The viche, a great bastion of the traditional and ancestral drinks of the Colombian Pacific (Bojayá-Chocó Case)

Abstract

The documentation of traditional knowledge and practices associated with Viche allows us to move towards a historical reconstruction of its relationship with socio-cultural manifestations in black communities. With the objective of reconstructing the history and connection of the sociocultural expressions generated around the process of cultivation, production and commercialization of viche in these black communities of Bojayá, as a fundamental part of their productive activity, traditional and cultural practice. The field work was carried out in two black communities of Bojayá: La Loma and Pogue, a qualitative research method was used, the collection of information was carried out through a combination of techniques (structured and semi-structured interviews with producers and leaders of the region, the development of workshops and directed meetings, as well as tours of the productive spaces for sugar cane, plant and trapiche crops). The existence of a complex relationship of the socio-cultural and economic frameworks and articulations associated with the productive dynamics of the black communities, such as cooperation, solidarity, forms of commercialization and exchange of work, products and money, which work within of these communities under other logics. Likewise, some difficulties and problems that producers and communities go through to cultivate, produce, market and transport their products are also highlighted.