A journalistic colleague and neighbor in this medium, whom I admire more than he imagines and with whom we have a sung and quite talked-about lunch without materializing, a villanuevero to be more precise, whom I want to meet in person and have up close to give him a hug, named José Manuel Aponte Martínez wrote in a recently published column the following:
“Rafael Escalona, Leandro Díaz and José Antonio Murgas, Alfonso Araujo Cotes, are four icons of Cesar; The first two, why say who they are and what they did, everyone knows, no one is unaware of their greatness and the immense contributions they made to Vallenato music and folklore and thus they have been awarded and recognized in books, museums and monuments all over the world. parts.
But has the same thing happened to doctors Murgas Aponte and Araujo Cotes? No way!.
Will doctors Murgas Aponte and Araujo Cotes have to compose a vallenato song or play the accordion to move the heartstrings of the governor or the deputies in order for them to receive that just recognition?
Eminently cultural regions and cities like ours are prolific in tributes, sculptures and all kinds of recognition to personalities who have given it luster in one way or another. José Manuel is totally right when claiming that honors, recognitions and others are minimally fair and deserved to personalities who, from angles other than pure folklore, have made invaluable contributions to our land and to whom we are indebted with invaluable gratitude.
Now that we are full of sculptures and wax figures, that we continue to pay tributes to people who can no longer realize it, it is true that the new generations are asked if they know who José Antonio Murgas was for the Department of Cesar and they have no idea, while we have tens and hundreds of institutions with the names of some that do not even reach their ankles.
How wonderful it would be if the nonagenarian (Congressman, minister, governor) José Antonio Murgas, with the lucidity that they tell me he has, felt the affection and gratitude of the people of the department while alive, who without his substance and titanic management would not exist.
Now, also ask the young people who was for Cesar and Valledupar Alfonso Araujo Cotes and surely they have no idea either, (Congressman, governor, diplomat). This man who is close to turning one hundred years old also contributed most of his life to making our department and Valledupar what they are today. What will be the cause for civil and cultural authorities not to pay him a true homage in life?
Who said that vallenato festivals and other types of similar events should only honor musicians and minstrels?
COLOPHON: The Festival of the Vallenato Legend has already given the grid of invited artists, but nobody knows who signed up as professional accordionists, which is supposed to be the most important contest. Vives, Nodal and Maluma will take a lot of people to the coliseum, but when they ask the tourists who won the festival, they won’t have the slightest idea. The tickets on the day of the grand finale are comfortable, there are boxes for 12 million and a general ticket is worth 200,000 pesos, the Foundation published the prices ahead of time so that they save and as the circus advertising says. And then don’t say we didn’t notify you!
By: Jorge Nain Ruiz
The entry Who deserves tributes? was first published in El Pilón | News from Valledupar, El Vallenato and the Colombian Caribbean.