Paranda
Nearly all music is a melting pot, a
new image of its influences and predecessors. In Central America, Garifuna
music is unique in that it is a blend of African and indigenous music without
any influence from the European cultures that became dominant in all the Americas. The
offspring of the indigenous Awarak tribe and African slaves who survived from
two sinking slave ships, the Garifuna have always preferred an isolated
existence. As these people enter the Twenty-first Century and near extinction,
Ivan Duran and Stonetree Records in Belize have undergone painstaking
labors to at least preserve the music by recording it. Likewise, a spin-off of
Garifuna music came into existence around the middle of the seventeenth century
when Spanish guitar and musical styles lent themselves as a variation on
Garifuna music, and a style called Paranda was born.
Ever vigilant to preserve disappearing
Central American musical genres, Stonetree has released a compilation CD
called, quite simply, “Paranda”. The lineup of musicians is, in itself, a
revealing portrayal of this fading musical style. Most of the performers on this
disc are getting on in their years, with very few students left to carry the
torch. Paul Nabor, who is featured several times on the Paranda disc, is a
religious leader in Punta Gorda, the small village in Southern
Belize where he resides. He is also seventy-two years old and the
last living Parandero there. Garbaga Williams was exuberant about having his
songs preserved. He explained that due to his arthritis he could no longer play
guitar, that his friend Dale Guzman would play his songs. Since the recording
of the CD, Garbaga has passed away. Tall and thin, Jursino Cayetano, 60, is one
of ten children and the last living Parandero from Guatemala. And Junie Aranda, at the
age of 57, is one of the youngest of the living Paranda legends. Aranda was
born and raised in Dangriga, the largest Garifuna center in Belize. The
last musician there to play Paranda music, he is teaching it to his son. And
there is a new generation of Garifunas who are eager to learn the music. But
the number of torchbearers keeps dwindling.
The music on the CD
is the result of two years of research, traveling and recording on Duran’s
part, to small Garifuna villages spread throughout Belize,
Honduras and Guatemala. The
percussion comes from handmade drums, shakers, turtle shells and conches with a
definite, distinguishable West African style to it. As with traditional
Garifuna lyrics, the subject matter of the songs deal with local events, from
the death of an aging sister to, as Junie Aranda describes them, the “getting
back songs”. When someone in Dangriga crosses his path, he writes a song about
it. In no time, everyone in town hears about the neighbor who owes Junie money
or a former employer who did him an injustice. The songs all have a very
personal texture to them, especially the laments. You can almost hear Paranda
singing its last breath. Hear it at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa
Tamarindo. All comments concerning this article are gladly welcomed.
