Skip to Content

Sponsors

No results

Keywords

No results

Types

No results

Search Results

Events

No results
Search events using: keywords, sponsors, locations or event type
When / Where
All occurrences of this event have passed.
This listing is displayed for historical purposes.

Presented By:

"From Live Speech to Cultural Memory: Language and Oral Literature of San Basilio de Palenque (Colombia)"

Yves Moñino and Graciela Maglia

Maglia-Monino Event Poster Maglia-Monino Event Poster
Maglia-Monino Event Poster
For more information, or to arrange a meeting with Dr. Maglia and/or Dr. Moñino, please contact Teresa Satterfield at tsatter@umich.edu.

San Basilio de Palenque is a Colombian village of 4000 inhabitants who are Maroons descendants. Although, their African roots are almost exclusively Congolese, their culture, their creole language and their “oraliture” (that is oral literature) are a creolized combination of Spanish, African heritages, and local elements. During the last three centuries the Palenqueros have developed a unique Caribbean society.

Since the “discovery” of San Basilio de Palenque in the 1950’s by Aquiles Escalante, scientific research has advanced on the classification of the Palenquero Creole as a language instead of a Spanish dialect. This process helped the Palenqueros, during much time sunk into the self-imposed shame of speaking a “bad Spanish”, to self value their linguistic and cultural riches. In 2005, UNESCO declared the community “Masterpiece of Oral and Immaterial Heritage”, this fact reverted its prior history of cultural and linguistic discrimination.

After a presentation of the village and its material and spiritual activities, we will give examples of genres of Palenquero oraliture in conversation, poetry and tales, as well as a sample of our socio-semiotic and cultural analysis to show how a cultural collective memory is built in live dialog. Our presentation will be based on the collaborative research, we undertook on the oral productions of Palenque: Kondalo pa bibí mejó. Contarlo para vivir mejor. Oratura y oralitura de San Basilio de Palenque (Colombia). Bogotá, Editorial Javeriana / ICC, 2015).


San Basilio de Palenque es un pueblo de 4000 residentes descendientes de cimarrones que ha desarrollado en los tres últimos siglos una sociedad original. Sus raíces africanas son casi exclusivamente congolesas, pero su cultura, su lengua criolla y su oralitura son un producto criollizado con herencias hispanas, congolesas e innovaciones propias que hacen de Palenque una comunidad antes que todo caribeña.

Desde el “descubrimiento” de San Basilio de Palenque en los años 1950 por Escalante, la investigación científica ha realizado muchos avances, como la categorización del palenquero como lengua y no como dialecto del español, y ayudó a los palenqueros, mucho tiempo sumidos en la “vergüenza impuesta”, a autovalorar su riqueza lingüística y cultural. La comunidad fue proclamada “Obra Maestra del Patrimonio Oral e Inmaterial de la Humanidad” por la UNESCO en el 2005, hecho que revierte su historia previa de discriminación.

Después de una presentación del pueblo, de sus orígenes congoleses confirmadas por la genética y de sus actividades materiales y espirituales, daremos ejemplos de géneros de oralitura palenquera tales como conversación, poesía y cuentos, y presentaremos una muestra de nuestro análisis sociosemiótico y cultural, para mostrar cómo se construye una memoria cultural colectiva a partir del diálogo en vivo. Nos basamos en una antología de las producciones orales de Palenque, elaborada en común : Kondalo pa bibí mejó. Contarlo para vivir mejor. Oratura y oralitura de San Basilio de Palenque (Colombia). Bogotá, Editorial Javeriana / ICC, 2015).


Sponsored by Romance Languages and Literatures and co-sponsored by:

University of Michigan: King-Chávez-Parks Visiting Professors Program, Office of the Vice Provost, Romance Languages & Literatures, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Department of Afro-American and African Studies, Linguistics Department, Theatre & Drama Department, Department of Anthropology, Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery.
Eastern Michigan University, Department of World Languages
University of Alabama-Birmingham, Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
Maglia-Monino Event Poster Maglia-Monino Event Poster
Maglia-Monino Event Poster

Explore Similar Events

  •  Loading Similar Events...

Back to Main Content