo, and Maní: it is Casanare, it is Vichada, and it is Arauca. My village is two bordones and two primas, it is a sturdy bandola, a cuatro galloping through notes, some maracas, and a Leco that seems eternal. My village is paseos and golpes: my village is Paloma, is Guacaba, is Alcaraván, is Palmarito, is Pajarillo, is Seis por Derecho, Seis corrío, Guacharaca, Gavilán. My village has eternal inhabitants: Pedro Flórez, Luis Quinitiva, el Cholo. My village is not afraid; my village resists and names rebels. My village is Guadalupe Salcedo. My village is joropo.

My village does not forget me and I do not forget my village.