“I want to be a + palmero + and go up there”, sing the “palmeros” who collect for several days, the branches of palm trees in the national park which borders Caracas, to offer them to the faithful on Palm Sunday after a procession which brings together thousands of people.
This tradition of more than 250 years is included in the register of good safeguarding practices of Unesco and aspires to be world heritage.
Saturday, greeted by thousands of people, the “palmeros”, dirty and tired, leave the Waraira Repano park carrying the palms, to join the church of San José where Sunday the mass of the palms will attract the large crowd.
“We cry when we put the branches back. It’s incomparable,” explains Carlos Gonzalez, 37, carpenter.
“We refuse to sell (the branches). It doesn’t make sense. We do it with the heart by fulfilling a 250-year promise. It’s priceless,” he adds, referring to the genesis of tradition, when yellow fever was ravaging.
– “Vitamins” –
The parish priest then asked the faithful to look for the branches in the mountains, promising to perpetuate the practice if the disease disappeared…
Wednesday, 1:30 am, Carlos and Alvaro Porras, 36, go deep into the forest with half a dozen young people they supervise. Four kilometers on the program but nearly 1,000m of elevation to reach the place where they will camp.
Some 300 “palmeros” are scattered in the national park with the exceptional authorization to collect palm trees, Caroxylum Carifarum, an endangered species.
The “Palmeritos”, Santiago Coriat and Joseph Rincon, both 12 years old, oscillate between fear and excitement. “I want to but I’m a little nervous. It’s the first time,” says Santiago, who is carrying a backpack to which is attached a “budaré” (plate for cooking corn pancakes). A burden that will prove too heavy for the boy during the difficult ascent.
Alvaro and Carlos carry 60 kg on their backs. Food and equipment… Without forgetting “the vitamins”, rum and brandy.
The light of the city we overlook illuminates the steep path. At first verbose, they focus on effort. Conversations fade away.
“The climb is hard but going down the branches for the faithful is the best,” says Alvaro.
At 7 o’clock, it is finally the arrival at the camp and its clouds of mosquitoes.
“There is faith, the responsibility to perpetuate the tradition but it is also friendship. At the top, we are united. We are all one”, explains Alvaro.
“The + munecos +, the spirits of the deceased + palmeros +, accompany us”, assures Carlos.
Faith and devotion, but also parties and guardhouse jokes are on the menu of the adventure where women are absent. “What happens on the mountain, stays on the mountain”, blows a + palmero +.
The +palmeros+ trudge off-road through the woods, climbing steep walls sometimes on all fours… But the quest owes nothing to chance, they know the areas where they sow palm trees each year.
Before, the search and the cut were done randomly and the palm trees almost disappeared.
“We are + palmero + 365 days a year. We sow, we clean the mountain. We carry out operations in other parks, in squares, in schools. We give back to nature what it gives us”, explains Álvaro.
Alvaro and Carlos teach young people how to harvest the central branch of each tree so that it can continue to live. Santiago and Joseph are thus “baptized”.
“I would like my companions to teach young people. Because (the forest) is our lung”, comments José Leon Garcia, 90, the oldest of the palmeros whose shirt bears the inscription “Mount the mountain since 1939” . This year, he went up but by cable car.
– Popular area –
Saturday, after two new nights on the mountain, the “palmeros”, some of whom wear rosaries around their necks, come down with the branches on their shoulders. For many, it is a kind of “stations of the cross”.
“We are happy to have fulfilled the mission. No matter the pain, the fatigue”, summarizes Jean-Paul Blanco, tattoo artist.
To the sound of brass bands and firecrackers, the “palmeros” parade through the city, notably passing through the small working-class district of Pedregal from which they mostly come. The tradition of this practice is also the history of this district enclosed in Chacao, an upscale area with its residences and luxury buildings. Real estate pressure is strong but Alvaro swears that the neighborhood of several hundred inhabitants will never disappear: “The Pedregal is a big family. Each neighbor has a common ancestor. The family seeks to maintain this heritage”.
The procession stops in front of houses adorned with photos of deceased “palmeros”. “It’s like he’s been waiting for us on his doorstep,” Carlos says.
At 4 p.m., they arrive at the church where the palms are blessed and then placed in the parish house. The end of the adventure. Fatigue and emotion mingle. The “palmeros” hug, shout, kiss, cry, laugh, sing. “Mission accomplished!”
pgf/teacher