“Please stand for the National Anthem of the Achaean Republic.”
Arena del Sol, Rosario, Islas Fortuna
“Favor ponerse de pie para el Himno Nacional de la República Acayana.”
When both AS1, AFT and YouTube online transmissions began from the Arena del Sol, 12,500 fans from all over the Multiverse stood up in respect of the country’s anthem. By law, the national anthem must be played before every cultural, political or sports event in the country. The wavy LED-covered stage was covered with the green, red, and blue colors of the Achaean flag alongside the flag of the Islas Fortuna and the Municipality of Rosario. The Achaean men, with the exception of the expansive security detail alloted by both federal and local governments. They wouldn’t let a silly, fear-inducing hurricane derail their plans to host the Multiverse’s largest party––they waited 56 long years since the fateful days of Corola when they had to step in and host the show. This time, it was all theirs for the taking. It was time to show the world that Achaeans can break free from their long, self-imposed isolation and sing their hearts out. As soon as the anthem was finished, the audience clapped and hollered in respect, all waiting for the show to begin.
Another camera on YouTube showed an audience of about 60,000 on a hot-yet-wet Saturday evening in the Plaza del Rosario, all packed like sardines, anxiously waiting for the show to begin. Bars were packed. Airplanes were borderline grounded. Families congregated in houses throughout the Achaean nation––Corola, Santa Ana, Yatre-Emberá, Oriente del Rio, Alfaguara, and of course Rosario––with scrumptious delicacies and pool bets in order to see who would win some extra pocket money. Worldvision, if only for the time being, united the country and allowed them to forget the many problems Achaeans face on a daily basis. The Achaeans are known for being loud, proud, rambunctious, and above all very, very, extra. Now this will be the perfect time to show that.
Tres…Dos…Uno.
The Worldvision Theme Song could be heard on TV screens across the multiverse. After that, the screen went to black, and embers of fire could be seen. Pictures of young and old dancers were showing across the screen, reveling across the fire in a dark summer night. The music was mysterious and discomforting, and the voices also incomprehensible. Some wore loincloths, while others were naked (this was slightly blurred, of course, so as not to offend international sensibilities). Some women had flowing hair to their thighs, covering their breasts and chanting with their lungs. Even children were into the ceremony, dancing around the fire and shaking their maracas. They were adorned with collars made of rock and bones and shells they picked up from the beaches or the mountains.
It was an areyto, a ceremony to the Taíno gods. They wanted Yucahú to bless their crops. They requested the favor of Yúcahu to bless the women’s wombs in the forested jungles. They appeased Juracán so as not to bring any more disasters to their villages. This areito was special: It was a request to bless all the islands, the ones the Spanish would later call fortunate, the ones that would rape, pillage, and borderline exterminate all the Taínos and bring with them a host of slaves, asking the gods that they would be all right.
Two logos were then shown on screen:
The image then cuts to present-day Rosario and enjoy scenes of a day in the bustling, Caribbean city. What follows are brief snippets of daily life in Rosario:
(Tune: Yuba Iré, Breve Espacio)
00:00-00:10: Sunrise in the Colonial Fort of San Antonio
00:11:00-16:A woman prepares food at a local fonda
00:17-00:22: A woman prepares coffee and talks with her daughters that live on mainland Achaea
00:23-00:28: A Catholic priest opens the doors to the faithful at the Rosario Cathedral
00:29-00:35: A Santeria priest initiates a ceremony
00:36-0:45: Youth play basketball in one of Rosario’s slums
00:46-0:56: An old lottery seller prepares his stand while a passer-by buys him a small cup of coffee and newspaper
0:57-1:04: A young couple kisses and walks holding hands through the alleyways of Rosario’s colonial zone
1:05-1:11: A tourist takes a selfie in front of the Parroquia de la Inquisición in Rosario’s colonial zone
1:12-1:20: Bakers make bread, oatmeal, and sweets for hungry locals in a local bakery
1:21-1:31: Students enter their classrooms and converse at a Rosario public school
1:32-1:40: A teacher in another classroom is talking with her students
1:41-1:50 A couple on the street is dancing guaguancó.
1:51-2:01 A group is dancing bomba, an Afro-Caribbean dance, in Rosario’s Colonial Zone
2:02-2:10 A young dance troupe in a Rosario street is practicing a soca dance.
2:11-2:20 A local man is making and selling piraguas, a shaved ice treat covered with fruit or syrup
2:21-2:30 Hotel guests enjoy a refreshing splash at a pool
2:31-2:38 People bathe in Playa Azul, some putting sunscreen on, others making cannonballs from a small fishing pier
2:39-2:47 A sailboating team enjoys the sights of Playa Azul.
2:48-2:56 A group of hikers travel through the Bosque Tropical de la Ciénaga, taking a zip line through the rainforest.
2:57-3:04 German Pascual, a local designer, prepares dresses for next Carnival.
3:05-3:13 A masquerade group is rehearsing for Carnival.
3:14-3:21 Worshippers at a Pentecostal church in Rosario sing, raise hands, and pray.
3:22-3:30 A view from the famous Rosario Kiosks, where people enjoy food, drinks, dance, and spend some time on the beach.
3:31-3:37 A local theater troupe rehearses in the Teatro Real, in Rosario’s Colonial Zone.
3:38-3:45 A horse race takes place at the Hipódromo Nacional.
3:46-3:51 A horse trainer takes care of horses outside the Hipódromo Nacional.
3:52-4:00 Sunset in the Colonial Fort of San Antonio.
4:00-4:03 Lights flicker on in the Rosario Colonial Zone, where passers-by walk to stores, bars, and restaurants.
4:04-4:11 People dance in the Champeta Club, in Rosario’s Colonial Zone.
4:12-4:20 A drone image of the Arena del Sol, the main venue of the 76th Worldvision Song Contest, with people from different countries singing, dancing, showcasing their flags, and taking selfies of themselves.
After the final shot of the Arena del Sol, the logo of the 76th Worldvision Song Contest appears:
Tune: Petrona Martínez, Un Niño Que Llora en los Montes de María
A wide pan of the crowded Arena del Sol and a darkened stage appears. People are cheering on, raising their flags, singing, and dancing. Then, the stage lights focus on a barefoot, black woman dressed in white. Another camera suddenly focuses on her, singing the first verses of a a traditional bullerengue, an Afro-Achaean rhythm of her native Orogumilá, a small riverbed city on the other side of Rosario Island. The sounds surrounding her are those of the jungle: a small coquí frog showing its mating call; an iguaca parrot, the Achaean Republic’s national antimal, gallivanting through the trees; the faraway sounds of the cimarrones, escaped African slaves from their Portuguese or Spanish masters, playing their drums and celebrating their freedom.
En el riachuelo de Cañas, ocurrió grandes demores
lloraba una esclavita, la vendieron malhechores
//¿Por qué lloras, negra? Dime qué te pasa//
//Me tengo que ir de Rosario y dejar toda mi casa//
//Me llevaron al mercado y Alá no me dijo nada//
//Los blancos tenían mi cuerpo con jabón y seda blanca//
//¿Por qué lloras, negra? Dime qué te pasa//
//Me tengo que ir de Rosario y dejar toda mi casa//
//Mi niño besó el polvo, mi esposo bailó en el cuero//
//Y aún no sé si Alá escucha la voz de este mi lamento//
//¿Por qué lloras, negra? Dime qué te pasa//
//Me tengo que ir de Rosario y dejar toda mi casa//
The camera expands and features men and women playing drums and wearing colorful dresses. The men are wearing turned hats and clap to the beat of the rhythm, or carry colorful maracas made with the hide of goats and filled with hollow beans, dull rocks, or even dry rice. They are all barefoot and following the beat of the rhythm. Suddenly, one of the standing women leave the group and begins dancing, carrying her skirt and flipping it around. She dances in circles and raises one of her hands in the air and placing the other hand on her hip. Another male dancer leaves the circle, takes his hat off and begins to dance. He spins and raises his hat in the air, as if trying to call the female dancer’s attention.
The camera on stage circles around the two dancers. He closes in on her, as if trying to kiss her. But she backs down and smirks––the dance of bullerengue is a dance of seduction, as one leading Achaean ethnologist compared, as if two birds of flight wanted to mate with each other, but felt beholden to their lovers.” She moves her hips. He tactfully shows the muscles in his arms, even if he has none, that the humidity of the crowded arena is more than enough a substitute of the humidity of the rainforest. The dance of bullerengue is also a dance of slavery, or at least a reminder of the hardships they suffered because of the color of their skin. It is joyous, yet sobering, like many things that happen in the islands. And still, they keep dancing.
The camera focuses on some Achaeans in the fan zone, also dancing and playing their own drums. Many came from the mainland––Corolanos, Candelarienses, Captialinos, Alfaguererenses, Santaanenses––but many of the crowd were also Rosarianos, those that grew listening to these rhythm. They know the call-and-response nature of the music. They know that this beat is intense, maybe borderline aggressive as the hurricanes they are threatened about each year. But it was fun, and they needed this respite.
A top camera follows the LED “river" stage being transformed from a searing white to wavy blue, with the dancers suddenly in a sandy “island,” stopping where the other team and the cantora were standing. This then switches to a wide pan of the stage, with a brief lull in the beat being picked up by the sound of claps and drums.
Tune: William Cepeda & Choco Orta: Medley de Bombas
Immediately after the song finishes, the lights in the stage change to showcase bright colors, and suddenly a group of vejigantes appeared on stage, or costumed demons wearing colorful costumes and scaring people to sin, carrying sacks of cow bladders or balloons filled with tiny stones. Then also came gabariteros, black-bodied dancers dressed with a black, skull-like bodysuit and a sickle representing death, a common sight in the Rosario Carnival. There are also cabezudos, papier-mâché costumed figures that ridicule, humor, or exaggerate typical celebrities and politicians during Carnival. This time, the costumes satirize and doubly homage past Worldvision performers and archetypes, specially commissioned for the event.
The stage exploded in a vision of carnivalesque color and music. Reds, greens, whites, yellow, oranges, and blues. The LED “river" stage immediately transformed from an island coastline to one of the many cobblestoned streets in Rosario’s Colonial Zone. At the same time, a bomba dancer, barefoot and dressed in a frilly white dress and yellow decorations, moving and twirling her skirt with her bewitching cadence. Bombay is music for call-and-response, a game of teasing, where the dancer challenges the drummer to follow the pace and not the other way around. The dancer pushes the stamina of the drummer to his limit and backs off whenever she herself feels the tiredness of her feet. It becomes a conversation, almost a tense exchange between singer, drummer, and dancer, the former hitting the drums to the beat of the latter swinging her frilly petticoats. It becomes a sensual interchange, one that endures beyond the past yokes of slavery and into the heart of Africa to free their burdens.
As the music continues and the stage continues to be filled with color, the night’s performers are walking across the stage for the flag parade. This time, however, the performers don’t appear to carry flagpoles––instead, costumed bomba dancers accompany the night’s performers with their national flags hand-drawn in their dresses.
As the music ends, the performers scurry out of the stage.
“Bienvenidos to the 76th Worldvision Song Contest. Please welcome your hosts for the evening, Tamar de Andrade and Khaleb Nássar-Rodríguez!”
The contest’s theme song plays as the hosts walk through the stage on opposing ends, Tamar de Andrade from the left and Khaleb Nássar-Rodríguez from the right. De Andrade is wearing a decorated white kaftan with golden accents and gold-white heels. Nássar-Rodríguez is wearing a white dashiki with accented shoes, one typically used for Yoruba wedding ceremonies and coopted by Santería practitioners in Achaea. As they meet in the center, they kiss on the cheek and salute the cheering crowd.
Both: Welcome!
De Andrade: Welcome to the 76th Worldvision Song Contest, live from the city of Rosario in the Achaean Republic! (cheers)
Nássar-Rodríguez: It has been 56 years since the Achaean Republic last hosted Worldvision, and we are more than ready to welcome you all to the Black Pearl of our nation, where you can experience the best of our music and our roots.
De Andrade: That’s right! And just to keep you in your seats, we’ve got excellent performances from all around the Multiverse who’ve also taken the time, Khaleb, to enjoy some of Achaea’s most famous festivals and celebrations.
Nássar-Rodríguez: But just to be clear, only one performer will win this contest! Who will it be, the choice is yours.
De Andrade: You can vote up to 20 times by the phone numbers on the screen, by the Worldvision mobile app, or by logging in to worldvision.tv and placing your country of origin. But remember––you cannot vote for your own country. But don’t vote yet! We’ll tell you when after the very last song has finished performing.
Nássar-Rodríguez: Guess I have to say it in French, huh? (Off-camera, De Andrade nods.) Vous pouvez voter jusqu'à 20 fois en utilisant les numéros de téléphone à l'écran, via l'application mobile Worldvision ou en vous connectant à worldvision.tv et en indiquant votre pays d'origine. Mais rappelez-vous: vous ne pouvez pas voter pour votre propre pays. Mais ne votez pas encore! Nous vous dirons quand à la fin de la dernière chanson.
De Andrade: Well, that’s been taken care of. Tán ready, mi gente? Are you ready, Rosario! (cheers)
Nássar-Rodríguez: Well, then… Why don’t you say it with me? Buena suerte to everyone competing––
Both: And let the Worldvision Song Contest Begin!
Both hosts leave as the drums begin, and the first performer begins to take center stage as soon as the postcard ends.
With the guitar still hanging over his shoulder, all the bulbs go out and 8 deep white spotlights all from different angles focus on lewis who is now crouched down bathing him in a white glow.
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