La Caravana

The card, and how far it lets us read

The Archive keeps the crew's business card, framed. Below the name in red script comes the drawn wagon between two signs, and across its canvas, in quotation marks, the description the business used for itself: “Discoteca Móvil”. At the foot, the name of its owner — Sebastián Battaglia (Hijo) — above the word “Propietario”, and to the right a telephone number.

That the title is printed settles one question and leaves another open: Battaglia was the owner of the business, but the card does not say whether he also founded it, nor who worked the turntables. In other references the surname circulates in two further forms — “Battaglisi”, which is how this Archive itself published it for years, and “Batalla”, which is what the Minitecas TV channel calls him; the card, a document of the crew itself, fixes it as Battaglia. The signs and the telephone number, on the other hand, cannot be transcribed: the copy that exists is small, 450 by 315 pixels, the size in which it circulated.

The description does matter, and it is the one the crew chose for itself: “discoteca móvil”, not “miniteca”. It is the vocabulary that predates the term Víctor Morín coined in January 1967 — though it should not be pushed too far: “discoteca móvil” went on being used for decades alongside “miniteca”. It serves as an indication of age; not as proof.

1978: the first firm date

The earliest dated reference placing La Caravana in activity comes from the Las Minitecas Originales archive, which published material identified as “La Caravana 1978 — Gerardo Santamaría”, provided by Miguel Gomis. The date is the firm point from which its chronology begins to be built; the two names accompanying it, by contrast, still have no established role. There is no record of whether Santamaría was a discjockey, an operator, a partner or an owner, nor whether Gomis was part of the crew or merely kept its photographic archive.

December 7, 1979: the Poliedro

As the decade closed, La Caravana appears on the bill of the Segunda Guerra del Poliedro — presented as the first guerra de minitecas, the sound clashes of the movement, of national scope — alongside the miniteca Saturno, T-Connection, Betelgeuse, Music Factory, Explosión, The Lechuga's People, Savannah and Crazy Full. It was the first time the interior of the country competed in Caracas under the same rules: Saturno came up from Maracaibo and T-Connection from Barquisimeto.

The miniteca Explosión won, with Betelgeuse in second place and The Lechuga's People in third. Off the podium were Music Factory, Crazy Full, the miniteca Savannah and La Caravana itself.

Its presence there matters more than the result: whatever year it began, by the end of the seventies it was still inside the circuit and competing on the largest stage the movement ever had.

Before Los Muertos Andantes?

The oral tradition of the movement has at times placed La Caravana among the crews that preceded or coexisted with Los Muertos Andantes, the project Víctor Morín set in motion in January 1967. It is a version passed down by protagonists and enthusiasts, and it is recorded as such.

No dated source has been found proving that La Caravana already existed before 1967, or placing its birth in the sixties. That its card calls it a “discoteca móvil” rather than a miniteca points that way, but it is a weak indication: the expression coexisted with “miniteca” long afterwards. The question remains open: not denied, unanswered.

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Credits and sources

• · Commercial description (“Discoteca Móvil”) and the owner, Sebastián Battaglia (Hijo): the crew's own framed business card, kept in the CMTK Archive — archive of La Revista de las Minitecas (DJ Vladimir Medina). Primary source; a 450×315 copy, read at the limit of its resolution.
• · Spelling of the surname: “Battaglia” is published, which is what the crew’s own card prints. Two further forms circulate — “Battaglisi”, how this Archive published it for years, and “Batalla”, used by the MINITECAS TV channel.
• · The wagon as the booth, with the counter of equipment under the canvas: photograph of the unit kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · Whiskey barrels as stands for the speakers and circulation through El Paraíso, Santa Mónica, Montalbán, Bello Monte and Los Chaguaramos: accounts from protagonists and connoisseurs of the scene, kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · Material dated 1978 and identified as “La Caravana 1978 — Gerardo Santamaría”, provided by Miguel Gomis: Las Minitecas Originales archive.
• · Participation in the 2nd Guerra del Poliedro (Dec 7, 1979) and the results of that edition: documentary video “Minitecas en el Poliedro de Caracas: Ritmo, Poder y Leyenda de las mejores minitecas de venezuela” (MINITECAS TV channel) — Minitecas TV / Grego Entertainment, narrated by Alberto Oliveira, stories by Gonzalo (González) Muñoz: youtu.be/p0Via5D2cMU transcript kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · Coining of the term “miniteca” by Víctor Morín in January 1967 with Los Muertos Andantes: MiniTK Archive entry.
• · The version placing La Caravana among the crews earlier than or contemporary with Los Muertos Andantes: oral history of the movement. No dated source supporting it has been found; it is recorded UNRESOLVED.