Why is vallenato on UNESCO's urgent safeguarding list?

Vallenato: sung news in need of safeguarding

The first vallenatos were news: musicians went from village to village singing what had happened. Gabriel García Márquez, who grew up in vallenato country, used to say that "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was a four-hundred-page vallenato.

In 2015 UNESCO placed traditional vallenato of the Greater Magdalena region on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The listing describes a music that fuses herding songs, the chants of enslaved Africans and the dance rhythms of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with Spanish poetry, in four rhythmic patterns called airs, played at festivals and at parrandas, informal gatherings of friends and family. The threats it names: the armed conflict fed by drug trafficking, a new wave of vallenato pushing the traditional kind aside, and the loss of street spaces for parrandas.

• The first vallenatos were sung news carried from village to village.
• Gabriel García Márquez used to say that "Cien años de soledad" was a four-hundred-page vallenato.
• Traditional vallenato fuses herding songs, chants of enslaved Africans and the dance rhythms of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with Spanish poetry; it has four rhythmic patterns, called airs, and is played at festivals and at parrandas.
• UNESCO inscribed "Traditional Vallenato music of the Greater Magdalena region" on the Urgent Safeguarding List in 2015, citing the armed conflict, a new wave of vallenato marginalising the traditional music, and the decline of street spaces for parrandas.
• Every April Valledupar holds the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, where the best accordion player is chosen.

Los primeros vallenatos eran noticias cantadas: los músicos iban de pueblo en pueblo contando lo que pasaba.

The first vallenatos were sung news: the musicians went from village to village telling what was happening.

Gabriel García Márquez decía que "Cien años de soledad" era un vallenato de cuatrocientas páginas.

Gabriel García Márquez used to say that "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was a four-hundred-page vallenato.

Cada abril, Valledupar celebra el Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, donde se elige al mejor acordeonero.

Every April, Valledupar holds the Festival of the Vallenato Legend, where the best accordion player is chosen.