The story
Festival Nacional de la Saloma in Azuero
The saloma, a traditional Panamanian vocal call used historically by campesino farmers in the fields, is celebrated in the Azuero region through folk competitions that judge singers on style categories such as saloma de amor, de camino and de fiesta.
The saloma is one of the more distinctive sounds in Panama's rural folk repertoire: a vocal call, closer to a yodel or a field holler than a sung song, that campesino farmers in the Azuero Peninsula historically used to communicate across open fields, mark a journey, or signal a celebration.