Manuel Pertúz has a particular childhood memory of his father coming home with his friends, carrying trumpets, trombones, and drums. "They sang and wore costumes, as they retruned from Barranquilla’s Carnival," he recalls. Manuel took up making Carnival masks, and after some years, he devoted himself to tracing back their origins. He researched their ritual meanings, and connections to West African art and Colombian history. "Men like Francisco Padilla started crafting their own masks in Galapa to avoid having to rely on those made in the neighbouring town of Malambo," explains Manuel. Through his craft, he hopes to preserve the ancestral traditions linked to this region of Colombia and the annual Carnival festivities.
Manuel Pertúz