Guelaguetza in Matanzas.

We had the Guelaguetza in Matanzas during the III Mesoamerican and Caribbean Congress of Living Cultures, held in Matanzas from June the 28th to July the 3rd, and perhaps we passed it unnoticed, immersed in the intense programming of the event.

It was the beautiful, but hot and even irritating Sauto Theater (MN), again without air conditioning, that hosted it last July 1st, as part of the closing ceremony of the conclave with more foreign delegates than those held lately in the city of Matanzas.

The Guelaguetza was represented by the Xipoté Performing Arts Company, directed by maestro Huberto García Olivares and together with the Aliento Juvenil Band, from San Lorenzo, led by maestro Benjamín Bautista, a virtuoso trumpet player, who masters and teaches his students each of the instruments he masters.

The Guelaguetza is one of the most important folkloric festivals of the continent, which takes place in the month of July in Oaxaca de Juarez, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, in honor of the Virgen del Carmen and therefore is held on the two Mondays closest to the celebration. Guelaguetza in Zapotec language means to cooperate and includes typical dances from eight regions of Oaxaca de Juarez. It is a festivity to show and give to visitors and places their traditions, customs and their intense relationship with others.

Only fragments were presented at the Sauto Theater, a sample of only some regions that Maestro Huberto presented to the audience, related to the costumes, food and other essential elements that make up the imaginary of each area.

The Banda Aliento Juvenil San Lorenzo, which presented a varied repertoire of pieces by Mexican composers, as well as traditional hymns that show the fervor and the relationship of the Oaxacan people with their land, also gave us a medley of pieces by Dámaso Pérez Prado, which are part of his most vivid musical universe and which contributed to show the rigor of its members, children and young people of different ages, who were joined during the concert by the Atenas Brass Ensemble, the young clarinetist Isabel Rodríguez Tamayo and four members of the Maravillas de la Infancia Project, who performed an emblematic piece from their repertoire.

Music and dance took us to the Guelaguetza and we could feel the emotion of attending a beautiful and historic moment, which culminates with the fellowship of the dancers and musicians with the public, giving typical elements of their culture, hats, sweets, handicrafts.

The music of Aliento Juvenil San Lorenzo created a dramaturgy of the show, with a repertoire selected for the occasion, which imbricated history and traditions, a journey through the Oaxacan culture. Also the dialogue with the dance, which takes us to the characteristics of the regions represented and in which the costumes, with the exquisiteness of their craftsmanship, colors, textures, in addition to the hairstyle, makeup and theatrical elements, managed to bring us closer to the matrix of a Latin American cultural reservoir that lives as a culture.

Presenting the Guelaguetza at the Mesoamerican and Caribbean Congress was an effective way to show the essence of a nation and its most vivid community traditions, rooted in the original cultures.

Perhaps on another occasion we can have them again with the necessary time, as a spiritual connection between our peoples.

Written by Ulises Rodríguez Febles.