Colombian Carnival Comparsas (Barranquilla)

Barranquilla's carnival took formal shape in the late nineteenth century: the Lectura del Bando that opens the season dates to 1865, and the Congo, one of its oldest danzas, was structured as an organized dance in 1876. The Batalla de Flores, still the marquee parade, was organized in 1903 by General Heriberto Vengoechea to celebrate the end of the Thousand Days' War. Later danzas kept being added, like the Monocucos around 1965, and UNESCO proclaimed the whole carnival a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003. The named groups, not a promoter, are what carried the tradition across those decades.

You turn up to a barrio rehearsal, usually a warm night on someone's patio with a drum already going, and nobody expects you to know the steps. Someone hands you the basic footwork, tells you which character you would dance (a Congo, a Marimonda, a woman in the cumbiamba circle), and puts you in the back row until your feet catch the chandé. The costume comes later and often gets sewn or lent to you by the group, because the point is that you keep showing up until the group is yours too.