The musical group from Tumaco has not only made the public dance to the sound of the marimba, the traditional drums of the Pacific and the fusion with reggae, rap and hip-hop, they also narrate through their lyrics the violence, abandonment and the hopes of their territory.

Currulao is the traditional music of Colombia’s majority-Black, southern Pacific coastal region. In this episode, professor Michael Birenbaum Quintero describes how this performative practice has been used to connect the past to an emerging future as the identification and role of race in Colombia has changed across multiple generations of musicians.

Según sus creadores, ‘Inmarcesible’ es un himno que insta a Colombia de independizarse del racismo y del empobrecimiento de sus comunidades.

If you’ve been reading this site for a little while now you might have gathered that there is something of an ever-widening spotlight shining on the music emerging from of Colombia’s Pacific coast at the moment. The region has of course been home to some of Colombia’s most exciting groups of recent times.

While growing up in the crime-ridden town of Tumaco, cocaine smugglers killed his father and Cortez says he was "tempted" to join a rival gang to avenge the murder. Instead, he was lured into another local industry: currulao.

The name Plu con Pla identifies Tumaqueños a as resilient people. Starting from there, and with the support of the Tumac Foundation, a group of young fans of traditional music and dance created a band that explores the sounds of reggae, salsa and hip hop, through the traditional music of the Colombian Pacific. We spoke with the group’s director, Harold Tenorio.