|
|
 |
Feature
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Pasadena Weekly, Feature >>
-by Bliss
Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective’s music celebrates the soul of their culture as they strive to keep it alive
Thanks to YouTube and MySpace, it's easier than ever to get acquainted with foreign music, customs and cultures. They've worked to the advantage of Andy Palacio, a savvy artist from Belize. Yet modern technology and the world it motors also threaten the very existence of Palacio's Garifuna culture.
Garifuna trace their roots to West African slaves who survived a shipwreck off the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1635 and melded with indigenous tribes in the region. Eventually exiled by the British to Central America, they settled along the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala and Belize; today Garifuna number approximately 350,000. In 2001, Garifuna music, language and dance were named Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Palacio helped make that happen: When he isn't touring the globe, he serves as cultural ambassador and deputy administrator of the National Institute of Culture and History for Belize.
Palacio, who grew up in Barranco, Belize, first surged to popularity in the 1980s and '90s playing punta rock, a regional dance form based on a Garifuna rhythm. He's become a global star since the February release of “Wátina,” a fresh, widely hailed album that sounds utterly contemporary yet is both more traditional and more varied than punta rock.
Stardom wasn't his initial goal though. College plans to be a teacher were derailed by a Nicaraguan field trip that introduced him to an elderly man who spoke Garifuna. As Palacio tells it, the old man was ecstatic at meeting a young person who actually spoke his language, because he'd feared it would die with him. That opened Palacio's mind to the very real probability that Garifuna culture was on a fast track to extinction in Belize as well. Too many of his countrymen were seduced by Western pop culture.
After turning from techno-oriented dance to the more soulful roots of Garifuna music, Palacio shrewdly booked his band, a collective of seasoned Garifuna artists, at global music festivals; they're currently touring North America. Videos of them can be downloaded from YouTube. Palacio recently collaborated with Fatboy Slim, while “Wátina” producer Ivan Duran's readying an album by Garifuna women singers.
It remains to be seen whether Palacio will reclaim his day job or if global applause will lift the Garifuna Collective to the starry heights ascended by the Buena Vista Social Club. But he's succeeded in positioning his people, and their music, on a world stage where they're finally being heard - and welcomed. 08/02/07 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
