![Click to view slideshow Click to view slideshow](/images/2011/colombia/participants/ah_pueblo_slideshow_09.jpg)
![El Pueblo Canta toca en el escenario Al Son Que Me Toquen. Foto de Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/2011/colombia/participants/ah_pueblo_slideshow_09.jpg)
![El Pueblo Canta performs on the Al Son Que Me Toquen stage. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_02.jpg)
![Eduardo Vega Guerrero plays guitar with El Pueblo Canta. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_01.jpg)
![Danny Leonel Suesca Niño plays the traditional Andean rhythms on his guitar. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_03.jpg)
![Giovanni Suárez Torres plays the guacharaca, a small percussion instrument during El Pueblo Canta’s performance. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_04.jpg)
![Edixon Julian Suesca Niño plays a small percussion instrument that he made. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_05.jpg)
![Julio Álvaro Suesca Acuña composes many of the songs for the El Pueblo Canta ensemble. Photo by Samantha Hawkins, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_06.jpg)
![Julio Álvaro Suesca Acuña is the lead Singer for El Pueblo Canta. Photo by Payn, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_07.jpg)
![Members of El Pueblo Canta sing during a performance on the El Rumbiadero stage. Photo by Payn, Smithsonian Institution](/images/galleries/2011/el-pueblo-canta/images/ah_pueblo_slideshow_08.jpg)
El Pueblo Canta performs highland carranguera dance music. They also play other traditional Andean Highland genres including carrangas, guabinas, torbellinos, and bambucos. Their songs are full of regional poetry, proverbs, rhymes, and anecdotes about rural Andean life. Álvaro Suesca, a renowned song writer and composer, has directed the group for twenty three years. Members of the group also build traditional percussion instruments such as the quiribillos and la carraca del burro, a donkey rattle. Dancers Laura Díaz and Jorge Alberto Rodríguez have performed with El Pueblo Canta in several national folk festivals. Their repertoire includes torbellino, guabina, rumba criolla, and rumba carranguera. Jorge’s grandmother was known as the queen of torbellino.
"The people sing because they have/ many things to sing about. Long live he who shares his song. And long live the people’s song."
Artists:
- Álvaro Suesca Acuña, director, song writer, composer, musician (requinto), instrument maker
- Laura Jeannette Alba Díaz, dancer
- Jorge Alberto Rodríguez Sanabria, dancer
- Giovanni Suárez Torres, musician (small percussion), instrument maker
- Danny Leonel Suesca Niño, musician (guitar, cane flute)
- Edixon Julián Suesca Niño, musician (small percussion), instrument maker
- Eduardo Vega Guerrero, musician (tiple), instrument maker