Colombia: Vallenato

Betto Arcos reports from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC 

Betto Arcos is in Madrid, Spain exploring the rich and diverse world of Flamenco. 

Polish singer Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk is our guide to the lost world of pre-WW2 Yiddish Tango. She explores its origins as it arrived from Argentina in the 1920s, to its then beating heart in Warsaw - and the many famous Jewish composers, who perished during the Holocaust. And w ... Show More

Gavilán lives in New York, but returns to his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, for his grandpa Lolo’s funeral. Once there, he starts to discover that his grandfather, a famously stubborn musician who never wanted to leave the city, developed a fervent passion for Colombian vallenat ... Show More

El acordeón llegó por primera vez a las costas del Caribe colombiano entre el 1869 y1870, son más de 150 años de presencia en el folclor colombiano. Desde 1890 se encuentran referencias de los primeros conjuntos de cumbiamba que se componían de acordeón, caja y guacharaca, y desd ... Show More

About an hour northwest of Madrid, an enormous stone crucifix rises 500 feet out of a rocky mountaintop. It’s so big you can see it from miles away. Beneath the cross, there’s a sprawling Benedictine monastery and a basilica carved out of the mountain. This place is called The Va ... Show More

It’s the 1990s in Popoyán, Colombia. Twenty-year-old Humberto and his two best friends Jairo and Mauricio set off for an adventure in the woods. They think they’re invincible–but they’re no match for what they encounter. Thank you, thank you, Humberto for sharing your story with ... Show More

Dans Historiquement vôtre, Jean-Luc Lemoine dresse le portrait d'une personnalité contemporaine, en lien avec le sujet du jour. Aujourd’hui, c’est au tour de Manuel Valls.  

In 1971, the legendary Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro was held near Valle de Bravo in Mexico. The concert, which was a homegrown response to Woodstock, caused panic within the authoritarian government. Cristian Salazar shares how the revolutionary festival changed native rock ... Show More