Years go by and Rafael Escalona never ceases to amaze the Vallenato world with his magic. 14 years have passed, and the ‘wounded Honda’ remains intact among those who followed and today fight to perpetuate his legacy. The teacher who wore the vallenato tailcoat and raised this folklore as a flag that makes him immortal in everyone’s memory.
“That I have a very deep wound that hurts me / That I have a very big wound that kills me / A man like that is better to die / Oh, to see if he finally rests…”, that’s how he composed it and sang it among the green vallenato stage to make it a hymn until the day of his death on May 13, 2009.
From the Vallenata Legend Festival Foundation, his name, his immeasurable musical work and for being the creator of the Vallenata Legend Festival together with former president Alfonso López Michelsen and the former Minister of Culture Consuelo Araujonoguera, who for history will always stand out. wrote the book, ‘Escalona: the man and the myth’.
Since his farewell, the Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez Foundation, chaired by his daughter Taryn Escalona, has dedicated itself to perpetuating his legacy and cultivating in the hearts of the new generations, the love for that vallenato where the stories of old Valledupar were not told. but they were sung.
It seems that it was yesterday that maestro Escalona left, and today he continues to be surprised by evoking each song, each word of his and that soft echo of his voice, “like the bird that sings in the jungle and I don’t know how to see it”.
In the sound record there were songs such as: ‘The house in the air’, ‘The testament’, ‘I chose Jaime Molina’, ‘The custody of Badillo’, ‘La vieja Sara’, ‘El copete’, ‘El pirata’ , ‘Honda wounded’, ‘The mejoral’, ‘The rainbow’, ‘Admiral Padilla’, ‘El chevrolito’, ‘La molinera’, ‘La brasilera’, ‘La patillalera’, ‘La golondrina’, ‘La historia’, and ‘La creciente del Cesar’, among others, which hpy are sung over and over again, by the exponents of vallenato.
COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS
The Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez Foundation, in commemoration of its fourteenth anniversary, proudly embraces that memory to tell the world that Patillal, the beloved town of Cesar, had the privilege of being the birthplace of one of the greatest exponents of the vallenato music.
Therefore, today starting at 9:00 in the morning, in Jardines del Ecce Homo de Valledupar, in his mausoleum tomb where his soul frolics full of contentment, 14 years of the absence of the teacher Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez will be commemorated.
In that sacred space the new Vallenato King Javier Matta Correa and the singer Jorge Antonio Oñate; the singer, composer and King of Kings Ivo Díaz and the King of Kings, Almes Granados; the Carrascal Brothers will be remembering ‘Rafa’ Escalona and expressing through their songs the feeling of love for her memory.
Every year on this date, family and friends gather to worship his memory through anecdotes, songs, verses and poetry. Each anniversary is a trip down memory lane, a nostalgia rack, but still those feelings are mixed with the pride of having had the great cult player who influenced vallenato to be known throughout the world today.
His daughter Taryn Escalona, who works leading the Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez Foundation, reiterates that 14 years ago he left, he flew towards immortality, but his resource remains intact in the hearts of their families, friends and their people, but above all in the soul of all Colombia who enjoy those stories that are experiences.
HIS LEGACY STILL INTACT
With his more than one hundred songs composed, he managed to immortalize his legacy for the new generations that follow the vallenato genre. Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez, is the most important composer of Vallenato music whose name does not go out of style, and his work remains alive.
An example of this is the Rafael Escalona Bridge, located on the recently inaugurated La Paz-Valledupar road, a work that allows us to remember his transcendental musical work in the region, the country and the world.
Likewise, the wax sculpture that will be exhibited in the Hall of Fame in the Vallenata Music Cultural Center that is being built in Valledupar. This great initiative comes from the Government of Cesar and was unveiled before his children Taryn, Ada Luz, Rafael, Hernando and his granddaughter Carmen Victoria, a moment that allowed them to live the emotion of discovering a new way to keep it in mind for the new generations.
And as if that were not enough, the singer Carlos Vives in the Legend category, during the 2023 Latin American Music Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, United States, after the release of his new album, ‘Escalona: It had never been recorded like this’, with which he celebrates 30 years of musical career with his group La Provincia.
As a result of the above, Carlos Vives appeared at the 56th Vallenata Legend Festival, where he gave a sovereign musical show and the launch of his album ‘Escalona: Never had it been recorded like this’, and since August 19 he begins a tour by the United States, whose destination will be the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Miami, Orlando, Dallas and Houston. ‘El Tour de los 30’ will conclude on November 5, 2023.
The history of vallenato does not leave, nor will it ever leave, aside that scroll of anecdotes that the great maestro made music, and now the controversial work of La Casa en el Aire, which is being built in Valledupar, where his daughter Taryn Escola dreams of establish a museum to continue perpetuating the legacy of his father.
On May 26, the day of his birth, the wax sculpture of maestro Rafael Escalona will be unveiled by the Government of Cesar, and it will be part of the Hall of Fame of the Vallenato Music Cultural Center, which will be it will become a pilgrimage center for natives and visitors.