Rafael Escalona
Encyclopedia
Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez (May 27, 1927 – May 13, 2009) was a Colombia
n composer and troubadour
. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato
music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival
, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen
.
He was also a long-time friend of Gabriel García Márquez
, who included him in his stories and once told him that his own masterpiece novel, 100 years of solitude, was just a 350-page Vallenato
. Escalona's songs compile the history and stories of the Magdalena Department
of the past 20th century. Escalona was an atypical music composer: he does not play any instruments or sing so his songs can in some ways be difficult to analyze. His songs constitute a legacy of a past generation of Colombians in his memory, a pictorial collage, full of grace, that narrates stories, customs and gossips from his region. He also left a legacy of his loves and pains, humour and poetry. In 1991 Caracol TV
produced a television series named Escalona, after him.
Clemente Escalona Labarces, veteran of Thousand Days War
and Margarita Martinez Celedon in Patillal. Because Patillal was a village in a rural area surrounded by farms, it was relatively small and there wasn't that much to do after school, other than play with other kids and make up games; build miniature farms or build kites and fly them all day. He had a very happy childhood, and dreamed of becoming a painter or cartoonist, usually drawing funny depictions of classmates and teachers. But his all time friend and classmate, Jaime Molina was better at drawing than him, something that drove him instead, to read poetry and songs. He grew up listening to peasants and troubadours of the region that often passed by the village bringing news from Valledupar
and other regions, since there was no post office
or other source of news that arrived at this isolated place.
to attend high school at The Loperena National High School were he composed his first song at the age of fifteen in 1943 called "El profe Castañeda". He wrote the song in honor and sadness of his favourite teacher being transferred to a school in Riohacha
, his natural reaction was to dedicate a song to "el viejo Pedro" as he called him, since he grew up listening to local troubadour
s. His classmates, who were also saddened over the teacher's departure, embraced his song. From then on, he saw himself doing something that he was good at, and started writing songs whenever a situation merged; started composing about his love experiences, about the people that interacted with him or were known in the region and these people's stories of happenings, basically compilations of his everyday experiences and thoughts. In 1945, feeling bored and short of motivation for school, Escalona was transferred to a school in Barranquilla
for a short period and then to the Celedon Lyceum High School in Santa Marta
, where he composed "El Hambre del Liceo" (the lyceum Hunger), complaining about the poor food quality that the school offered. Tired of school he dropped out and went back to Valledupar
.
he devoted his time to working at his parent's farm and learning about agriculture
. He started planting rice
. Apparently he also tried to break into the illegal coffee trade by bringing contraband from Aruba
with a friend named "Pipe" Socarras. He became a partygoing "parrandero" and a heavy drinker of whiskey and rum
. He also started courting many women at once. On April 14, 1951 he finally got married to Marina Arzuaga Mejía, also known as "La Maye", who would give him six of his presently suspected thirty six children. (He would later divorce her after a long period of years).
. By the 1960s, when former President of Colombia
Alfonso López Michelsen
became governor of the newly created Department of Cesar, Lopez was invited to live in Hernando Molina's house. In this "vallenato
parrandas" or parties, Escalona, Consuelo Araújo and Lopez decided to create a Vallenato
Festival. López also invited them in many occasions to Bogotá
, where he organized vallenato
parrandas and introduced them to Colombia
's political leaders. In 1968 the first Vallenato Legend Festival
took place.
and unconscious earlier that day. Before he died Escalona received a visit from the Colombian Ex-President Álvaro Uribe
.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n composer and troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival
Vallenato Legend Festival
The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The Festival features a vallenato music contests for best interpreter of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria and best song...
, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen was a Colombian politician, lawyer and journalist. Lopez Michelsen was President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was the son of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who was also president of Colombia from 1934 to 1938, and once again from 1942 to 1945...
.
He was also a long-time friend of Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, who included him in his stories and once told him that his own masterpiece novel, 100 years of solitude, was just a 350-page Vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
. Escalona's songs compile the history and stories of the Magdalena Department
Magdalena Department
Magdalena is a department of Colombia, located to the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Magdalena River...
of the past 20th century. Escalona was an atypical music composer: he does not play any instruments or sing so his songs can in some ways be difficult to analyze. His songs constitute a legacy of a past generation of Colombians in his memory, a pictorial collage, full of grace, that narrates stories, customs and gossips from his region. He also left a legacy of his loves and pains, humour and poetry. In 1991 Caracol TV
Caracol TV
Caracol Televisión is a Colombian private national television network, owned by Julio Mario Santo Domingo.- History :Caracol Televisión started in 1954 when Organización de Radiodifusora Caracol offered to afford national television costs, then state-run, through commercial spots...
produced a television series named Escalona, after him.
Early life
He was born on May 27, 1927 to ColonelColonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Clemente Escalona Labarces, veteran of Thousand Days War
Thousand Days War
The Thousand Days' War , was a civil armed conflict in the newly created Republic of Colombia, between the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and its radical factions. In 1899 the ruling conservatives were accused of maintaining power through fraudulent elections...
and Margarita Martinez Celedon in Patillal. Because Patillal was a village in a rural area surrounded by farms, it was relatively small and there wasn't that much to do after school, other than play with other kids and make up games; build miniature farms or build kites and fly them all day. He had a very happy childhood, and dreamed of becoming a painter or cartoonist, usually drawing funny depictions of classmates and teachers. But his all time friend and classmate, Jaime Molina was better at drawing than him, something that drove him instead, to read poetry and songs. He grew up listening to peasants and troubadours of the region that often passed by the village bringing news from Valledupar
Valledupar
Valledupar is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department and was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Santana. Its name, Valle de Upar , was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar...
and other regions, since there was no post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
or other source of news that arrived at this isolated place.
Youth, the High School Dropout
He moved to ValleduparValledupar
Valledupar is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department and was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Santana. Its name, Valle de Upar , was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar...
to attend high school at The Loperena National High School were he composed his first song at the age of fifteen in 1943 called "El profe Castañeda". He wrote the song in honor and sadness of his favourite teacher being transferred to a school in Riohacha
Riohacha
Riohacha, Rio Hacha or Rio de la Hacha , is a city in the Riohacha Municipality in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia by the mouth of the Ranchería River and the Caribbean sea, capital city of the La Guajira Department. Founded by conquistador Nikolaus Federmann in 1535, Riohacha was named...
, his natural reaction was to dedicate a song to "el viejo Pedro" as he called him, since he grew up listening to local troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s. His classmates, who were also saddened over the teacher's departure, embraced his song. From then on, he saw himself doing something that he was good at, and started writing songs whenever a situation merged; started composing about his love experiences, about the people that interacted with him or were known in the region and these people's stories of happenings, basically compilations of his everyday experiences and thoughts. In 1945, feeling bored and short of motivation for school, Escalona was transferred to a school in Barranquilla
Barranquilla
Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...
for a short period and then to the Celedon Lyceum High School in Santa Marta
Santa Marta
Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia...
, where he composed "El Hambre del Liceo" (the lyceum Hunger), complaining about the poor food quality that the school offered. Tired of school he dropped out and went back to Valledupar
Valledupar
Valledupar is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department and was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Santana. Its name, Valle de Upar , was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar...
.
The Farmer
In ValleduparValledupar
Valledupar is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department and was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Santana. Its name, Valle de Upar , was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar...
he devoted his time to working at his parent's farm and learning about agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. He started planting rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
. Apparently he also tried to break into the illegal coffee trade by bringing contraband from Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
with a friend named "Pipe" Socarras. He became a partygoing "parrandero" and a heavy drinker of whiskey and rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
. He also started courting many women at once. On April 14, 1951 he finally got married to Marina Arzuaga Mejía, also known as "La Maye", who would give him six of his presently suspected thirty six children. (He would later divorce her after a long period of years).
An approach to Politicians
By the 1950s he had become a renowned composer and usually befriended with local political leaders in "parrandas". He always departed with people from Patillal including Hernando Molina, husband of Consuelo AraújoConsuelo Araujo Noguera
Consuelo Araújo Noguera, also known as "La Cacica", was a Colombian politician, writer and self-taught journalist, born August 1, 1940 in the city of Valledupar...
. By the 1960s, when former President of Colombia
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen was a Colombian politician, lawyer and journalist. Lopez Michelsen was President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was the son of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who was also president of Colombia from 1934 to 1938, and once again from 1942 to 1945...
became governor of the newly created Department of Cesar, Lopez was invited to live in Hernando Molina's house. In this "vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
parrandas" or parties, Escalona, Consuelo Araújo and Lopez decided to create a Vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
Festival. López also invited them in many occasions to Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, where he organized vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
parrandas and introduced them to Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
's political leaders. In 1968 the first Vallenato Legend Festival
Vallenato Legend Festival
The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The Festival features a vallenato music contests for best interpreter of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria and best song...
took place.
Death
He died on the afternoon May 13, 2009 in Bogotá, Colombia due to heart failure. He had been interned for almost two weeks in the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogotá and had been on a medical ventilatorMedical ventilator
A medical ventilator can be defined as any machine designed to mechanically move breatheable air into and out of the lungs, to provide the mechanism of breathing for a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently....
and unconscious earlier that day. Before he died Escalona received a visit from the Colombian Ex-President Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
.
Songs
- "El Hambre del Liceo"
- "La casa en el aire"
- "Elegía a Jaime Molina"
- "La vieja sara"
- "El Almirante Padilla"
- "La patillalera"
- "La custodia de Badillo"
- "El villanuevero"
- "El general Dangond"
- "La historia"
- "Honda herida"
- "La brasilera"
- "El arco iris"
- "El perro de Pavajeau"
- "EL jerre jerre"
- "La Privincia"
- "El testamento"
- "El Bachiller"
- "Maria Tere"
External links
- Rafael Escalona - Daily Telegraph obituary