After the forced recess imposed by the rigours of the pandemic, the always-awaited and inevitable Charangas de Bejucal return, one of the festivals considered national heritage, along with the Parrandas de Remedios and the Carnivals of Santiago de Cuba.
Christmas Eve of 1830, in the so-called colonial times, the festivities of Bejucal, a municipality belonging to the western province of Mayabeque, are traditionally celebrated every December 24 and January 1, and the drums have a unique role, as well as the rich folklore of peasant music, with Hispanic roots.
However, together with their resonant percussion, the Charangas would not be brass bands without the brilliant shows presented on multicolored floats that travel through the town, representing the two sides to which its residents voluntarily join to compete and deserve the prizes in those traditional festivals: the Blue or Ceiba de Plata, with the scorpion as a symbol, and the Red or Espina de Oro, with the rooster on its banner.
The oral and written tradition confirms that it all began at the Midnight Mass on the aforementioned date, since the slave owners already allowed members of their crews certain temporary freedoms to celebrate, almost together but not scrambled, the Christian Christmas festivities and Three Kings Day. After the Catholic ceremony, the descendants of Africans, free and even slaves, could go out in procession after their masters, singing their own songs, dancing to pagan music.
That exceptional holiday was the way in which the masters tried to release tensions in the face of the barbarism of slavery, since rebellious airs were already blowing very close. And they feared them. The first bands arose from this annual custom: La Musicanga, made up of Creoles, mulattoes and black slaves, and Los Malayos, in whose ranks were Spaniards and Creoles sympathetic to the crown.
Soon the religious origin went to the background and the mixture of components that contribute to the ajiaco of Cuban culture, already boiling, predominated. With the arrival of the 20th century, La Musicanga was named La Ceiba de Plata and Los Malayos were called La Espina de Oro. The kind of procession that used to be the first parades became incipient floats, at first pulled by oxen and illuminated by the carbide.
In each edition of the festivities, celebrated punctually year after year, the competition between the factions increased, whose population components had changed as had happened with the evolution of Cuban society. But the spirit of emulation was always on the rise, unleashing great creativity that made the floats and the drumming competitions of the bands a true display of imagination, beauty and popular inventiveness, all based on the healthiest fun.
They are festivities that have always had the picaresque of recreated popular characters, including La Macorina, Mujiganga, Bollera, Kulona and Yerbero. Today various arts such as theater, dance, art, among others, in addition to music enhance the quality of a party that paradoxically has not lost its essence and its hallmark. Let the drums sound.
CubaPLUS Latinos
CubaPLUS Guyana
CubaPLUS Travel