Valledupar - Culture

Culture

Valledupar's cultural background comes from three different major cultures; the Amerindians, the European settlers, and Africans imported as slaves to the colony. The creolization of these cultures developed into unique musical styles, such as in the vallenato and cumbia. Valledupar was established as a Spanish colonial town, where colonists tried to reimpose what they knew in terms of familiar customs, food, popular religion, music, dances and Castilian Spanish.

Many descendants from the colonial period were converted to Catholicism. At the same time, practices have absorbed aspects of Amerindian and African cultures, as Christianity is syncretic. The holy week, in April, is celebrated in much the same way as during colonial times; with fasting, church attendance and processions to venerate Jesus and the Santo Eccehomo. Corpus Christi is celebrated in July. In religious practices, Christians represent the majority of the population. There are a minority of Muslims.

Traditional oral storytelling has helped preserve stories, myths and legends, such as the popular "leyend of the guatapuri mermaid", or the "silborcito" (the nazarenian without a head), "the Lerta" ("The duel between the devil and Francisco 'the man'", "the monitos", "The llorona (the crying woman)", "la madre monte (mother nature)" "la mano pelua (the hairy hand)", and "el cuco", among other stories that are still alive. Storytellers are very common in the region, as well as traditional comedians. These storytellers, usually travelling farmers selling their cattle around the region, revived the already traditional Spanish juglares (minstrels). From village to village, they sang the news and stories from other towns, usually playing an instrument. This is how the Vallenato music was believed to be born.

Dances play a very important role in the cultural identity of this society, coming from the three different cultures that founded it, among this dances are: "Tambora La Cumana" "El Pilon Vallenato" "chicote kankuamo" and "Los Diablos danzantes de Corpus Christi" (The Corpus Christi Dancing Devils). The latter originated in a colonial theater play, developed to represent the devil and good, in an effort to convert the Amerindians to Christianity. Valledupar also celebrates a carnival in February, smaller but similar to Barranquilla's Carnival. Carnival's celebration of pagan traditions, quickly helped the Amerindian and Africans traditions to be adopted by society.

• Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture) and Escuela de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts School):

These two entities are part of the Colombian Ministry of Culture and their main purpose is to promote and preserve local cultural traditions, exploit cultural abilities from the region and promote an alternative to get to know different cultures.

• Libraries:
• Public Library Rafael Carrillo Luquez and its Consuelo Araújo Noguera Library section, was inaugurated on May 8, 2002; created with the main purpose of contributing to social, educational and cultural development of the community with an initial collection of about 12,000 volumes in all areas of human knowledge. It has achieved up to date, a space for kids, youth and adults, it has given access to all users in this society to literature workshops, plastic arts, music, conferences, expositions and local writer's book presentations.

General collection and reference: It has one lecture room with a capacity for a hundred people, with open shelves and open access to collections for users. Children's room and workshop: independently, it also has a lecture and workshop room for children, with a collection specialized in children and youth's literature, as well as audiovisual materials and other elements to work in plastic arts. In this room, starting at 10 A.M. on Saturdays, a project of story telling goes on called "La Hora del Cuento" (the story time) and on Fridays at 4 P.M. the presentation of movies for children.

• • On-line catalog: this system helps localize information that users need and contains local bibliographical material information that it's connected to the Banco de la Republica's national libraries network.
  • Audiovisual Services: the library also has three individual cubicles for the use of audiovisual material, mostly containing cultural and scientific.

• Shopping Center:

Guatapurí plaza shopping center is in the north of the city, near the "Parque de la leyenda Vallenata". Constructed by Conconcreto, the complex was started in November 2007, with three major sections:

• Shopping center: Opened in 2008, it features more than 50 retail stores, including restaurants and a Carrefour supermarket.
• Theatre: It was opened 28 November 2008. It is operated by Cinemark, and it has 4 screens.
• Hotel: The Sonesta Hotel opened in 2009.