Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez (born May 27, 1927 in Patillal, Cesar) is a Colombian composer and troubadour. He is known for being one of the most if not the most prominent vallenato music composer and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araujo and Alfonso Lopez Michelsen. He is also a long time friend of writer Gabriel García Márquez, who included him in his stories and once told him that his own master piece novel, 100 years of solitude, was just a 350 page Vallenato. Escalona's songs compilate the history and stories of the Magdalena Department of the past 20th century. Escalona is an atypical music composer, he does not sing or play any instruments making his songs in some way difficult to analyze. His songs constitute a legacy of a past generation of Colombians in his memory, a pictorial collage, full of grace, that narrates stories, customs and gossips from his region. He also leaves a legacy of his loves and pains, humor and poetry. In 1991 Caracol TV produced a television series named Escalona, after the vallenato legend. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.