Cumbia on the beaches of La Boquilla: La Escuela de Tambores
La escuela (@batambora on instagram!)
One of my most memorable experiences in Cartagena was at the very end of my grant, when I had the opportunity to visit La Escuela Taller Tambores de Cabildo de La Boquilla, the Cabildo Drum Workshop School of La Boquilla. On my second to last weekend in Cartagena, I visited the school with some Cartagenera friends, and it was really exciting because this was a long-awaited plan finally coming to fruition before I had to leave! My friend Kasey was also visiting from the States at the time, so I was super excited to get to share this special cultural experience with her too.
The mural and drums inside the school
When we arrived at the school, we immediately admired its beauty. It is situated on the beach and filled with a ton of beautiful drums and a mural inside of children playing the drums, maracas, and other instruments. The school also has a little bungalow on the beach where students can practice in the shade with a breeze, much closer to the water, and we saw two older students practicing there when we first arrived. We had just shown up that day, without booking or arranging anything in advance, hoping to be able to get a tour of the school or to maybe sit in on a rehearsal, but after entering, admiring the space and the instruments, and chatting with the director of the school for a little bit, he led us back to the two students underneath the bungalow and introduced them as our teachers for the day. They taught us an impromptu class right then and there, and it was fantastic!
Underneath the bungalow!
Sat in a circle underneath the bungalow on the beach, we learned the basics of how to play el tambor alegre, the happy drum. To set up, you sit with the drum between your knees, holding it there slightly tilted forward so that the bottom of the drum is on an angle rather than flat on the ground. Our teachers then taught us the four basic golpes, the four basic ways to hit the drum:
Canteo is tapping on the edge of the drum with the fingertips of your pointer fingers. This produces a high-pitched sound that reminds me of raindrops on a metal roof when it's serenando (drizzling).
Abierto is tapping on the edge of the drum with flat hands from your fingertips down to the top half of your palm, producing a medium-pitched sound.
Quemado, which is pronounced “quemao” in the costeño accent, is hitting between the middle and edge of the drum with slightly cupped hands. This golpe produces a sound that is light and bouncy, similar in pitch to the canteo golpe.
Bajo is hitting the middle of the drum with flat hands, producing the deepest sound of the four golpes.
Los golpes
As we learned, I translated for my friend Kasey, and our teachers tested us to see if we remembered the names of each type of golpe and how to execute them. After getting the hang of the golpes, we did a concentration activity of keeping the tiempo (rhythm) and the contra-tiempo (the off-beat). We clapped the rhythm with our hands, then played the off-beat on the drums.
Ta-pi-ti rhythm exercise
We then went through another exercise that consisted of saying a rhythmic phrase, “ta-pi-ti”, then passing it to the drum, alternating hands, and using different combinations of the four types of golpes.
The Cumbia rhythm!
As we mixed canteao with abierto, quemado, and bajo golpes, our teachers began to play with the timing, adding elements to make the rhythm more textured and complex. It was super super cool. One of our teachers eventually stopped demonstrating on the tambor alegre and started playing on a different type of drum, specifically for keeping the tiempo, while we continued to play the contra-tiempo. I started getting a little confused by this point, but our teachers reminded us of the “ta-pi-ti” rhythm to guide us forward. As I felt the breeze on my skin, tasted the salt in the air, and heard the music come together, I once again felt that delightful feeling of an unforgettable memory being made.
“El Pescador”
In no time at all, the elements we had been learning magically evolved into Cumbia rhythm, the folkloric music (and dance) genre that originated in Colombia that has African, Indigenous, and Spanish roots. One of our young teachers began to sing a traditional song that you’ll hear all throughout the Caribbean coast of Colombia called “El Pescador”, The Fisherman. It was so beautiful, with the sound of the drums plus the sound of the waves crashing just a few meters away from where we were gathered. When I look back at the photos and videos from that day, I am reminded of just how mesmerizing that moment was.
Our lesson on the beach concluded with the song, and as we thanked our teachers and walked back to the school, I felt super accomplished, grateful, and also bummed that I didn’t have a chance to get involved and visit the school earlier! Once we entered the main part of the school again, we were surprised to see that some children had arrived. They warmed up briefly before treating us to a performance where two girls sang a short song while a few other children played rhythms wayyy more complex than the one we had just learned on the drums behind them.
Me, my friend Laura, and one of our profes!
The children were so cute and so talented. I felt honored to witness their performance and to learn just a portion of what they are obviously studying with great focus, effort, and discipline in the school. In our conversations with the director, we learned that the school has made a huge impact in La Boquilla, a district north of the Historical Center in Cartagena that had historically been a fisherman’s village but has battled a lot of gentrification in recent years. Huge luxury beachfront hotels being constructed there continue to displace a lot of people in the area and cause problems for the community. The drum school has been monumental for building unity, and providing support for the young people there, preserving cultural heritage, and teaching values through traditional music. I had heard of the school months before I finally got to visit and never had the chance to go before because I didn’t know where it was located. It was really amazing to really learn about the function the school serves within the community and the deep ties it has to La Boquilla once I finally made it there. If you have the opportunity to visit, learn, donate, and support the mission of the school, I definitely recommend that you do!
Los tambores alegres
To close, here are some lyrics from the song the children performed for us…
“Somos los niños de La Boquilla,We are the children of La Boquilla,
estamos tocando de maravilla. we are playing wonderfully.
Somos estudiosos, somos gente linda,We are studious, we are kind,
Y la gente dice que somos artistas.”and people say that we are artists.
Playa La Boquilla
