Cumbia: Traces and signs of a cultural history

Abstract

The way of making music in the current Colombian Caribbean is directly related historically to the dances sung by areítos, by the indigenous heritage, or cumbiambas by the African-American side. Their tradition, therefore, may well correspond to rituals or to the courtship of love, and the fact that the festive uses in Cartagena de Indias are also religious does not invalidate their dedication to celebrate the collective joy, for which the emphasis in conjugate in the space and music the employment of so many instruments of different origin and modalities of dance would indicate its richness and importance of their practice. In its context of musical conformation, the cumbia is revealed as an expressive vehicle of the population, and due to this characteristic it makes constant efforts to consonance its values.