His illusions of becoming great on the accordion do not fade. Bringing the melodies of vallenata music from the street to a contest has been his main challenge; He does not lower his gaze to failure, on the contrary, he follows the thorny passage that he has begun by appearing at the Festival of the Vallenato Legend in homage to Luis Enrique Martínez, ‘El Pollo Vallenato’.
He earns his living playing the accordion in the streets of Pereira, a Colombian city where the accordion is rarely heard, but Milciades Manuel Mendoza has been in charge of making it sound and making the most boring people dance, but above all, defending a folklore that from the Costa has driven in the land that adopted him, since he is a native of Barranquilla.
He is a short man with a dark complexion and lined eyes. He wears a large hat and at the Vallenato Festival he appeared in an impeccable white outfit worthy of a special occasion. He is accompanied by his children Deisy Mendoza in the box and Luis Mendoza in the guacharaca, with whom he practiced from a distance, however, he claims to be in tune to measure himself with the greats.
Getting to the Vallenato Festival entails costs and investments, on the part of the participants and their companions. Milciades is a low-income man and he managed to be present in this land, to the point of stopping at the traffic lights in Pereira to play the accordion and collect the money with which he arrived at the World Capital of Vallenato.
“I am a street musician, I work in the parks, traffic lights and in the streets of Pereira to earn a living; Pereira is not a land of Vallenata music and I am in charge of bringing it to homes and to the public with a group called La Familia Vallenata”.
But these adversities do not slow down the pursuit of his dreams, on the contrary, they have strengthened him and he has competed 18 times. This year was no exception and his preparation, although it was difficult due to the distance with his companions (Cartagena and Barranquilla), he clung to digital media to achieve the precision that he shows on the accordion in his airs of Paseo, Merengue, Son and puja.
Melciades Manuel from a very young age has been fulfilling a musical career that began with the Embajadores del Vallenato group, whom he accompanied in the guacharaca. “This story began when Ramiro Colmenares went to Cúcuta to receive the song ‘El Borracho’, by Elio Maldonado, they saw me playing the guacharaca and they invited me to Bucaramanga to rehearse and accompany them in several of their performances.”
Always smiling, but a little restless as the competition progressed and his turn approached, Milciades stated that he was proud to compete alongside great accordion digitizers, however, he is very clear in stating that each one has their style, their gift and their cadence. “For God nothing is impossible, I put the best on stage and I like the classic vallenato.
“Many criticize me that I don’t play vallenato, because I don’t go jumping and running, I’m going to tell you one thing, don’t live in my mouthful, that this game is not a race or a jumping game. Quintana is there to run, Katerine is there to jump, I’m famous for playing, and I play a firm vallenato…”, he sang this stanza from the ride ‘Yo si Toco Vallenato’.