Ballads, sayings and legends. Myths, usage, games, praying, superstitions, outmoded ones, “La Piedra del Colmenero” (The Beekeeper’s Stone), “La Llorona” (The Crier). The Santander limits with the rest of the country are where the expressions “Su Merced” (Your Worship), “Eh Ave Maria Pues” (Dear Me), “Compae”(Buddy), are not heard, but, “Ay Jue Puerca” (Hey, son of a pig) is heard .

Our memory continues with some folklore samples of the region of San Gil. They are peculiar ones, but they form a common Santandereano patrimony. They are formed by songs, legends, traditions, sayings and typical manifestations of our people’s soul, especially, of our Mochuelano peasant of Macaregua and “yellow foot” roots. First, lets see some stanzas which are heard in the region when the peasants dance animated by “guarapo” (liquor made from sugar cane or pineapple) or superior “aguardiente” (brandy fermented from sugar cane).“ In San Gil they are proud, in Socorro masons, in Charal traitors, in Zapatoca conservatives. Everywhere I acclaim you as my loyal and noble town I boast of being your son you are my ideal home.
Because of your progress and civic mindedness, you are the pearl of Fonce, that in my ‘Sangilentildeism’, I want to see you more beautiful. Because of two hundred thousand great reasons, my San Gil exhibits noble blazons. From the tower in the mountain, the clocks tells one,San Gil, Castilian City, as beautiful as none.I met Dontildea Isabel, Queen of Leon and Castilla, as suave as ivory, daybreak as the sisal of San Gil. I also saw King Fernando with his justice rod, and here cruelty and greed are betraying him.
In Rionegro, San Gil and Giron they hoarded piles of gold the lord and the custom official took all of it away. Oh! San Gil of my loves, my land of noble homes, I offer you flowers, memories and songs. On the Fonce’s bank I will make my home, to listen to your bells of bronze. My girl left for a walk to Vega, Vergel, Egidos or Rodeo looking for pleasure. With bronze colored waters, the two rivers pass twisting, Mogotes on the east and Fonce on the south. To cure some ill of regret or sadness, there is a remedy, to go to the Gallineral. The Gallineral is heaven, or better said, paradise. God is in its waters and its mosses. He who made them. Under your beautiful mosses and lavish curtains, apparently, things are forgotten apparently, our evils disappear. They caught us, again, in San Gil jail and the smallest one would say:Now, they really damned us”.
I extract a popular, amusing Sangilentildea legend, entitled “El colmenero” of the writer Juan de Dios Arias. (102) “Once upon a time, there lived a very honorable and Christian family of the low class of society. It had among its members, a ravenous, rebellious and mischievous lounger, who enjoyed wandering around the elds and brooks looking for beehives to take honey and wax from the bees. His parents’ admonitions, advice and punishments to stop wandering and start working to help with their very scarce resources to make a living, were of no avail. The advice of the Parish Reverend did not help matters either, to make him take the road that all the youngsters of his age did. During Holy Week, on Holy Friday, when the cruel sacrice of the Divine Redeemer is commemorated and all the Christians attend the temple regardless of their sex, age or social condition, our ravenous one was looking for a beehive on a steep hill located several kilometers from the city of San Gil. There was a beehive located deep inside a cleft, high on the vertical part of the serrania, parallel to the Fonce River. He was able to reach it, helped by Satan, according to the peasants, at the same hour the population had started the divine services.
When he started his deed, the bees attacked him with such a fury that his means of defense and protection became useless and he was bitten with tearing stings. He decided to flee, but upon trying, he became stuck on the rock. His crying for help got lost in the night, frightening the peasants. And, if some curious imprudent got close to the site, stones fell which forced him to leave unless he risked injury. There, continues to be stuck the unfortunate lad, showing his back to everybody who passes by, for centuries to come. There are people who assert that they had stones thrown at them when they got close to the place. The Beekeeper Cave can be seen from the city at the right bank of the river where the miserable boy’s back is shown. A white stone incrusted in the cleft simulates perfectly the back of a boy from the shoulders to the waist. By optical phenomena or suggestion, a person can see it move. Such is the tradition of the San Gil Beekeeper”. Another tradition passed from generation to generation from the Guanes is the “Manca Rita”, among us, or, “The Crier”, in other places. In Venezuela it is “The Woman of Katey and in the Antilles “The Ciguamanta”, as afrmed by Alejandro Van Genep. (103)
Among us, some people affirm to have seen Bolivar. All masons belong to the 33 rd. Degree. All travelers have been victims of political violence. All farmers have heard the Manca Rita Brook cry inconsolably, because of the loss of her son. But no one has seen Bolivar and some are not even Masons. Some have not even been in prison, one day, for politics, or fallen in guerrilla hands, or seen or heard anything. Manuel Ancizar (104) relates the impressions he heard of Guanes peasants talking about an old hag. I heard, shaking, the “Manca Rita”, when I was a youngster in school. From the Palo Blanco Brook comes a woman, without arms, named Rita, from the River Fonce or Monas. This story created terror during peasant nights in tobacco or sugar cane elds. The “Manca Rita” myth is an Indian tradition rather than ignorance of the people. It has helped to curve assailants and robbers with her crying. Other superstitions, sayings, games and Guanentino romances, as a Criminal Instruction Ofcer, or “Law traveler agent”, as my father said, I afrm, without major fault that the Santander Department has the least of these superstitions and legends. In the Atlantic Maritime Coast, the African Caribbean folklore influence can be seen even in the high cultured classes of society. Between the San Juan and Rumichaca Rivers, in the southwest, the Quechua influence is alarming. The population of this region uses witchcraft that prohibits the Jesuit Astete’s precepts even though illiteracy decreases. There are those who believe in the Bristol almanac, the evil eye, the good hand and back, collars, lemons, oxen’s eye, prayers against parasites and snake bites, teeth, ghts, getting out of jail, domination of men, etc. In the Guarigua village, I saw praying against parasites which I copied: “Satan’s worms, come out one at a time until there is none. I conjure you that you will die from your own blood and spittle until there is none. So be it.” There is another prayer of the “Luchaderanos” who live between San Gil and Socorro, when they are going to ght. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, all my friends and enemies, come with your arms crossed. Ferocious serpents and scorpions come with your stings cut. Jesus, stop a ferocious lion. Christ our Lord was rst, Amen. Note: Never say it if drunk or near a pregnant or menstruating woman”. Emotional people, as ignorant, threaten with “gypsy curse”, inverting pictures and drinking beverages which I rather not describe. A common one is the tobacco ashes or chocolate cup reading about love, delity, treasons and business. In what proletariat home have we not seen a horseshoe or an aloe vera plant hanging near the door?
There was a famous magician near San Gil called “Mago de Pinchote”, named Fortunato Duarte, who prescribed to incurable patients of half the country and Venezuela. The sanitary authorities, at the petition of physicians, cut his productivity. Other people believe in omens, such as not being able to marry if they go under a ladder when a bird, such as and owl, sings near the home there will be a death in the family, or, if there is a black butterfly when a spider is seen, there will be a pleasant surprise when a bee enters the home, there will be a visit and a black cat in a store means that there will be plenty of business. Today, those night topics of conversation has been changed for the agitated political problems of the incumbent “Cacique”. Children instead of playing innocent games of hide and seek, cat and mouse etc., play bandits, Superman, Batman and other psychedelics. In institutes where beautiful romantic chorus to the Lord were sung, now are the low class Juan Charrasquiado’s and his bandits on the Aztec cinematography. There are, also, sayings of popular wisdom. Besides “Toca” which we treated before, there are: “Ora” as admiration, “Real” as ten cents, “Fuerte” as a peso, “Toche” as a stupid, “Agora” as now, “Juste y arre” among peasants, “Ay jue puerca” in light conversations, “Aguaitar” as to watch, “Tan ainas” as to have, “Asina” as thus and other archaic terms used by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra. (105) The region has the following sayings: “The one from Charal will do it, if not done. The best pumpkin is eaten by the worst pig. Whoever is left behind is bitten by the dogs. Give little attention to shit. Whoever falls on his ass is not caught by anything. A woman with a shawl does not earn food. Whoever was born to be a tamale gets rained leaves from the sky. It is not enough to mount but to hold on. With water, weight cannot be lifted, nor woman maintained. If we have to die, lets start getting sick. I will chew this once but I will not swallow it. Get out of there, I am afraid of myself. Which kind of whistle do you play? Another one to dance and there is nobody to play. It is uglier than to raise early to give credit and, there are many more. (106) There are certain personages who were born, lived and died in this town: Breton, the aristocrat of the chocolate Chamiza, famous for his vulgarities and obscene gestures the stupid of the medals who wore many medals and laughed loudly and so many others who created a true street spectacle about thirty years ago.