Male traje tipico

In the performance of traditional music and dance of Vélez, the male attire typically consists of a long sleeved blouse that is buttoned on the shoulder, a kerchief worn around the neck and a pair of pants, often with additional materials. The shirt is usually white or light beige and is ornamented with embroidered figures at the chest level; the embroidered figures commonly relate to Vélez folklore (for example, alpargatas, the Vélez church, a treble clef, etc.). These figures can be embroidered with coloured or black threads. Around the neck there is a colourful kerchief traditionally known as rabo de gallo [cock tail] where the two ends of the kerchief pass through a cylindrical object such as a ring or a small cane tube.

Men usually wear black or gray pants, sometimes with fine vertical lines. Traditionally men used a cabuya or pita as a belt and they carry their machetes or calabazos on their waist as seen in photo 11. In contemporary practice it is less common to have real machetes; instead they are replaced with machetes made of wood which are inserted in a leather case called funda.

One of the longest-standing characteristics of the male traje tipico is the addition of a white strip of cloth at the bottom of one of the legs. This is known as calzoncillos de amarrar al dedo gordo [underpants tied to the big toe]. Segundo Rivera shared that this feature symbolizes earlier clothing practices in which men wore a light pair of pants that served as underwear; this underwear had a string at the bottom that was tight to the big toe to prevent the underwear from riding up. Nowadays men wear actual underpants, but the calzoncillos de amarrar al dedo gordo is symbolically represented by a small piece string that is tied to the leg and worn under the men’s pants as seen in photo 14. Men can also wear a ruana, a heavy and warm cover used in cold weather as a coat (see the grey blanket draped on the man’s arm in photo 14) and carry a bordon or baston, a walking stick that is usually made of wood.