"Palenquero", a Spanish-based Creole language

Sometimes it’s amazing how things happen. When our discussion about language, identity and their implications is still fresh, today in the New York Times there is an article about Palenquero.

Palenquero is a language spoken in a small town in Colombia that could be, according to the article, “the last remnant of a Spanish-based lingua franca once used widely by slaves throughout Latin America.”

Talking about his community, a local schoolteacher says:

“We are the strongest of the strongest,” he continued. “No matter what happens, our language will live on within us.”

I can think of many connotations of having a lingua franca of this nature, both during the colonial period and surviving until our time. What do you think about it?

Here is the link to the original article in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/americas/18colombia.html?ex=13

Óscar

Ecuadorian bomba

More music, as I promised. This is bomba from the Valle de Chota, about two hours north of Quito, in the Sierra. The Afro-Ecuadorian population there began when Jesuit priests brought African slaves to work the haciendas. The indigenous presence there is much stronger than on the coast - Chota is near Otavalo. The Quichua of Otavalo have been extremely successful in marketing their crafts and culture to tourists in Otavalo and throughout Ecuador and the world, while maintaining a strong ethnic identity. If you've been to the Farmers' Market here in Madison or craft shows even throughout Wisconsin (at least Monroe and Appleton, from personal experience), you've probably seen them either playing music or selling sweaters and jewelry. The group playing here is Marabu, and if I remember correctly, the concert was in rememberance of Jaime Hurtado, a leftist Afro-Esmeraldeno politician who was murdered in the late 90s and whose killers have never been aprehended.

Bibliographical references

For Afro-Mexican music

Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo. 1971. “Baile de negros.” Heterofonía 3/17: 4-9, 18.

Béhague, Gerard H. 1994. “Introduction.” In Music and Black Ethnicity: The Caribbean and
South America, ed. Gerar H. Béhague. University of Miami: North-South Center Press:
v-xii.

Chamorro, Arturo. 1951. La herencia africana en la música tradicional de las costas y las
tierras calientes. Zamora, Michoacán: El Colegio de Michoacán.

Kubik, Gerhard. 1995. “Ethnicity, Cultural Identity, and the Psychology of Culture Contact.”
In Music and Black Ethnicity: The Caribbean and South America, ed. Gerar H. Béhague.
University of Miami: North-South Center Press: 17-46

Lemmon, Alfred E. 1997. “Los jesuítas y la musica de los negros.” In Heterofonía 10/6: 5-9.

Martínez Ayala, Jorge Amós. 2001. “¡Voy polla! El fandango en el Balsas.” In La Tierra
Caliente de Michoacán, ed. José Eduardo Zárate Hernández. Zamora, Michoacán: El
Colegio de Michoacán: Gobierno del Estado de Michoacán: 363-85.

Moedano Navarro, Gabriel, notes. 2002. Soy el negro de la costa: Música y poesía
afromestiza de la Costa Chica. Various artists. México City, Mexico: Conaculta, Instituto
Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Ediciones Pentagrama 33. CD. 2nd ed. 1st ed. 1996.

Nketia, Kwabena. 1979. The Music of Africa. New York: Norton & Norton Co.

Ochoa Serrano, Álvaro. 1997. Afrodescendientes sobre piel canela. Zamora, Michoacán: El
Colegio de Michoacán, A.C.

------. 2000. Mitote, fandando y maricheros. Zamora, Michoacán: El Colegio de Michoacán.
2nd. ed. 1st ed. 1994.

Pérez Fernández, Rolando Antonio. 1990. La música afromestiza mexicana. Xalapa, Veracruz,
Mexico: Universidad Veracruzana.

Reuter, Jas. 1981. La música popular de México: origen e historia de la música que canta y
toca el pueblo mexicano. México D.F, Mexico: Panorama Editorial, S.A.

Roberts, John Storm. 1998. Black music of two worlds: African, Caribbean, Latin, and
African-American traditions. New York: Schirmer Books.

Ruiz Rodríguez, Carlos. 2001. “Apuntes sobre la música y baile de artesa de San Nicolás
Tolentino, Guerrero.” In Lenguajes de la tradición popular: fiesta, canto, música y
representación, ed. Yvette Jiménez de Báez. México D.F., Mexico: El Colegio de México:
167-78.

Saldívar, Gabriel. 1987. Historia de la música en México. Toluca, Mexico: Ediciones del
Gobierno del Estado de México. Facsimil of 2nd ed. 1980. 1st ed. 1934.

Serna, Juan Manuel de la. 2002. “Slavery.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican
Cultures. The civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Oxford: University Press.
Vol.3: 150-52.

Sheehy, Daniel E. 1979. “The Son Jarocho: Style and Repertory of a Changing Regional Mexican
Musical Tradition.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Ethnomusicology, University of California at Los
Angeles.

------. 1998. “Mexico.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 2: South
America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, ed. Dale A. Olsen and Daniel E.
Sheehy. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc.: 600-25.

------. 1999. “Popular Mexican Musical Traditions: The Mariachi of West Mexico and the
Conjunto Jarocho of Veracruz.” In Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions,
ed. John M. Schechter. New York: Schirmer Books: 34-79.

Stanford, Thomas. 1972. “The Mexican Son.” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council
4: 66-86.

------. 2001a. “Mexico, United States of (Sp. Estados Unidos Mexicanos): II. Traditional Music,
2. Mestizo forms.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley
Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, Vol.16: 548-52.

Stanford, E. Thomas, notes. 2001b. El son mexicano: grabaciones de campo de E. Thomas
Stanford. México City, Mexico: Urtext S.A. de C.V. UL 3011/13. 3 CDs.

------. 2002. Música de la Costa Chica de Guerrero y Oaxaca. Various artists. México City,
Mexico: Conaculta, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Ediciones Pentagrama
21. CD. 5th ed. 1st ed. 1977.

Latin America-Demographics (wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America#Demographics

A Country Study: Mexico

I'm adding the page "A Country Study: Mexico" to our links. I think it offers a good overview of Mexican history and may come in handy for some historical references.
(Raquel)

Bomba Puertorriqueña

I "googled" the Bomba Puertorriqueña and found this video in youtube. I just think it is nice to see the different African traditions in the Latino countries.

Charlyn :P


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxkABBpIxeY

Photos of Afro-Mexico

Downtown Oaxaca City




1. Ixrael Montes, artist living in Oaxaca City, with his El Perro de Vecino (2006)
2. Ruidas y Sonidas (2006)
3. Cuatete (2007)




1. Baltazar Castellano Melo, native of the Costa Chica and art student in Oaxaca City. Pictured with various untitled works.
2. Dolor de un Tono (2006)
3. La Negra Querendana (2006)




1. Leoncio Rojas, a famous mask-maker in Collantes, Oaxaca.
2. Mask for the Danza de los Diablos, seen here.




1. View of the parade for the Festa Santiago in San Nicolas, Guerrero.
2. Alternate shot of the parade. Men rode on the left side, carrying large Mexican flags while women and girls rode on the other, clas in elaborate, colorful dresses and decorated sombreros.




1. El Ciruelo, Oaxaca (home of Glyn Jemmott!)
2. Guillermo Vargas, a sculptor living in El Ciruelo.
3. Various untitled sculptures by Guillermo Vargas.



1. La Danza de la Tortuga (Turtle Dance) in the street in Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero.
2. Cuajinicuilapa market.




1. El Museo de las Culturas Afromestizas, Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero.
2. Re-creation of a casa redonda, a type of house specific to this region built as late as the 1960s.
3. Close-up shot of a diorama depicting slave labor; Museo de las Culturas Afromestizas.




Two works by Eduardo Anorve Zapata, artist and amateur scholar living in Cuajinicuilapa.
1. La Danza (de los Diablos)
2. Tres Estaciones ("Us and Them")




Two works by Aydee Rodriguez Lopez, one of the only (if not the only) prominent female Afro-Mexican artist. Works and lives in Cuajinicuilapa.
1. Los Diablos (2006)
2. Cuijla 1938 (2005) - "Cuijla" and "Cuaji" are short for Cuajinicuilapa.


-Matt Rarey

Conference - Global Movements, Local Identities: Race, Space, and African Diaspora in Latin America

Global Movements, Local Identities: Race, Space, and the African Diaspora in Latin America

MARCH 6-7, 2008

University of California Los Angeles

Organized by the UC Berkeley Afro-Latino Working Group and
the UCLA Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics

Sponsored by the Inter-American Foundation

Abstract Submission Deadline: November 12, 2007

In recent years there has been an explosion in scholarship that goes beyond recognizing the presence of Afro-Latin Americans and towards interrogating this topic more deeply. Building on the momentum of this research and a successful 2007 Afro-Latino Working Group Conference, our second annual conference will be held in collaboration with the UCLA
Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. The goal of this conference is to advance inter-disciplinary scholarship that produces critical theories and methodologies for understanding the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. We aim to create a forum for graduate students to dialogue with established scholars whose work explores the
African Diaspora in Latin America. This conference will foster new academic dialogues about race, ethnicity, culture, society, economy, politics and nation.

The 2008 conference will focus on the impact of movement, globalization, and notions of space on processes of racialization and identity formation within the African Diaspora in Latin America. Departing from scholarship that treats the African Diaspora in Latin America as a fixed product of forced migration from Africa, this conference will highlight continual movement and interaction within the Diaspora. It seeks to explore cultural and political change within the African Diaspora as well as examine the creation of new diasporas.

The conference will feature a series of graduate student panels as well as an invited faculty roundtable with preeminent scholars working on the African Diaspora in Latin America. The conference is oriented towards graduate students pursuing projects about the African Diaspora in Latin America (including Mexico, Central and South America, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the United States and other global Latino communities). We invite abstract submissions from current graduate students on a diverse array of topics and disciplinary orientations that are both theoretical and empirical in content. We will not accept submissions from tenured faculty. We strongly encourage papers that address under-theorized regions in the Americas as well as comparative and regional works. We offer the following themes as submission suggestions:

• Migration, Transnationalism, and Border Politics
• Theorizing Race and Diaspora(s)
• Race, Gender, and Sexuality
• Social Movements and the Politics of Race
• Forced Displacement, Human Trafficking and Violence
• Globalization, Race, and National Identity
• Comparative Historical and Literary Analysis
• Regionalism, Race, and Space
• Popular Culture, Folklore, and Racial Representations
• Impact of Technology and Mass Media on Racialized Identities

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the organizing committee preferably via email as word documents or PDF files. Submissions that must be mailed should be received via USPS no later than the submission due date. We can only accept abstracts for individual papers or poster presentations; please do not submit panel abstracts. Please submit abstracts by November 12, 2007. No late submissions will be accepted. Submissions should include:
1. the abstract,
2. current contact information,
3. presentation title and current C.V.

Accepted authors will be notified by December 17, 2007, along with full submission guidelines for papers or poster presentations. Full papers are due on February 4, 2008. All papers and presentations must be available in English. Papers may be made available for publication at a later date.
Submissions and inquiries should be sent to: afrolatinogroup[at]berkeley.edu or via USPS to Vielka C. Hoy, Afro-Latino Working Group, 660 Barrows Hall, #2572, Berkeley, CA 94720.

Please check our website regularly for updated conference and registration information:
http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Research/workinggroups/groups/afrolatino.html

Petra Raquel Rivera
Ph.D. Candidate
African Diaspora Studies
Afro-Latino Working Group
University of California, Berkeley

Conference - Music and Tradition

“Music and Tradition” at SW/TX-PCA/ACA 13-16 Feb 2008 (Dec 1)

The 29th Annual Meeting of the SW/TX PCA/ACA
February 13–16, 2008
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

The SW/TX PCA/ACA annual conference represents one of the nation's largest
gatherings of interdisciplinary scholars, with a particular interest in
critical examinations of non-traditional or cross-disciplinary topics. In
order to maximize the pool of submissions, the deadline for proposals has
been extended to December 1.

The 2008 SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico at
the Hyatt Regency downtown, and the Keynote Speaker will be Joy Harjo, an
internationally known poet, performer, writer and musician of the
Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Further details regarding the conference (listing of
all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) can be found at
http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/index.html

Now accepting proposals for “Music and Tradition” (formerly “Folk Music”) in
the Music Area, a well-represented area with outstanding participants in
years past. We welcome proposals on the interaction of music and
tradition—broadly defined—their role in American popular culture, including
storytelling, film, television, radio, literature, and the Internet.
Prospective topics include:

* Hispanic and Native American musical traditions of the Southwest

* Musical traditions immigrant communities, particularly those which came
from elsewhere and were established in the Southwest

* Musical traditions of historically-underrepresented minorities: persons of
color, LGBT, women, etc.

* Musical traditions across the continent as a tool of enculturation or
re-affiliation

* Appropriations, assimilations, borrowings, and “readings” of musical
traditions into mainstream culture

Particular interest/emphasis upon

* Changing performance or reception contexts for folk and traditional musics

* Changes and adaptation of musical traditions for purposes of identity
politics

Inquiries regarding this area and/or abstracts of 250 words may be sent to
Chris Smith at the email address below; Dr Smith will coordinate the panel
but it will be chaired, in his absence, by a qualified substitute. Proposals
(electronic only, please) should include current curriculum vitae or résumé
(3-page maximum) and a 250-word abstract, including name, institutional
affiliation if any, and working title. For graduate students a complete list
of SW/TX PCA/ACA awards and submission information is available at the
conference website.

Conference Website: http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/ (updated regularly)

Submission deadline is December 1 2007. The registration deadline is
December 31, 2007. All participants must register by that date or will not
be permitted to present or appear in the program.


Dr Christopher Smith
Vernacular Music Center
Department of Musicology
School of Music MS 2033
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409
806.742.2270 x249
christopher.smith_at_ttu.edu

Marimba from Ecuador

Here's a bit of Afro-Ecuadorean music. This is the marimba from Esmeraldas, a province on the northwestern coast of the country. I'd be curious to see how this compares to marimba in Mexico or Central America. The group is called AZUCAR - La Fundacion de Desarrollo Social y Cultural Afroecuatoriano (www.azucarafroe.com) and is based in Quito. In 2006, they received a grant from the Inter-American Foundation:
"$191,350 over three years
AZUCAR will conduct activities that recover Afro-Ecuadorian history and culture and promote their value, encourage the interaction of African descendants with people of other ethnicities and improve well-being." (from the IAF website)
- Hillary

Palmer's article

I came across an interesting article by Palmer that may be of interest. "Defining and Studying the Modern African Diaspora", Perspectives 36(1998). Welcome your views on same.(JG)

Question???

Who is able to see this??? Everybody, or just our class??

Charlyn

AAS 669

Hello,

I just want to see if this works. :P

Charlyn

Domino on Wednesdays

This blog is a meeting place, a corner in a square where every Wednesday afternoon we gather to play domino and to talk about Afro-Mexicans, life, roots, past and present. It is a place for conversations, thoughts that you may have now or couldn't be said at that moment, a glass for thirsty ones to share, a meal to eat with our hands.
Welcome!