Grima (Colombian Machete Fencing)
Umbrella term for more than thirty mostly Afro-Colombian styles of fencing with the machete, the bordón stick and other weapons, centred on the Cauca region.
Quick Facts
ColombiaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Grima (Colombian Machete Fencing)
Grima, a short form of the Spanish esgrima (fencing), is according to T. J. Desch-Obi an umbrella term for more than thirty styles of martial art practised until the middle of the 20th century and centred on the Colombian region of Cauca. Its full name is esgrima de machete y bordón, fencing with the machete and the stick. According to Desch-Obi, people of African descent in Cauca began to develop the basic styles already in the time of slavery, and trained in fighting with the machete, the azagaya, the stick and also without weapons. In the second half of the 19th century grima diversified into more than thirty styles, and manuscripts called cartillas de malicia set down the techniques, teaching and lineage of each style. Today schools in the north of Cauca maintain grima, among them an academy in Puerto Tejada. On 25 July 2025 the National Council for Cultural Heritage positively assessed the candidacy of esgrima de machete y bordón del Norte del Cauca for the national inventory of intangible heritage, which according to the ministry opens the way to a safeguarding plan.
History
T. J. Desch-Obi writes in a peer-reviewed 2020 article that people of African descent in Cauca began to develop the basic styles of grima in the time of slavery and that these styles rested on the principles of fighting in the African diaspora, chiefly on bodily agility and cunning (malicia). In 1850 country people of African descent entered the towns during an uprising and turned their fighting sticks against the upper classes. Slavery was abolished in Colombia in January 1852. In the second half of the 19th century grima diversified into more than thirty styles, each with its own choreographies.
Read more
According to Desch-Obi, the Caucaseco style arose in 1858 in the Caucaseco area, a refuge of liberal fighters of African descent after Melo's failed rebellion of 1854. It combined at least two older styles: Relancino, dating from the time of slavery and built on the azagaya weapon, and Español, the first of a line of upright styles for fighting at a distance. The surviving manuscript is the expanded second edition, written down in 1875 by maestro Manuel Cárdenas and later used by maestro Agapito Lenis, a secret messenger of the liberals in the Thousand Days' War. Michael J. Ryan states in a 2020 article that in the wars of independence in the early 19th century and in the Thousand Days' War in the early 20th century the blade was one of the main offensive weapons. Soldiers of African descent from Cauca conscripted for the border war with Peru found, according to him, that their single-shot rifles were no match for the Peruvian repeaters, and reached for the machete. According to the newspaper El País (Cali), maestro Miguel Lourido places the beginnings of the history of Puerto Tejada at the end of the 18th century in the free settlement of runaway slaves of Monte Oscuro. Africans brought, according to him, fighting knowledge that in the Americas mixed with Spanish sabre fencing, and the first maestros transferred it to the machete and combined it with the bordón stick. According to Jhonny Alexander Muñoz Aguilera's 2023 article, at the beginning of the fifties of the 20th century the practice was punished with prison as it was considered subversive.
How it differs
Desch-Obi states that Venezuela, Argentina and Cuba had parallel martial arts traditions, but none of them apparently produced a written tradition comparable to the Colombian cartillas de malicia. According to Ryan, grima schools developed special guards at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century meant to lure the opponent into certain attacks, and other schools created countertactics against them, for example the Venezolano Moderno style against the Grenadino style.
Technique
Ryan describes grima as an umbrella term for several mostly Afro-Colombian fighting systems with a single stick or machete, or with a stick and a machete in both hands. Some styles also taught the shorter and thinner machetes called peinillas, two peinillas, the spear, the knife, the whip and the razor. Of thirty-five styles still practised he names as most popular, among others, Sombra Caucana, Palo Negro, Cubano, Español, Francés, Relancino, Venezolano, el Costeño and Sombra Japonés. According to him they all share a common core of eight strikes and basic blocks.
Read more
The starting position with a weapon is, according to Desch-Obi, called parada and resembles the guard in European fencing. From it starts the cruza, a paired choreography that formed the core of teaching. The manuscript of the Caucaseco style has 72 pages and five sections, among them Juego Sencillo with the first thirty lessons for one weapon, Juego Doble with cruzas for two or more weapons and Paradas Sueltas with twenty supplementary paradas. The central weapon pair in this style was the azagaya with a blade, a machete or a sword. The azagaya had three lengths and shapes and could be thrown, thrust or used to cut. The newspaper El País describes the technique falso diagonal, in which the machete fighter traces a triangle back and forth, feints a lunge to make the opponent defend, then strikes to the opposite side. Maestro Lourido mentions the technique elástico de sombra, fencing in the dark, which he says is disappearing. According to Muñoz Aguilera, the juego of maestro Ananías Caniquí has 16 cruzas in all.
Training
According to Muñoz Aguilera, training begins with simple play (juego sencillo) with one weapon or bordón stick and continues with double play (juego doble), in which a second weapon or stick is added. According to an article republished by Global Voices, most training bouts are fought with sticks and the machetes used are blunted. According to the newspaper El País, the bordón stick is made of guásimo wood. Ryan places Colombia alongside Barbados and parts of Venezuela among the countries where the teaching of stick and blade fighting is marked by an established pedagogy, not by intuitive training based on full-contact sparring. According to Desch-Obi, grima masters accepted students who paid the full tuition for the style, some allowed payment per individual paradas, and the Caucaseco manuscript even lists paradas that the master should not teach at all.
Ranks and progression
According to Desch-Obi, the cartillas de malicia manuscripts served mainly as a badge of authority, and students valued them as a diploma confirming them as masters. Only someone who had completed training and passed a final examination received a copy of the master's cartilla. Muñoz Aguilera states that owning a cartilla is as prestigious as a diploma and that students have no access to them during training. According to master Lourido in the newspaper El País, one progressed from student (discípulo) through the contramaestro, a gifted student at the highest level, to master, which a contramaestro became when the head master handed him the cartilla.
Today
At a session of the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC) in Bogotá on 25 July 2025, the bearers of the tradition of esgrima de machete y bordón del Norte del Cauca applied for inclusion in the national register of intangible cultural heritage (LRPCI). According to the Ministry of Culture, the council gave a favourable opinion on the candidacy, which allows the move to preparing a special safeguarding plan. According to the Cauca department administration, work on the safeguarding plan with ministry support was already under way in September 2021. The academy of machete and stick fencing in Puerto Tejada is led, according to the newspaper El País, by master Miguel Lourido and based in the Casa del Cacao, a centre of ethnic and cultural memory. In November Puerto Tejada hosts a festival where masters and students of schools from the north of Cauca gather. Lourido learned mainly from Héctor Elías Sandoval, known as don Sando, who died in 2022 at the age of 93 and received the Premio Vida y Obra from the Ministry of Culture. According to Muñoz Aguilera, the students of master Ananías Caniquí continue in Mazamorrero and San Francisco (Santander de Quilichao).
Did you know
According to Desch-Obi, there was a tradition of burning a master's books after his death, and the manuscript of the Caucaseco style survived only because César Lenis broke it. Ryan states that the Colombian grima is unusual in how large a role women played in it. According to the newspaper El País, the portraits in the academy in Puerto Tejada include, alongside masters such as Manuel María Caicedo and Teófilo Arboleda, the women Torelia Sandoval and Fanny Molina. A demonstration of machete and stick fencing opened the Petronio Álvarez Pacific music festival in 2025.
Frequently asked questions
What does the word grima mean?
Grima is a short form of the Spanish word esgrima, fencing. Its full name is esgrima de machete y bordón, fencing with the machete and the bordón stick.
Is grima practised with sharp machetes?
According to an article taken over by Global Voices in 2025, the machetes used are blunted and most training fights are conducted with sticks. According to Muñoz Aguilera, training begins with one weapon or stick and only later is the second added.
Is grima registered as an intangible heritage of Colombia?
As of 25 July 2025, the Ministry of Culture reports a positive opinion of the National Council for Cultural Heritage on the candidacy of esgrima de machete y bordón del Norte del Cauca, not an inscription. According to the ministry, the opinion makes it possible to proceed to the preparation of a special safeguarding plan.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.