Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Aug 15.- This year’s Timbalaye International Rumba Festival highlights the voices of the Congo people brought from Africa and all the cultural wealth left by this ethnicity, the event organizers emphasized today.
From August 25 to 31, the XVII edition of the festival will take place with the Route of the Rumba under the motto There is a Congo, to “feel that vibrant essence that seeks to be transmitted through all the provinces”, expressed Irma Castillo, vice president of Timbalaye.
The ancestral voices of the Congo people in the rumba will be the focus of the festival this year, and it will be dedicated to them, she indicated. For the first time, we have the color green, a tone that represents the energy of this group brought from Africa, Castillo added.
It is a color also associated with life and renewal; it symbolizes the energy and strength of the Congo people, along with the siguaraya, a distinctive feature of Cuban popular culture and our heritage, the specialist emphasized.
For this reason, planting this plant is proposed throughout the country with the goal, first, of being committed to the environment, but also to foster national unity and hope through this collective memory, through our heritage, she emphasized.
The Timbalaye 2025 International Rumba Festival was organized this year with a structure deeply rooted in our ancestors.
The layout is distributed as follows: Following the traces of the legacy, Castillo pointed out, to emphasize this oral tradition; "Ancestral Voices", to identify the songs and legacy of dance, due to the importance of fostering this heritage of our body's movement, which transmits the knowledge that preserves it, she noted.
Living in the neighborhoods, because it is in the community where this knowledge and experience can be witnessed, and in each territory we can experience these expressions of living heritage related to the Congo people, she emphasized.
On August 24th, a pre-festival will be held at the Pabellón Cuba with children's projects and cultural promoters. Meanwhile, on August 25th, the opening ceremony will take place at the Casa de Las Américas with the Timbalaye international colloquium and a keynote lecture on the Congo and Palo Monte culture by ethnologist Miguel Barnet.
Over the following days, the event will tour various Havana neighborhoods and move on to provinces such as Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara, where the development of the festival across Cuba will conclude.
Timbalaye is an international promoter of Cuban culture founded in 1999 by Castillo, María Elena Mora, and Ulises Mora. Its driving force is Rumba, an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a genre that connects the island to the world. (Source: Prensa Latina)
