In an interview, Julio César Prieto, research coordinator of the Huiltour Corporation and Coordinator of Heritage Watchers for Huila, referred to the importance of declaring the La Plata Folk Festival as Cultural Heritage and the work for departmental festivities.
Newspaper of Huila, Huila
By: Gloria Camargo
Since 1958, in the municipality of La Plata, work has been done to recover cultural, gastronomic and folkloric traditions, which is why in 2019, the Folkloric and Sampedrino Festival was included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Department of Huila. , by decision of the Departmental Council of Cultural Heritage.
Regarding the subject, Julio César Prieto, research coordinator of the Huiltour Corporation and Coordinator of Heritage Watchers for Huila, spoke with this media outlet to refer to the particularities of this festival and the work that must be carried out at the departmental level for the preservation of the festivals of San Juan and San Pedro.
Why is the Folkloric Festival of La Plata different from other celebrations in Huila?
Within the four sub-regions, the west of Huila has been working for a long time, let us remember that since 1958 the sampedrinas festivals were organized and that everyone is attracted there by something that is undoubtedly particular, and that is the folkloric bands or the groups folkloric are made of totumo and calabazos, flutes, among others. That is undoubtedly very singular and very particular, because in the department of Huila, and even at the national level, there is no such particularity, this singularity.
What should this singularity leave at the departmental level?
We in the department of Huila must be aware that we handle different cultural zones, for example, the cultural zone of the west and the eastern Cauca dance the same sanjuanero, and our festivities permeate the department of Putumayo and the department of Caquetá. In fact, in Cundinamarca, there is a town that has been holding a bambuco festival for about 19 years where Miss Cundinamarca is chosen to come to Huila.
Julio César Prieto, research coordinator of the Huiltour Corporation and Coordinator of Heritage Watchers for Huila.
What would then be the most notable difference?
We must be aware that in the west of Huila what has been determined is the investigation of the Páez pass or the old pass, which is very different from the traditional bambuco pass of northern Huila, and that from there derives the Huilense sanjuanero that is the final step. Investigations have also led us to the fact that folkloric groups have made an interpretation and adaptations of the tubas that we know in symphonies but in gourds and we also have trombones, saxes, all made of gourds.
What do you consider to have been the most important points during these investigations in La Plata?
I think that one particularity is that he managed to level the theme of the concentration, that the reign was not the main center of the event, but that it was within the grid of all the activities. Undoubtedly, this is important, given that at the suggestion of the Ministry of Culture and within which we managed to talk about San Juan and San Pedro in Huila today, for example. The name change is fundamental and we also managed to make it no longer called a reign but a contest.
Why is the name change from reign to contest considered so important?
Here there must be a departmental, municipal, village and national contest, a contest for the best in the execution of the San Juan Huilense. In fact, in La Plata, what we also achieved is that it reaches the event of the San Juan dance contest and in this way also dignifies the position of women as cultural ambassadors.
In La Plata, the folkloric bands or folkloric groups are made of totumo and calabazos, flutes, among others.
What does this dignity consist of?
In which not only does the San Juan dance, but also dances other types of Huila rhythms, but also learns about cooking, learns how to tie a tamale, knows how to make a mistela. In other words, what we are looking for is that the candidate who comes to participate has integrity because she is going to be our ambassador, regardless of the department that comes. This is the reason for all these changes in the municipality of La Plata, where in 2019 we managed to have the Intangible Heritage of the Department declared, due to these singularities and particularities.
What other aspects of La Plata would you highlight?
Above all, it is that the events there are all purely cultural. Made and executed by civil society, they are the peasants, they are the indigenous people, they are the Afro-descendants, it is the shopkeeper, it is the judge, they are the ones who belong to the folkloric groups, to dances, to everything that this entails. So it is from civil society that they organize themselves, and there is a very important role on the part of the Mayor’s Office that seeks to unite all its efforts and give them the opportunity, but also give people spaces to show themselves.
In Resolution 0238 of 2019, the Cultural Manifestation “Folkloric and Sampedrino Festival of the Municipality of La Plata” was declared as Cultural Heritage of Huila and its Special Safeguard Plan (PES).
In this scenario, how do you see the participation of managers and farmers?
The managers, the doers, those who transmit, are a bit relegated. We must take into account our peasants, their music, their dance, and their gastronomy because sometimes it is not very clear at the national level. Some progress has been made here, I must admit that through Corposanpedro some issues have been worked on to achieve a particularity of the dance of the San Juan Huilense, as a symbol not only of local and regional dance but also national. We all have a memory of the San Juanero from La Guajira to the Amazon, but I think that in the municipality of La Plata what has been achieved is a consensus from talking to the community and making it aware of its cultural legacy. Today their organizations, it is where they even work for their musical instruments, their uniforms, there are a number of particularities and singularities that occur there.
Since 1958, the municipality has been working to recover and maintain cultural, gastronomic and folkloric traditions.