Calarcá, Quindío, Colombia YIPAO 2008 Parade and Contest

YIPAO 2008 Parade and Contest “Yipao” is a Colombian tradition and transportation medium identified with the coffee culture. The word “yipao” is not in the Spanish dictionary of the Real Academia Española; it is a barbarism derived from the “Willys jeep”, a specific type of vehicle, which is loaded in an exaggerated way. In the Colombian coffee growing regions it is seen all the time; “yipaos” are jeeps loaded full of coffee or other products, or of agricultural workers, or of other materials. These jeeps are spectacular; everything looks like it’s going to fall off, but the Colombians who load them are real artists at arranging the loads.

YIPAO 2008 Parade and Contest The Willys jeep is a general purpose vehicle, manufactured in the United States, for use in war. At the end of WWII and the Korean War, the U.S. was flooded with these vehicles and began selling them to Third World countries. Willys jeeps are light, made for crossing unpaved fields, climbing rocky mountains, crossing desert dunes, jungles and marshes.

YIPAO 2008 Parade and Contest Colombian peasants began using the word “yipao” to describe a load of a product for sale: “I have a ‘yipao’ of bananas I just brought from my farm.” “I’ll buy a ‘yipao’ of coffee from Quindio to take to Bogota”. “Bring me a ‘yipao’ of workers to pick coffee.”

Parade and Contest YIPAO 2008 The Willys jeeps have been used for anything and everything, but one of the most recurring jobs is moving peasant families’ belongings (“corotos”): the so-called “coroteo.” Everything typically found in a coffee farm fits in a Willys jeep: sewing machine, beds, matresses, living room furniture, dining room benches, blankets, clothes, rocking chair, pots, pans, planters, chicken cages, lamps, toilet, hogs, dogs, cats, pictures of the grandparents, chamberpot, pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Divine Child…everything found around the farm is loaded onto the jeep, including the couple and their children.

Parade and Contest YIPAO 2008 The firs Willys jeep driver in Quindio (Colombia) was Mario Jaramillo Arango. When he was asked, “How many men fit in a jeep?” his answer was, “As many as can place their big toe on the floor of the vehicle.” Nowadays, this “yipao” tradition is intact. In spite of more modern vehicles, you can see these jeeps in every town in Quindio, proudly carrying heavy loads of bananas, coffee or people up and down the rural roads. This is one of the most authentic expressions of Colombian folklore.

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