The Colombian writer and journalist Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. At his award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, a delegation of Colombian musicians performed for the event. Harp player Carlos "Cuco" Rojas, the founder of the Cimarron band, and lead singer Ana Veydo joined the musicians, adding their festive joropo dance music from plains of the Orinoco River (in Colombia and Venezuela) to the music on the Nobel stage.
Rojas and Veydo founded Cimarron in 2000 with the aim of broadening the "folkloric" joropo sound with indigenous and African cultural elements. The region, known as the Llanos, is known for its horse-riding cowboys who herd cattle across the plains. The music features the Venezuelan cuatro, maracas, harps and bass; it's music about tough cowboy types and it was a sound that Cimarron's founders believed did not reflect the diversity of the region, especially voices of the women in the region. They set about adding local and African instruments and "sonorities" -- they added a zapateador, a shoe stomper (percussion), as well as the Brazilian big surdo drum, Colombian tambora costena, the Peruvian cajon (box drum) and even deer horns.
