Fuencaliente keeps traditions that were lost elsewhere. The Caballos Fuscos, horse figures made of rods and cloth that dance to a polka, have paraded in Los Quemados since the late 19th century: the dance stopped in 1961 and came back in 1979 with the first Fiestas de la Vendimia. The Viejas Solteronas of Los Quemados, a burlesque dance of four musicians and ten women in old-fashioned dress, were founded in the mid-1960s and have not missed a Vendimia since.
The other tradition is the spoken word. Fuencaliente is a land of décimas and versadores, poets who improvise ten-line stanzas: from Eladio Martín Bienes “Lalo” and Gabriel Yanes “Luis el Casayanero” to Yapci Bienes and Miguel Martín Méndez, and today the Ruta de la Décima places plaques with poems dedicated to each spot on viewpoints and squares. The Colectivo Etnográfico Echentive recovered the Caballos Fuscos polka in 1987 and keeps the traditional music of the municipality alive.
To print (offline) and listen
This page is also available as a printable document and as audio.