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Image / Wedding day, San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, 1977

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Title
Wedding day, San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, 1977
Creator
Cross, Richard, 1950-1983
Date Created and/or Issued
1977
Publication Information
California State University, Northridge
Contributing Institution
California State University, Northridge
Collection
Richard Cross Photographs (Bradley Center)
Rights Information
Use of images from the collections of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center is strictly prohibited by law without prior written consent from the copyright holders. The responsibility for the use of these materials rests exclusively with the user.
The Bradley Center may assist in obtaining copyright/licensing permission to use images from the Richard Cross collection. http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center/contact
Description
A bride and groom among wedding guests standing around a table on their wedding day in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia. Before them on the table there is a small wedding cake and a bottle. From a very early age, children of the same age group, both male and female, stay and play together in a group (or cuagro), and name female and male leaders. Later, it is traditional that people will marry a person of the same cuagro. After the wedding, each group headed by the newlyweds makes a pilgrimage through the homes of relatives, first to the house of the parents of the bride; then to those of the groom, grandparents, and uncles. San Basilio de Palenque, located 31 miles from Cartagena, is considered the first community to officially free enslaved people in the Americas. On August 23, 1691, the Spanish King Charles II signed a royal charter recognizing the freedom communities in the María Mountains. Local authorities, however, did not sign a treaty with the communities of free slaves until January of 1714 acknowledging their freedom and ordering the establishment of the town of Palenque San Basilio Magno. People in San Basilio de Palenque speak a Spanish-based creole language known as Palenquero. According to local public records, in 1975 the village had 2,400 residents (mostly farmers or day laborers) and 388 houses. Colombian anthropologist Nina S. de Friedemann had been studying the Afro-Colombian community of San Basilio de Palenque since 1973 for the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and Richard Cross joined her team as a visual anthropologist in June 1975. This image illustrates Cross’ anthropological category: Social organization.
Los novios entre los invitados están parados alrededor de una mesa en el día de su boda en San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia. Sobre la mesa se observa un pastel pequeño y una botella. Desde una edad muy temprana, los niños del mismo grupo de edad, tanto hombres como mujeres, se quedan y juegan juntos en un grupo (o cuagro), y nombran líderes femeninos y masculinos. Más tarde, es tradicional que la gente se case con una persona del mismo cuagro. Después de la boda, cada grupo encabezado por los recién casados
Type
image
Format
Photographs
image/jpeg
black-and-white negatives
Extent
35 mm
Identifier
99.01.RCr.N35.B5.110.15
http://digital-collections.csun.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p17169coll1/id/10607
Subject
Brides
Bridegrooms
Marriage customs and rites
Place
San Basilio del Palenque (Colombia)
Relation
99.01.RCr.N35.B5.110.15.tif
Richard Cross Photographs
California State University Northridge. University Library. Special Collections & Archives. Tom & Ethel Bradley Center

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