Fan of Breezes (Abanico de brisas) - Cúcuta's unofficial anthem

Cúcuta, my home town, originally a pre-Hispanic settlement, was founded by Mrs Juana Rangel de Cuellar on June 17, 1733. Mrs Juana donated the original 1,930 acres of land, where the church became the epicentre of a village that grew incredibly fast due to its strategic commercial location between Colombia and Venezuela. Tonight, on the 278^th anniversary of the foundation of the now City of San José de Cúcuta, I would like to share with you the lyrics of a song that my father composed and that became the city’s unofficial anthem.

From my Dad’s book Elementary motherland (Patria elemental).

Fan of Breezes (Abanico de brisas) - Cúcuta's unofficial anthem

The musical piece invades the festive evening.

Under the moonlight, on the courtyards of

the Cazadores Country Club,

the old and the newest generations are dancing.

The musical composition of Manuel Alvarado

conjugates the rhythmic demands of the modern times

and the lyrics facilitate the evocations,

in an atmosphere of melancholic ecstasy.

The verses possess the typical architecture

of a song but each word is the beginning

of a story or of an event of

yesterday or today, told by the grandfather,

or wanders around hidden in the books

that the noble ancestors wrote.

The melodic contribution arches that parade

of memories and the things that were and that

do not exist anymore or those that survive:

such as the river, now silent, which Elías and Irwin

knew when it was sonorous, like they testify it

in their immortal bambuco*.

The lyrics go like this:

                Among a forest

                of almond trees

                Cúcuta, creation of a woman

                engineered as a grid

                that fades away

                with dusk…

                Your sun has

                summer colours

                your river looks like a thread of silver

                and of silence.

                Under the lightning

                Tasajero** watches over

                your nights adorned

                with moon and stars.

                Cúcuta, Mediterranean,

                guard of the border

                fan of breeze

                with rhythm of song,

                is my beloved land

                where love walks along

                the streets

                dazzling as its sky

                burning as its sun.

Glossary:

* Bambuco is a traditional Colombian dance.

** Tasajero is the tallest hill in Cúcuta.