Caracas: A city at age 452

ylich (67)in #life • 5 years ago (edited)

Today is the birthday of the city that saw me born. July 25, 1567 indicates its birth certificate as the date of foundation. Of course, these are things that have a lot of formalism, because where the “official” foundation was made that day, settlements of Spanish colonizers had already been established earlier. But it was also that land where the brave Caracas Indians lived.

It was an area of bloody fighting between the conquerors and the natives who soon joined forces, under the command of Guaicaipuro and that gave no small fight to European newcomers.

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It was in this same land that emancipatory projects began to emerge and it was here that the main precursors of Venezuelan independence came to life, such as Francisco de Miranda and the unmatched Simón Bolívar, who celebrated his birth just one day before the city (July 24, 1783).

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Square

In the center of the image above, the distribution of the city is seen as it was in 1578, that is, just 11 years after its foundation. What appears there indicated as "Plaza" is what was called during almost all its existence, the Plaza Mayor (Main square), according to the Spanish tradition and today remains the political center of the city.

12 years after the death of Bolívar, in Colombian lands, his remains were brought to Caracas in 1842 and his name was formally assigned to the square, for that occasion, but it was not until 1874 that a complete remodeling of the square, where they took out the vendors - because the main activity in this place was the market - they built the elements that still make it up today and raised the equestrian statue of Bolívar, the work of the Italian sculptor Adamo Tadolini, which is a replica of the equestrian statue erected in Lima, Peru.

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A curious detail regarding the statue is that under it the first time capsule of which there is registration in our country was kept and there are coins, versions of the constitution, the decree of reconstruction of the square and number of documents and objects of exceptional historical value.

For me there is no more incredible feeling than walking through that area, which is still the historic center of the city and many buildings from ancient times are preserved, because just imagine that in the same place that I am treading, they also stepped on Bolivar, Miranda , Gual and España, and so many other heroes; that there were scenes there that changed the history of an entire country.

As the Mayor's Office of Caracas has promoted a cultural program that includes theatrical performance in those same spaces, it is incredible to walk around there and suddenly meet a group of “patriots” who go out to call for independence, or meet a Juan Vicente Gómez supervising the behavior of the citizens, what it does is reaffirm in me that feeling of "living historical center".

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The French

One of the important changes that Caracas suffered was due to a president who, although he was from Caracas, felt identified with the French culture and tradition. Antonio Guzmán Blanco can be considered the modernizer of the city, but with a strong tendency towards the French and the cultural and architectural elements of the France of those times.
At that time arise the Capitol, the National Pantheon, El Calvario Park and other infrastructure that became the facade of the capital of the country.

From rural town to metropolis

But in all that time Caracas was still a village, with stone streets, donkeys as a means of transportation and the raising of chickens and pigs was regular activity. It's with the arrival of the twentieth century and the nascent oil exploitation that the true transformation of the city begins, it is the moment where the most characteristic features of the city culture begin to be born and where the identity of Caracas is formed. These are times of zarzuelas and operettas, of sainete and the birth of cañonera music, of explosive growth, of national and foreign immigrants, of cultural syncretisms, of fusion and modernization.

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The arrival of the transnationals leaved a mark, not only economically, but very deeply in the cultural and the language was filled with a lot of totally Creole expressions, but with origins in English words, such as "throw Pichón (push- on) to something... ”, which means putting effort; walk “espitao (speed out)” that is, hurry, and an infinity more.

In summary

Caracas has always been something special for me and it still is. There is a saying that "all past time was better" and that always leads us to see the worst of the moment we live. I refuse that and I still love my city.

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Perhaps this writing should have been thought and elaborated with calm and planning, but these days I have been very busy programming and had no plans to make any posts, but thanks to the gloss published by the poet @lecumberre this morning about a song I wrote to our city and which is entitled "This is Caracas" (here I leave the link to his gloss [spanish only]), I felt the need to talk about my city and that desire became this freewwrite.

As an additional element I will leave the lyrics of my song mentioned above, which we recorded with Los Cañoneros and the special featuring of several of the most prominent Venezuelan artists, and several videos of songs dedicated to this controversial but beloved city: Caracas.

I have nothing left to say:

Caracas, happy birthday 452!

Esta es Caracas

The majestic Avila
Goes around the horizon
With its range of colors
Is framing us the norht
The lung of my Caracas
Healthiest recreation
The canvas of each day
It's my Waraira Repano

This is Caracas
Monumental
Cradle of heroes and feats
A story like no other
This is Caracas
Controversial
Party loevr, flattering
Happy as well
Is the capital

Contrast of modernism
In a colonial city
Conjugation of the times
Lives in the capital
Guzman Blanco frenched
Left us his corollary
The Capitol, the Pantheon
And the beautiful park El Calvario

This is Caracas...

100-year injustice
Was forging at the time
Poor neighborhoods than at night
They look like a Christmas manger
Caracas is tradition
Blends that time wove
It's food, it's sainete
It is cañonera music

This is Caracas...

It was the great Plaza Mayor
Faithful Witness of History
Footprints of all time
They are stored in your memory
Thousand events space
That marked the nation
And today as Plaza Bolívar
Worship Don Simon

Although my place is no longer
More the branch of heaven
It is home of my hope
Shelter of my desires
This is my dear city
From my dreams the owner
And I will always be proud
What a joy to be from Caracas!