In this excerpt, Esquina discusses the changes she has seen in the Congo tradition over the course of her lifetime. Specifically, she talks about the role that Pajarito, the Little Bird, once played in the Congo game, and the ways in which the character and the game have shifted. The construction of the road signaled the end of the game as one between neighboring Congo Kingdoms who competed to capture each others’ palacio/palenque. The contemporary game is between the discrete Congo communities and the character of the devil.
In this short excerpt, Esquina talks about the ways in which tourism is reviving aspects of the Congo tradition in Portobelo.
In this excerpt, Esquina discusses the changes she has seen in the Congo tradition over the course of her lifetime. Specifically, she talks about the role that the princess character once played.
In this excerpt, Esquina shares one of her fondest childhood memories, the one and only time that her mother danced in the Congo tradition.
In this excerpt, Esquina discusses the meaning and significance of the Congo tradition to Portobelo.
In this excerpt, Esquina discusses the changes she has seen in the Congo tradition over the course of her lifetime. Specifically, she talks about the ways in which the king’s role has diminished since her father once played it.
In this Excerpt, Esquina discusses the significance of her Congo name “Revellin.”
In this excerpt, Esquina discusses the differences between the costumes of the Congo community of Portobelo and other Congo communities in Panama.
In this excerpt, Esquina recounts watching her father, Vicente Esquina, get dressed as the Congo King and accompanying him to the palenque/palacio to play Congo. Memories of her father’s participation as king mark some of Esquina’s earliest recollections of the tradition.
In this brief excerpt, Esquina discusses occasions on which the community offers presentations of Congo performance locally as well as abroad and her perception of their response to the tradition.
