Keeping the flame of the musical legacy left by her father lit was Taryn Escalona’s firm purpose when she created the Rafael Escalona Martínez Foundation in 2004, five years before the maestro left the earthly world. She did it motivated by two reasons: the admiration she feels for the work of her father and ensuring that Vallenato folklore is perpetuated through the songs of this famous minstrel.
On May 13, 2010, the date of the first anniversary of Maestro Escalona’s death, the foundation began with tributes and since then Maestro Escalona’s life has been told to all generations through plays, conversations, and symphonic concerts. , photographic exhibitions, books among other artistic and academic expressions.
“The objective is to continue the work that the maestro did as an ambassador of vallenato music, it was through characters like him that vallenato began to make its way onto the national and international scene and precisely through his work we want vallenato to continue.” alive. He sowed the seed of this beautiful music that today represents Colombians,” said Taryn Escalona.
Every anniversary of Escalona’s departure, in the morning his family, represented by children, grandchildren, nephews, as well as his friends, gather at the teacher’s mausoleum, just as he himself requested, under a tree of mango. There, with songs, flowers and prayers, they remember him, reinforcing the message “Escalona Inmortal”, the same one that reads on the tombstone of the greatest composer of Vallenato music.
That family and the legacy lovers are the ones who, year after year, water the seed so that future generations continue to delight in the work of Rafael Escalona Martínez, the one who dreamed of a house in the air for his daughter Adaluz, but who founded it with foundations. strong the essence of folklore that today is a national symbol.