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Cartagena’s folk music, Champeta, and El Runner

On my tour through the Bazurto market with @eltonystark, I learned not only about the market but also about a Cartegenan cultural touchstone, Champeta.

Cartagena’s African descendants brought African music with them, and it evolved into a special type of music over the years in the coastal areas around Cartagena.  Champeta is a word for a knife that was utilitarian — used in chopping plants, in the kitchen, and as a weapon.  Like the name salsa evolved from being “make the music spicy” to being the name of the music, so champeta, once a derogatory term for the poor African descendants of former slaves who used that type of knife, became attached to the music they developed, which is now the most popular music in the area.

Champeta is a major music attraction in venues across Cartagena, and the signs distinguish these parties from those with other types of music.  Many (most?) of the signs are made by a group lead by a man named El Runner (so-named because that’s what he was told his last name meant in English).  He used to make all the signs himself in his signature style, but now he teaches children how to do it and rarely paints them himself.  It gives a paying skill to impoverished kids and his team can turn out many of hundreds of posters every day for champetas, like this one that I found in the Old Town of Cartagena:

El Runner has a tattoo of the Nautica logo on his neck (it’s his favorite brand), and can be found nearly daily in the Bazurto market in paint adorned clothing, surrounded by many teens working on posters in the style he developed.  His business developed from one single ad he made for free for a local music party.  That one free poster has become a multi-person poster making industry.  He also has a group of young kids that are learning to draw sitting on stairs in his area of the market.

Here is my champeta style poster made by El Runner.