About the ensemble

Corazón Santandereano (“Santander heart”) is an intergenerational family-based musical group founded around 1970 by Segundo Rivera and Ana Mercedes Hernandez. Documentation pertaining to this music ensemble (Corazón Santandereano) can be traced back to 1978 when thite won the National festival of La Guabina y el Tiple (See Table 1). However the Rivera family has been performing at and winning this festival since 1967 under other names such as Los Ruiseñores [del zulia] (1967) and Los Pregoneros del Folclor. (1975,1976)

Corazon Santandereano is a musical ensemble that specializes in traditional music from the Vélez community. Its repertoire includes representative genres, dances and songs of the region, such as Torbellino, Guabina and baile del moño, to mention a few. The primary members of this ensemble were born and raised in the villages of Vélez and neighbouring Guavata and Bolivar. Around 1964 the family moved to Vélez and started to participate in the national festival of La Guabina y el Tiple.

The founding members of Corazón Santandereano, Segundo Rivera and Ana Mercedes Hernandez, (see picture 1) were married on September 25, 1954, and had eight children, Roberto, Cecilia, Rogerio, Blanca, Ignacio, Luz Mery, Doris, and Horacio, committing to pass on Vélez music to all their children. From a young age all their kids participated in music festivals around the Vélez region including the local towns of Puente Nacional, Barbosa, Moniquira, Bucaramanga, and Lebrija.

Around 1969, Mercedes and Segundo founded two musical ensembles that were precursors to Corazón Santandereano. Los ruiseñores del Zulia included their children Rogerio, Ignacio, Blanca, Mery, and Doris, and their nephews Laureano Vargas Rivera and Humberto Vargas Rivera and Los Hermanos Rivera consisted of their oldest children Cecilia Rivera and Roberto Hernandez.

Between 1975-1978, the Rivera Hernandez family was part of the music ensemble Los Pregoneros who after were called Los Pregoneros del Folclor. These ensembles were comprised of the Rivera Hernandez family plus Ester Rivera, Odalinda Rivera, Flor Rivera, Ciprano Rivera (Segundo Rivera’s siblings) and the following friends of the family: Nicacio Rocha, Guillermo Tellez, Mery luz Martinez, Hernando Caballero, Pedro Fontecha. As indicated in a press clip from 1978, Pregoneros del Folclor were the winners of the festival in 1978 however Blanca Rivera affirms that at that time, the membership of the group was transitioning to welcome new generations of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and spouses. In 1986, Nestor Caceres (Blanca Rivera’s spouse) was added to the group as its musical director.

As some of the participants of the ensemble live in different cities (Bogota, Oiba, Velez, Bucaramanga) the number of members can vary from six to thirty people depending on the requirements of the performance and the availability of ensemble members. The following section introduces the core members of Corazón Santandereano providing their biographies, their musical role(s), instrument(s) performed and their photo. As this music ensemble is fully comprised of Rivera Hernandez family members and their descendants, the number of members has changed over time