During the month of June, many countries around the world celebrate the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua. In Venezuela, the festival of San Antonio has become an emblem of Venezuelan folk culture. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
David Guss is a professor of anthropology at Tufts University.
“The festival itself is a moment in which people pay ‘promesas,’ promises, to San Antonio. If he performed certain deeds for them — it could have to do with health; it could have to do with economics; it could have to do with love interests– that they would repay him with the Tamonangue, the dance that is done to him.
“The festival has been taken on as a hallmark of the most beautiful folklore tradition of Venezuela. Because, people say that in this tradition, the three different currents of Venezuelan identity are all merged together. So that there’s elements of their European, Spanish, heritage; there’s elements of their African heritage, and there are elements of their Indian heritage. So it’s discussed as this is the symbol of the formation of the new Venezuelan race, which is a race that is basically a blend of all three cultures. And each of these dances represents that in very powerful ways.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.