On August 15, 1980 there was news in Venezuela, which traveled part of the world and left a deep wound in the culture and life of this South American country, the news of the death of 12 members of the group Madera, who were traveling aboard a "falca” (river ferryboat) type ship, by the river Orinoco, heading to an Amazonian town: San Fernando de Atabapo, starting from the village of Samariapo.

^{Cover of the first album of the group Madera}

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3 years earlier

San Agustín is one of the 32 parishes that make up the city of Caracas today. It was always a place with very interesting characteristics due to the type of population that made it up. Many immigrants from the Valles del Tuy, from the east of the country and, above all, from the area of Barlovento, which is an area of Afro-descendant cultural predominance, seasoned with immigration from Colombia and Trinidad.

Being surrounded by cultural centers, artistic activity became part of the daily routine. Numerous musicians, poets, dancers, artists in general lived in that area.

In 1977 the idea of many young people who for a long time wanted to take advantage of this characteristic to develop a cultural work, which would serve to make a study of this social phenomenon, to target the younger, but especially

"It is a work that emerges from the soul of the people, their feelings and that of a race subdued in times of slavery, but now proud, it's in front of us taking its historical role with its songs, its music, its poetry and everything that allows it a clear expression and a message of solidarity and love. "

They named it "Folkloric and Experimental Group Madera" ("Madera" means wood in Spanish) and immediately focus on research, spread and teaching of all the cultural activities in the neighborhood, where all the inhabitants of the sector are included. In their performances, they combine music, dance, theater and poetry, compilation works and new compositions from the same members of the community and the group.

A non-partisan, but very political proposal, focused on the needs of the neighborhood, not only of the Marín neighborhood, which was the most emblematic of those located in San Agustín, but of the Venezuelan people in general.

Compañeros (Comrades)

The success of a proposal

The work made by the Madera group had immediate acceptance and was quickly projected outside the neighborhood, becoming known throughout the country. Then came the shows, which were made where there was a budget to pay them and where not also, taking their work to all corners of the country. It was a group of mandatory presence in all events of international solidarity and protest struggles. They became the group that accompanied the Venezuelan political singer of all times Ali Primera.

It was already at that stage that I had the opportunity to meet them personally, during their participation in the 4. World Session of the Theater of Nations, in 1978, in which I was one of its coordinators. Which led to an approach, especially with the Quintero brothers, for which "Chu" Quintero came to my house. Thanks to that, the link with the next generation was opened.

The originality of this proposal, as well as its social nature, made many people from all sectors lend their support and help in its development. And it is as well as a custom that there was in San Agustín, to meet to play in the street, always in the same place, it became an obligatory appointment for many Venezuelan musicians and of other parts of the world that also wanted to live that experience.

In 1979 the filmmaker Jacobo Penzo picked up part of that experience in the short film "El afinque de Marín", which became an additional boost to the project.

The short film can be watched on this link (Spanish only).

^{Original members of the group Source}

The Album

Record labels were not interested in them, because they did not respond to the "market parameters" and according to them, no one would buy such an album. However there was a label that dared, "Top Hits", although the group had to make some changes in production. Also this was a success and the song "Compañeros", first single, quickly got into Venezuelan radio programming.

The album was also a reflection of that interculturality of the neighborhood and there were songs of African origin coming from Cuba, from the Antilles, traditional songs from Barlovento's black people, religious and political songs, but also poetry and a fight message that had an extraordinary echo in the population.

Himno Madera (Madera Anthem)

The country

By the end of the 70s a campaign had been unleashed indicating severe problems on the border with Colombia, as well as allegations of exaggerated cultural penetration by that country through the radio; as well as the constant invasion of "Garimpeiros" from Brazil who came to take the gold from our rivers in the border areas, causing enormous damage.

It coincided at that time the denunciation of the existence of the called New Tribes Misssion, which were groups of US citizens who came to "evangelize" our indigenous, changing all their cultural patterns and creating very different settlements from the usual ones. The Embassy of the United States supported these groups, for which the complaint was generated that CIA was behind it, an idea that did not turn out to be so outlandish, because we are talking about the Amazon region, one of the most large reserves of oxygen, water and minerals, in short a guarantee of life on the planet.

A border program

As a measure to counteract these aspects, the State decided to "reinforce" the presence in all borders, both militarily, civilly and culturally. Thus a cultural program was created, through the National Council of Culture, with support from the Ministry of Youth, to bring cultural activities to the most remote populations on the edges of Venezuelan land.

For this project, different cultural groups, music, theater, etc. were invited to participate. The Madera group was invited to be part and a short one-week tour was coordinated by different populations of the Amazon.

The program only met the first performance in the city of Puerto Ayacucho.

Corazón de mi alma (“Heart of my soul”, a love expression)

The final trip

On August 15 in the morning, the group got ready to go to Samariapo, where they would meet with the members of the theater group "El Chichón" to embark on the falca "Esther" that should take them to San Fernando de Atabapo.

At 8 am, the ship sailed with 50 people on board, among the members of Madera, those of the group "El Chichón", other cultural groups, National Guards and the crew. It was raining.

From the moment they left, the passengers noticed that a lot of water was entering through the entrance hatch, as it was not properly closed. But the answer they found was that "that was normal."

Only five minutes away from the departure, still in sight of the port, the situation began to become uncontrollable. They had to start taking the instruments to the upper levels, because in the lower part the water had already reached one meter in height.

There was not a staff to guide the passengers, there were no indications of how to act, there were no lifevests on board. As the bow sank, the ship cracked and marked the end of the voyage, which in 15 minutes became the end of the life of 12 members of the group Madera, one of the theater group "El Chichón" and other 3 more. The members of the group that lost their lives there were: Luis Orta, Ricardo Orta, Jesus "Chú" Quintero, Ricardo Quintero, Nilda Ramos, Tibisay Ramos, Alejandrina Ramos, Lesvy Hernández, Héctor Romero, Alfredo Sanoja, Marcela González and Juan Ramón Castro.

A group of indigenous people of the Yekuana ethnic group that was fishing near the accident site, was the one that managed to save the life of the current survivors.

Canto a Elegguá (Song to Eleggua)

Epilogue

The survivors of that tragic event had to live a second tragedy. When denouncing what they had considered an extreme apathy they found a so strong wall of contention that it led them to think that it was not an accident, but a premeditated murder. Reasons there were: the high interests that were handled in the region, including "Garimpeiros" and "New Tribes". In addition, the political position represented by this group was not liked by many official sectors.

But despite all the efforts, all the allegations were ignored. By the suspension of the investigations, the entire neighborhood launched a protest, which took the highway "Francisco Fajardo", one of the main roads of the city. The answer to appease them were promises which were never fulfilled.

A couple of years ago, several of the survivors of the tragedy again requested the investigation be reopened.

On the socio-cultural level, the survivors, as well as the San Agustín community, with the support of countless people, decided to continue with the project and that is how the "Folkloric and Experimental Group Madera" was reborn.

Canto a mañana (Song to tomorrow)

Tributes

As expected, the tributes to the Madera group have been endless since that fateful day. However there are two songs written in tribute to them that had a special transcendence.

The first one became a kind of hymn. It was written and recorded by the "Singer of the People" Alí Primera and is titled "Tin Marín".

Tin Marín - Alí Primera

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The second was a tribute from the other Venezuelan salsa group, a composition by Mauricio Silva, "Canto al Madera" (Song to Madera) featuring Carlos Daniel Palacios, member of Madera, survivor of the tragedy.

Canto al Madera - Orquesta Anabacoa

Sources (in Spanish only)

• http://www.americasalsa.com/biografias/madera.html
• https://infocifras.org/2015/08/30/el-grupo-madera-mario-valdez/
• https://cronicasdeltanato.wordpress.com/madera-la-tragedia-del-orinoco/
• https://www.cancioneros.com/co/7646/2/el-grupo-madera-todavia-vive-y-sigue-en-venezuela
• http://albaciudad.org/2016/08/armando-carias-tragedia-del-grupo-madera-fue-una-masacre-fria-y-planificada/

*** Where the source is not indicated, these are images made by me.