The temperature dropped as the mountain climbed towards El Plan, a village nestled in the Serranía del Perijá, a few kilometers from Jagua del Pilar, on the border of Cesar and La Guajira. Up there, in that beautiful and healthy little town, as Maestro Escalona described it in his famous song, La Vieja Sara, the feast of the Virgen del Carmen was celebrated. In the patio of the Salas family, with a platform and good sound, a party was celebrated that exceeded one hundred guests. Planeros and foreigners felt great nostalgia, evoking the times when Rafael Escalona or Leandro Díaz came to party in those patios, they remembered that group of musicians turned minstrels, protagonists of songs and piqueras that became legends.
However, in that patio that perhaps housed those titans of folklore in other times, there was a note that transported them to bygone times, it was the essence of the authentic Vallenato melody that sprang from the accordion of Darío, son of the legendary Antonio, Toño , Salas and nephew of old Emiliano Zuleta. Playing masterfully, this accordion great once again demonstrated his caste, interpreting vallenato raizal, stealing praise and applause from those present who asked him for more songs. “If you look up at the sky, there are stars that shine more than others, I am one of those, I don’t shine as much, but I am a star,” said Dario Salas after getting off the stage when asked why he was not famous. He confessed that he learned to play the accordion at the age of 15 in the style of his father Toño de él, who was playing alongside Leandro Díaz for 45 years. He defines his dynasty as a defender of authentic vallenato. “We are conservatives of the traditional vallenato because we practice it and defend it, something that very few do.”
The composer Rafael Manjarréz, host of such a celebration, had always wanted to sing in the land of old Sara and her musical offspring, in the town where Simón Salas left never to return. “El Plan is a national benchmark for folklore, a sanctuary for Vallenato music, not everyone came here to party and old Sara was not going to be born anywhere.” He said before starting to sing and that he “was left without a voice”, as he himself expressed it, full of emotion for what he was living, a true dream full of the magic of yesterday and today.
Seeing the children of Escalona, of Leandro Díaz, and composers such as Marciano Martínez, Rosendo Romero, Juan Segundo Lagos, among others who, like Leandro, did not hesitate to take the path and go to the Plan, really pleased him. Rafa was happy, surrounded by friends, music, memories, nature colluded with the environment, a slight dew refreshed the afternoon and the smell of wet earth welcomed the first night.
Returning to the valley, in the thickness of the mountain, trees of all kinds adorned the path, but only one stood out, the one where Simón left his hat hooked, that Peralejo in which Escalona unloaded the sadness that seized him because his compadre had left. Banished from the Plan.
By: Alba Quintero Almenárez