The Caribbean reflecten in the Camival of Cádiz with the Atlantic as a mirror

Abstract

The Carnival is the most peculiar celebration of Cádiz and one of the most unique manifestations of its modality in the world. A phenomenon that is based mainly on the couplets, the ingenuity of their lyrics and the variety of music, each year new and different; The Carnival of Cádiz is inspired by real life, in the archetypal images of tradition, theater and cinema, in legends, operas or zarzuelas. Another of its specificities is the disguises, which in Cádiz they are known as tipos, more than a set of garments, is the materialization of the character represented by each group. The evolution of the type, which is directly related to the theme of its repertoire, has run parallel to the succes-sion of real events, literary, artistic, social, cinematographic, televisión and other Media channels.

The Carnival of Cádiz has been adopting innovative styles from its own evolution and others acquired from different Carnivals. In this sense, the geostrategic situation of the city, in the south of the south of Europe, and cióse to Africa, but above all of its port, has been fundamental for the maritime Communications between the two shores of the Atlantic.

The exchange of goods and passengers brings the introduction of customs, Carnival itself, through the genovese merchants who established their businesses in the city, or the African rhythms con-tributed by the slaves in their passage from Africa to the new American lands. In the coming and going by the Atlantic Ocean, the coplas returned with Havana cadenees and other Antillean com-passes that added to the cantes of the earth.

Although its appearance is very oíd, it was the assumption of its organization at the end of the 19th century, by the municipal authority which leaves a documentary trace of how this festival has been conforming a style of Cádiz in which the coplas, unión of Lyrics rhymed with music, each year new and different, constitute the most significant and difierentiating axis with respect to other Carnivals of the world. The expression of the Carnival of Cádiz has evolved according to historical events, social changes, musical tendencies, theatrical or film premieres and, in the last decades, by televisión and new media. The evolution of the Carnival of Cádiz has not oceurred in an automatic or continuous way. After almost two centuries of history, everything suggests that this rhythmic movement that transports the images of the Caribbean peoples to the other side of the ocean and becomes Carnival in Cádiz, will continué to remember the permanent linkage, across the Atlantic, that unites the Shores of East and West through its waters turned into a mirror in which customs, characters and cultures are reflected.