On 25 December, the folk group known as “Los Guloyas” was busy dancing in their colorful costumes in the streets of their native San Pedro de Macorís. The cocolo dancing theater will continue to offer public dancing appearances again on 1 January until 6 January, the Three Kings Day. Cocolo is a term used in the Dominican Republic to refer to non-Hispanic African descendants that migrated to the Dominican Republic from the English-speaking Caribbean. The Guloyas celebrate the folklore of the “cocolos,” most who came to work in the sugarcane fields or the sugar mills run by English speaking foreign companies.
The Guloyas are a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Intangible and Oral Heritage of Humanity since 2005.
The group in 2019 suffered the loss of “Linda” a.k.a. Donald Hullester, Warner Henderson, one of the founding members of the group, who passed away.
The Guloyas celebrate the folklore of the “cocolos,” those persons from the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean who came to work in the sugarcane fields or the sugar mills, at a time when their English was a definite asset.
Julianito Adames Santana, the current leader of the group, told reporters from the Diario Libre that the dances performed began in the late XIX century with the arrival of the first immigrants from the English speaking Caribbean to work in the sugar mills. He noted that the Guloyas dance on 25 December, 1 January and 6 January, because the sugar harvest ended in September and the immigrants could then practice their dances in time for the Christmas and New Year performances. For decades it has been this way, as reported in Diario Libre.
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30 December 2019