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 large and stylized float moves down a crowded street during the Carnaval de Barranquilla, celebrated in Colombia's Caribbean city of Barranquilla in Atlántico Department. The float consists of a large boat on a platform decorated to look like water. The head of a man with a large war bonnet resembling an Indigenous Chief has been placed on the ship's bow as decoration. Standing on the boat behind the head is a young woman in costume holding a long spear and saluting and smiling at the crowd. Standing next to her is a young man wearing a sailor's costume. Una carroza grande y estilizada se mueve por una calle concurrida durante el Carnaval de Barranquilla, celebrado en la ciudad caribeña de Barranquilla, ubicada en el departamento de Atlántico. La carroza cuenta con un barco grande sobre una plataforma decorada para aparentar agua. La cabeza grande de un hombre con un penacho de guerra parecido a un jefe indígena fue puesta en la proa del barco como decoración. Parada sobre la carroza detrás de la cabeza se observa a una muchacha en disfraz sosteniendo una lanza larga y saludando y sonriéndole a la multitud. Junto a ella se observa a un muchacho parado vestido con un disfraz de marinero. Scholarly debate on the origins of the floats is currently divided. Some scholars argue that the floats originated in 1821 when carriages decorated with flowers were paraded down the street in celebration of Colombia's independence from Spain. Other scholars argue that the floats originated in 1903 where they were constructed and also decorated with flowers and paraded on the street in celebration of the end of the One Thousand Days War, which raged from 1899-1902, and to recover the tradition of the carnival that was lost as a result of the conflict. The use of flowers, while a European tradition, is a distinctly Colombian tradition as well since the country's vast flora encouraged Colombians to use flowers for decorative purposes. Barranquilla was founded as a city and port in 1627 by the Spanish crown, and it is located on the western side of the Magdalena River in Atlántico Department along the Caribbean Sea coast. Since the 1930s, Barranquilla has served as the entry point for the thousands of immigrants who over time were added to the already existing Colombian human diversity, making Barranquilla in the most important port in Colombia and its most important economic center, having been designated in 1993 as a special industrial and port center. Barranquilla hosts the Carnaval de Barranquilla, Colombia’s most important cultural celebration and the second largest carnaval after Brazil’s Río de Janeiro Carnaval. The Carnaval de Barranquilla traces its origins to the 19th century but took on its modern form in 1903 from which it has evolved from a local cultural celebration into a spectacle of international fame that challenges the norms of Colombia’s society turnings its intimate social spaces and situation into something public and tolerated. The music, costumes, dances, colors and joy is the result of three centuries of resistance, conflict and domination where Indigenous, native to the Americas, European, and African cultures were fused into a unique one. Celebrated annually in that Caribbean city, the Carnaval de Barranquilla was declared Cultural Heritage of Colombia in 2001 by the Congress of the Republic. Following this, UNESCO declared it in 2003 a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Richard Cross took this photograph during his stay in Colombia as a volunteer for Peace Corps between 1977-1978. During this time, he worked with Colombian anthropologist Nina S. de Friedemann in an anthropological study of the community of San Basilio de Palenque, descendants of the Africans who escaped Spanish slavery and formed the first community of freed Africans in the Americas. While collecting field information, researchers examined the different manifestations of the carnival in different places throughout the Caribbean region. During this, it was discovered that Palenqueros organized themselves into comparsas (dance troupes) that participated in annual festivities in Cartagena and Barranquilla. Through these Palenque-based comparsas, researchers observed the vestiges of the cabildo, refuge of their beliefs, artifacts, languages, customs and African rituals, and of the cuagros, the basic unit of social organization in Palenque de San Basilio.
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