I assure you that we are famous and important, really, no matter what. Colombian storytellers are widely known for the diversity of our oral expressions, the result of having such a wonderful and tremendous history of miscegenation that, added to such an exuberant and rugged geography, allows us the richness of exposing multiple faces of the same nation. In this article I intend to say why and show, at least, three types of Colombian storytellers, as well as expand the discussion by presenting both sides of some arguments presented and provide, in the process, some considerations for hiring storytellers.
Yes, we are famous. Do not take what I say as an advertising guideline, I would never question the cultural wealth of other peoples, but we should not dress in false modesty either. Even so that we see the other side of the coin, we could affirm that part of the richness of our orality comes from our own tragedies. We add to our speeches the sadness of having a history of unbridled violence and a social resilience that borders on madness and that gives rise to the most amazing stories, moving between laughter and crying. Not to mention the role of the school, absent for many. We count thousands of people whose only source of knowledge is the spoken word, implemented as the only resource to learn to inhabit the social system that governs us, in territories that merge between rural and urban. And this is just part of the cocktail that makes us great!
Now, all the fame that falls upon us is possible thanks to the ears that are ready for the storyteller. Here people are addicted to stories, we have an audience that needs them and that asks for them. We never needed theorists to come and tell us that behind every good idea spread there is a story that catapults it. We never required that they reinvent the entire discourse by renaming the thing with storytelling, a matter as old as Yuval already mentioned in Sapiens, and now so marketer and light that it only seeks to repeat something simple: a good story is powerful, effective and behaves like a seed in the imagination, germinating until it becomes a leafy tree. I already got bombastic.
Of course, that same public that requests us also usually gives us some tremendous insults. Ignorance leads many to say, in the middle of an innocent comment, things like: "tell me a joke, storyteller." It also happens in some hiring applications: "Hey, we need a storyteller in the company who makes us laugh". Next comes the whole explanation about the different forms of expression that move in orality, that in the case of the storyteller, laughter is a condiment and not an end... While that happens I tear my clothes and display the silicon: Blessed Christ, give me patience!
To avoid lengthening the dissertation, I will add that there is a clear difference between an oral storyteller and an oral micro-storyteller for humorous purposes: they tell jokes. The first concentrate on awakening through words the multiple feelings and reflections that inhabit human beings. The latter focus on one goal: to make people laugh. Should I explain the difference between the storyteller and the standapero? Yes, it seems so, because it is part of the equation. The standapero, a neologism to refer to that oral narrator who speaks from insight, is responsible for subverting "cultural truths" to make people laugh; It is the same purpose of cuentachistes, both are found in the exclusive field of humor. I particularly like being a storyteller because of its openness and personal joy. However, I also happily enjoy other forms and navigate in Stand Up Comedy, in theatrical improvisation, in humor from parody. The problem is far from what the artist does, to be frank, the issue is that the public understands the differences and diversities, so that each thing receives its value and judgment.
The spectator who learns to know that he is a storyteller and that he is a comedian, as well as the spectator who understands when an artist moves between forms and consciously transgresses them, will know better how much time to dedicate to each show and how to value it. Also, in the case of the businessman, he will know how to recognize which artist to hire to meet his communication objectives.
Returning to the role of the storyteller, our main objective, in Colombia we could talk about three types: two that are and one that is not. Important: what I am going to say should be taken into account when hiring a Colombian storyteller. Warning: this is an arbitrary taxonomy, never absolute and only intended to open the discussion.
- The first type of storyteller is one whose orality is clinging to its heritage, which draws on the stories of yesteryear. They are people who may well be illiterate, even illiterate, but who are so well positioned in the wealth of their people, aware of their origin, that it is worth sitting for several hours to listen to them. Among these are those who consider the word as the vehicle of their worldview, who see in it the sacred, the truth and the means by which they express their constituent stories.
- The second are those without tradition, those who do not know what their great-great-grandparents were called. I place myself in this classification, without a doubt. We are those born in the city, those who learned to walk through the concrete cold, in the midst of uncertainty and disconnection from the earth. We were culturally nourished by everything and nothing. Some of us judiciously dedicate ourselves to telling stories and make our way through the school system until we find something nutritious, a professional foothold in some undergraduate degree. We had no other choice, we had to study. We drank in literature, history, theater, social communication, advertising, even sound engineering or audiovisual design. From multiplicity we open the way, we scratch the stories of our grandparents, we imitate the great writers, we borrow some stories, we intervene, transform and dissect them until we gain our own voice that is nourished by experience, until life gives us some judgment. Some of us, like Santa Palabra did, had the audacity to become a company and commit to living generously from what we love.
- The third type I must mention for illuminating the dark side. This is the one who claims to be a storyteller, but he is not. It is made up of those who present themselves as great storytellers: they do not read, they do not write, they lack a significant oral heritage, they never put their truths through fire, they talk for the sake of talking, they lie without scruple and they deceive: they seem like politicians! These, I must say sadly, are not few and end up closing doors to those who are in the mystique of the profession; With their work they obscure the work of the storyteller. I have the following hope for those who are located here: that they find the route that we all find and by a miracle acquire some sense, or that they get bored and find something else that ensures better comfort.