![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/18122016-1.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>Children of the Alma Llanera project - Photo courtesy of Fundamusical<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/18122016-2.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>One of the imported instruments for the Alma Llanera project<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nFundamusical \r\nused 11.7 million dollars from money financed to the system of orchestras of the \r\nUnited Nations Development Program (UNDP) to import 31,465 native musical \r\ninstruments like the cuatro<\/I>, according to figures from the multilateral \r\norganization. Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who frequently played llanera<\/I> music (music \r\nfrom the Venezuelan plains) in his marathon television broadcasts, gave in 2012 \r\na great compliment to the Alma Llanera project by allocating over 395 million \r\nbolivars to \"strengthen\" the plan and help it achieve \"expansion throughout the \r\nnational territory.\" Ch\u00e1vez, who was born in the state of Barinas, in the plains \r\nof the center west of the country, wanted to include the teaching of Venezuelan \r\ntraditional music in the model of maestro Abreu.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\ninitial goal was to incorporate 41,170 children into the project. But the \r\ncuatros<\/I> to be distributed since November 2013 among new musicians did not \r\narrive from Carora, a town in the state of Lara, known for its tradition in the \r\nmanufacturing of the instrument, but from \r\nChina.<\/p>\n\n\n
The Year of the Cuatro\u2026 in China<\/h2>\n\n\n
Year \r\n2013 could be the year of the Venezuelan cuatro<\/I>, but ended up being the \r\nChinese cuatro<\/I>. \"Once again the Bolivarian Government extolled the \r\nVenezuelan cultural heritage, because on Tuesday, April 9, the Cuatro<\/I> was \r\ndeclared a Cultural Heritage of the Nation<\/A>,\u201d \r\ninformed the Institute of Cultural Heritage (IPC), attached to the Ministry of \r\nCulture, in a press release of April 2013, one month after the death of Hugo \r\nCh\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Precisely \r\nfour were the reasons that the entity considered to elevate this instrument that \r\noften adorns the walls of some homes, the origin of which goes back to the \r\n\"Renaissance Guitarrilla\" brought by the Spaniards to Venezuela in the \r\n16th century to the status of cultural symbol. First, that the \r\ncuatro<\/I> is an instrument that \"is played almost in the totality of the \r\nVenezuelan folkloric musical genres;\" second, that the \"Venezuelan population \r\nhas sentimentally conferred the cuatro<\/I> the rank of national instrument;\" \r\nthird, that the cuatro<\/I> \"provides and grants Venezuelan identity to the \r\ndiversity of genres and musical expressions;\" and fourth, that the \r\ncuatro<\/I>, unlike other Venezuelan instruments, is the one with \" the most \r\ndesigns, manuals, methods and guides.\" That justification was not useful to \r\nprevent that a government agency almost simultaneously ordered the manufacture \r\nand importation of the cuatro<\/I> from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t