Bárbara Pesce-Monteiro, UN coordinator in Cuba, had an Exchange in Guantánamo with the exponents of the Tumba Francesa Pompadour-Santa Catalina de Ricci, the First Cuban Master Piece of the Oral and immaterial Patrimony of Humanity.

Pesce-Monteiro, who is also the Resident Representative of the UN Program for Development, was interested in the history and family tradition of that hundred years old dance – music society, born in the coffee plantations of east Cuba in the beginning of last century and from which there still are three groups in the country.

As with it’s similar of Santiago de Cuba and Holguín, the Guantánamo Tumba Francesa, is the result of a cross – cultural process, derived from the migrations towards Cuba of French settlers and their slaves after the Haitian revolution at the end of XVIII century.

The diplomat verified that for the good of the Cuban cultural panorama, that folklore relic, evaded the pass of time, by transmitting its essence from generation to generation, a legacy that is today internationally recognized.

She was also interested by the characteristics of the touches, dances and songs in the creole of Las Tumbas, which in Congo language means noisy drums party and combines expressions of African and European origin.

In its origins these parties were celebrated by black and mulatto people who imitated the dances of the court of their French masters, but following the touch of the African instruments, which maintain their originality until our days.

The visit of Pesce-Monteiro to Guantanamo is part of a tour through the collaboration projects the United Nations System is carrying out.

The United Nations System is one of the entities interested in safeguard the social and cultural patrimony of the Tumbas Francesas.