Saving Palenque: Revolutionary Teachers, Music Keep The Lengua Alive

By Laura Gomez
March 22, 2016
Laura Gomez
A man in Palenque returns on horseback from gathering plantain stalks in the forest surrounding Palenque.
Laura Gomez
Children play in the town of Palenque, where locals speak their native language of Palenquero, which underwent an unprecedented revival in the 1980s and 90s.
Laura Gomez
A man in Palenque returns from the “monte” (woods) with plantain stalks.
Laura Gomez
Electricity didn’t reach this town until 1974, when native boxer Kid Pambele won his first Welterweight championship title and brought notoriety to Palenque’s poor conditions.
Laura Gomez
A statute of native boxer Kid Pambele, two-time Welterweight champion who brought notoriety to Palenque’s poor conditions.

SAN BASILIO DE PALENQUE, Colombia -- By the late 1970’s, two things were clear in Palenque: youth had abandoned their language of Palenquero, and adults believed speaking it was a sign of backwardness.

It seemed as if Palenque was content with burying its language. But a handful of young community leaders in their 20's disagreed.

Through gatherings with elders, they convinced the older generation that it was important to speak Palenquero.

"Que los ignorantes eran los otros, eran esos cartageneros que se burlaban, esos barranquilleros que se burlaban," says Sebastian Salgado, a community leader and high school teacher of Palenquero.

Salgado says he told the elders that it was the people from the cities, not them, who were the ignorant ones.

By the end of the 1980’s, he says a local consensus was achieved: speaking Palenquero shouldn’t be a source of embarrassment, but of pride.

Maria de los Santos, who is now 41, helped drive this change.

"La lengua es la base de la cultura palenquera, la lengua es como la arteria principal para transmitir la toda cultura y todos los valores de la comunidad," she says: The language, also known simply as “lengua,” is the foundation of Palenquero culture, it is the main avenue that transmits community values and tradition.

The grassroots movement to preserve Palenquero took to the schools. Two Palenquera teachers began to teach the native language without permission from the principal or education officials.

Soon, more teachers started to teach Palenquero. Eventually, government authorities relented.

To this day, de los Santos teaches lengua Palenquera to kids from preschool to third grade. She says now children take pride in speaking Palenquero.

Children like Carliris Cassiani Cassiani, who’s 9 years old. Sitting in the backyard of her home, she happily recites a poem about cumbia entirely in Palenquero.

Inside the house, her mom is all ears. Forty years ago, Carliris probably would’ve been scolded for speaking “lengua.”

Her little brother, Karl, who’s 4, already sings in Palenquero while playing the llamador drum. Using his tiny hands to play the drum half his size, Karl sings about Palenque’s founder, Benkos Biohó.

Biohó was a slave leader who organized the escape of hundreds of other African slaves and led them to safe settlements. Palenque is the only settlement he founded that is still standing.

Music has played a pivotal role in reviving the lengua.

Andris Padilla is an MC and leader of Kombilesa Mi, a local hip hop group that uses traditional acoustic Palenque instruments instead of electronic beats.

"Nosotros creemos que una manera en que la lengua perdure y se conserve, es, no sintiendo pena, mostrándola en todo lugar donde vayamos, muy a pesar que la gente no entienda," he raps: even if people don’t understand Palenquero, it’s important for them to showcase it everywhere they go. By singing in lengua, they are contributing to its preservation.

De los Santos thinks schools could teach more Palenquero. She also says they can better integrate cultural topics in math, science and art classes to further preserve tradition.

Because culture is expressed-- and preserved-- through language.

Read Part 1 of Saving Palenquero here.


This report was produced in collaboration with the Arizona Republic and AZ Central as part of the Transborder Unit: Colombia. During the project, community leaders and journalists-- including Laura Gomez of La Voz and azcentral.com-- traveled across Colombia, gathering stories that tell us more about how we live in the Americas.

Town Hall Event
Members of the project share their observations with a live audience.

When: 6 p.m. Thursday, March 24

Where: Rio Salado Conference Center