Vara del premio No. 3: Porto Laino, Giovanni Buelvas, Manuel Casseres, Anònimo

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

This is a color photograph capturing four young men climbing a pole for the San Basilio de Palenque’s festivity of vara de premio (prize rod). Depicted against a white sky, the men are arranged in pairs. At the bottom, visible from the waist up, one man in a purple t-shirt clings to a second shirtless man in red shorts, who clings to the pole. Standing on their shoulders, two more men grab onto the pole, one is shirtless in black shorts and the other is in a light-colored sleeveless shirt and blue shorts. Both are barefoot. The pole extends from their outstretched hands through the top of the frame. On the verso are two inscriptions: [Vara de Premio (cucaña) 3 / 1989] at bottom left and [hos / 89] at bottom right.

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