B1Chapter 1 of 435 minFocus · Pluscuamperfecto vs. indefinido

The Dance Where Life Always Wins

By the time she was six she had already seen five carnivals, but she had no idea where her favourite dance came from. The story of the Danza del Garabato, and of the time the Caporal beat Death.

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Cuando cumplí seis años, ya había visto cinco carnavales desde el de la Vía 40, la Calle 84 o cualquier otra esquina dispuesta a celebrar una de las fiestas más hermosas de mi país. Para ese entonces, ya había admirado el paso extravagante de las María Moñito, la de las s, el rigor de los congos, la fuerza del y, mi favorita entre todas, la .

Lo que no sabía a esa edad era de dónde venía.

La Danza del Garabato nació hace más de un siglo en las s del Caribe colombiano. Los campesinos, que habían trabajado s enteras bajo el sol, inventaron un baile para burlarse del dolor y de la muerte.

Su arma fue el garabato: el mismo palo de madera con el que cortaban la .

La estructura del baile es clara. El Caporal representa la vida, el liderazgo y la alegría del pueblo. La Muerte es la figura oscura que viene a apagar la fiesta.

Cuenta la leyenda que en un Carnaval antiguo la Muerte apareció de repente en medio del .

En los días anteriores ya había recorrido los s vecinos y había dejado a su paso silencio y enfermedad. Por eso, cuando entró a la calle principal, la multitud se quedó muda.

Pero el Caporal de la no se asustó. Él ya había anticipado la amenaza.

Durante meses los músicos habían ensayado el y las mujeres habían bordado las capas con s y s, para proteger espiritualmente a la comunidad, porque aquí a la desgracia se le contesta con música y con brillo.

La Muerte alzó la y atacó. Intentó lo muchas veces para llevárselo al más allá, pero el Caporal esquivó cada golpe con saltos y vueltas de capa.

Entre más insistía la Muerte, más fuerte retumbaban los tambores.

Al final la Muerte tropezó y cayó de rodillas. El Caporal la desarmó con su garabato y la obligó a huir, derrotada, entre el de la gente.

Por eso el Garabato no es solo un baile. Es la del caribeño que se le ríe a la muerte en la cara.

A los seis años yo no sabía nada de eso. Solo veía un baile lleno de vida y colores en el que, cuando la Muerte se caía, todo el mundo celebraba y aplaudía.

English

By the time I turned six, I had already seen five carnivals from the sidewalk of Vía 40, from Calle 84, or from any other corner willing to throw itself into one of the most beautiful festivals in my country. By then I had already admired the extravagant strut of the María Moñito, the mockery of the marimondas, the discipline of the congos, the force of the mapalé, and my favorite of them all, the Danza del Garabato.

What I didn’t know at that age was where it came from.

The Danza del Garabato was born more than a century ago on the estates of the Colombian Caribbean. The farmhands, who had worked whole days under the sun, invented a dance to mock pain and death.

Their weapon was the garabato: the same wooden stick they used to cut back the undergrowth.

The structure of the dance is clear. The Caporal stands for life, for leadership, for the joy of the people. Death is the dark figure who comes to put the party out.

The legend says that at an old carnival Death appeared suddenly in the middle of the parade.

In the days before, she had already passed through the neighboring hamlets and had left silence and sickness behind her. So when she stepped into the main street, the crowd fell silent.

But the Caporal of the troupe wasn’t frightened. He had already seen the threat coming.

For months the musicians had rehearsed the chandé and the women had embroidered the capes with lace and sequins, to protect the community in spirit, because here we answer misfortune with music and with shine.

Death raised her scythe and attacked. She tried again and again to hook him and drag him to the other side, but the Caporal dodged every blow with leaps and turns of his cape.

The harder Death pushed, the louder the drums rolled.

In the end Death stumbled and fell to her knees. The Caporal disarmed her with his garabato and forced her to flee, beaten, through the cheering of the crowd.

That is why the Garabato is not just a dance. It is the Caribbean stubbornness that laughs in death’s face.

At six years old I knew none of this. All I saw was a dance full of life and color where, when Death fell, everybody cheered and clapped.

Vocabulary in this chapter

bordar: To embroider: to make patterns on fabric with needle and thread.
la burla: Mockery — making fun of someone to make them look ridiculous.
caserío: A small cluster of houses in the countryside, smaller than a village.
el desfile: A parade: people moving down the street for everyone to see.
encaje: Lace — fine openwork fabric sewn onto clothing as decoration.
enganchar: To hook something so it cannot get away.
ensayar: To rehearse: to repeat something many times before showing it in public.
esquivar: To dodge: to move fast so a blow does not reach you.
la guadaña: A scythe: a long handle with a curved blade, for cutting grass.Death's classic weapon in European and Latin American imagery.
hacienda: A large country estate with crops and people working on it.In the Colombian Caribbean, the great nineteenth-century farming estates.
jornada: A full working day, from morning until night.
el júbilo: Loud, enormous joy shared by a crowd.
lentejuela: A sequin: a small shiny disc sewn onto fabric.
la maleza: Weeds and undergrowth that grow on their own and have to be cut back.
quedarse mudo: To fall silent all at once, unable to say a word.
retumbar: To boom so loudly that you feel it in your chest.
la terquedad: Stubbornness: keeping at something even when everything is against you.
tropezar: To trip: to catch your foot on something and lose your balance.

Tap an underlined word to see what it means.

How we say it on the Colombian coast

andén: The part of the street where people walk — the pavement. Spain says la acera; Argentina says la vereda. In Colombia it is always el andén.
Danza del Garabato: One of the emblematic dances of the Barranquilla Carnival. A garabato is the hook-ended wooden stick used to cut back undergrowth. In the dance it becomes the Caporal's weapon against Death.
marimonda: A carnival character with a mask of long ears and a hanging trunk. It began as a joke at the expense of Barranquilla's upper class. It exists in no other carnival.
mapalé: A fast, heavily percussive dance of Afro-Colombian origin. It is danced all along the Caribbean coast, not only at carnival.
chandé: A Caribbean rhythm played on drums and wind instruments. It is the rhythm that carries the Garabato through the parade.
comparsa: A troupe that dances together in the parade. The word exists in Spain too, but here it means an organised group that rehearses for months.

Kath's note

When I wrote this story I was not thinking about grammar. I was thinking about the order in which memories arrive.

What happened that afternoon is in the indefinido: apareció, entró, alzó, atacó, tropezó, cayó. Dry blows, one after another, and not one of them comes back.

But none of it makes sense without what was already there beforehand. The months of rehearsal, the embroidered capes, Death moving through the neighbouring hamlets. All of that happened first, even though I tell you about it afterwards: había recorrido, habían ensayado, habían bordado.

The pluscuamperfecto is not a difficult tense. It is how Spanish says «this was already going on before». When you use it, ask yourself one question: from which moment am I looking back?

Time to practise!

Comprehension

Why did the farmhands invent the Danza del Garabato?

To mock pain and death after working whole days under the sun. Their weapon was the same stick they used to cut back the undergrowth.

What do the Caporal and Death stand for inside the dance?

The Caporal stands for life, leadership and the joy of the people. Death is the dark figure who comes to put the party out.

What is the difference between what the narrator saw at six and what she knows now?

At six she only saw colour and joy. Today she knows where it comes from and understands that it is a way of laughing at death.

Pluscuamperfecto vs. indefinido

Choose the form that fits.

Cuando seis años, ya había visto cinco carnavales.
Para ese entonces, ya el paso de las María Moñito.
Los campesinos, que jornadas enteras bajo el sol, inventaron un baile.
Cuando la Muerte a la calle principal, la multitud se quedó muda.
El Caporal no se asustó: él ya la amenaza.

Write

Write about 120 words about a celebration you arrived at that did not turn out the way you expected. Use the indefinido for what happened that day, one moment after another. And use the pluscuamperfecto for everything that was already in place beforehand: what you had imagined, what others had prepared, what had already changed without your knowing.

What you write here stays in your browser: it is not saved, not sent anywhere, and it disappears when you close the page. Copy your text before you leave if you want to keep it.

0 words

Check your own text

Is there one main moment in your text, and is it told in the indefinido?
YesNo
Did you use the pluscuamperfecto only for what happened BEFORE that moment?
YesNo
Does the word «ya» appear next to any pluscuamperfecto? It usually helps the reader put the events in order.
YesNo
If you deleted the pluscuamperfectos, would your story still make sense? If it would, perhaps you did not need them.
YesNo

If you want someone to actually read it, sentence by sentence, written corrections are included in the package Tu historia con Kath.

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Songs to practise these tenses

One track per tense. Listen with the lyrics in front of you.

indefinido

La Rebelión (No le pegue a la negra)

Joe Arroyo

The same idea as the Garabato: oppression turned into music. Follow the verbs that carry the story — mandó, vivió, pegó, se rebeló.

pluscuamperfecto

Mi Bendición

Juan Luis Guerra

«Dijo que no había visto un sol radiante más bello» — the pluscuamperfecto comes back twice in the chorus.