In this excerpt, Chavarría talks about the importance of the Congo tradition and Congo dance to the community’s sense of pride and self. He urges young people to maintain the power of their traditions and to stay anchored to their sense of “place” and home.
In this excerpt, Chavarría shares childhood memories about how the Congo tradition was enacted before “the road.” In the “closed” community people did not work during carnival season, pooled resources, shared food, and communed together for several days as part of their celebration.
In this excerpt, Chavarría responds to the question, “One hundred years in the future when scholars are studying the Congo tradition in Portobelo, what are the most important things that they should know?”
In this excerpt, Ileana discusses her participation with “Los Trashumantes,” the only theater group in Panama that was paid to do community theater and the Omjar Torrijos’ support for artistic culture.
In this excerpt, Chavarría discusses the way in which hierarchies of Congo Devils greet one another, how they are baptized within the tradition, and the importance of crossing one’s feet and “dancing” in the devil way.
In this excerpt, Chavarría talks about the importance, for him, of playing the Devil character from “emotion” and his decision to break away from a particular ritual that marked his mentor’s embodiment of Major Devil.
In this excerpt, Chavarría discusses the process by which he became Major Devil in the Congo tradition of Portobelo, Panama.