BUCARAMANGA. Mitos, cuentos de espantos y leyendas: Tradición oral en el municipio del Socorro, Colombia

The activation of heritage is the starting point of many goals. One of them is the safeguarding which begins with the inventory and cataloging of the cultural heritage of a country, region or community. This procedure faces particular challenges when it comes to manifestations of the oral tradition such as those in Colombia called "cuentos de espantos" - scary stories, frightening stories related to supernatural characters and spaces transmitted by the oral tradition. Most of the challenges have to do with their financing, sustainability, lack of regulation adjusted to the needs of our particular oral tradition and or background research on the subject. Discussing the challenges and presenting the possibilities to overcome them, articulating oral tradition with cultural tourism is the aim of this paper.