Qualla: Barlovento, Venezuela https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Barlovento, Venezuela https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela Barlovento, Venezuela: Introduction https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela/ Photo credit Marbe0506, CC BY-SA 3.0. Every June 24, the drums start before dawn. In Curiepe, in Higuerote, in villages scattered across the coastal lowlands east of Caracas, the mina and curbata drums set the pulse for the feast of San Juan - a celebration that has outlasted the objections of colonial bishops and the oppression that brought the drummers' ancestors to these shores in the first place. Barlovento, whose Spanish name means "windward," is a sub-region of Miranda state where the cultures of West Africa and colonial Spain collided centuries ago and produced something neither could have created alone.

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Image: Marbe0506 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/d9be-barlovento-venezuela-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Barlovento, Venezuela: The Cacao and the Cost https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela/ Photo credit Rei2Rey, CC BY-SA 3.0. Between 1576 and 1810, approximately 100,000 African people were forcibly brought to Venezuela through the slave trade. In Barlovento, enslaved people from the Kingdom of Kongo, the Kingdom of Loango, and the Yoruba lands were forced to work on cacao haciendas - roughly 4,000 of ...

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Image: Rei2Rey | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/d9be-barlovento-venezuela-the-cacao-and-the-cost.mp3 0:06 2 full Barlovento, Venezuela: Where Saints Wear African Masks https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela/ Photo credit Wilfredor, CC0. What emerged from centuries of forced coexistence was not simple blending but syncretism - the layering of African spiritual traditions onto Catholic frameworks in ways that kept both alive. Catholic saints came to represent traditional African deities, and the feast of San Juan ...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/d9be-barlovento-venezuela-where-saints-wear-african-masks.mp3 0:06 3 full Barlovento, Venezuela: Mountains to Mangroves https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela/ Photo credit Robustiano Gorgal, CC BY-SA 3.0. The landscape itself is as layered as the culture. Barlovento covers 58 percent of Miranda state, stretching from the mountains of Caucagua to the beaches of Higuerote and Rio Chico. The Barlovento depression, a broad plain formed by river sediment from the Serrania del Interior,...

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Image: Robustiano Gorgal | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/d9be-barlovento-venezuela-mountains-to-mangroves.mp3 0:06 4 full Barlovento, Venezuela: Carved from Wood and Memory https://qualla.com/barlovento-venezuela/ Photo credit Fernando Flores from Caracas, Venezuela, CC BY-SA 2.0. Along the roadsides of Barlovento, artisans sell sculptures and carvings made from balsa wood, local hardwoods, and coconut shells. In Yagura, roadside kiosks display balsa replicas of aircraft and military helicopters. In Gamelotal, sculptor Adam Expedito Lopez carves pylons, po...

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Image: Fernando Flores from Caracas, Venezuela | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/9/b/e/barlovento-venezuela-wp/d9be-barlovento-venezuela-carved-from-wood-and-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full