Anónimas & Resilientes

Why we picked it

From the deep countryside of Colombia’s Afro-descendant Maroon Caribbean emerges Anónimas & Resilientes, a collective of elder women singers safeguarding the ancestral legacy of bullerengue. The project brings together cantadoras who have preserved this tradition as a living practice of memory, resistance, and community healing. Bullerengue is a musical and cultural practice that emerged in palenques, free Black territories established by Africans who escaped enslavement in the 17th century. It is one of the few oral traditions of the Colombian Caribbean led by elder women. For generations, bullerengue has served as a space for identity, spirituality, and collective expression, sustained outside formal cultural institutions.