Along with this rhythm, women sing lyrics containing messages of love, desire, betrayal, fear, pain, happiness, and all the learning experiences that have been transmitted orally from one generation to the next. Punta is performed during Christmas and New Year celebrations and its purpose is to commemorate ancestral struggles of survival. Punta dance is an essential part of my life. Every time I hear the music and every time I dance to it, I am transported to the farthest and most pleasant childhood memories and happiest moments in life.
One of my favorite recollections of dancing Punta as a young child involves my grandmother, mama. I was wearing a small red top and a very wide flower-print skirt.
This event presented everyone in town with the opportunity to dress up, get together to have a good time, and escape the routine of our daily lives.
Growing up, Punta was a source of joy. However, once I began middle school it took on different connotations. Non-Garifuna people began viewing me in a sexualized way. This made me anxious, even scared while dancing Punta. I began to fear non-Garifuna people coming from different communities, whom I felt were looking at me as if I was an exotic specimen created for the sole purpose of their entertainment. It seemed as if all they expected was for me to shake my hips to provoke the most heretical visions in their minds.
I began to recoil emotionally. My self-doubt increased when I realized there was not a single text book in school that included information about the existence of the Garifuna. The most famous song of punta music is Sopa de Caracol by Banda Blanca; The song was originally written by Belizean singer. The diaspora of Garinagu people, commonly called the "Garifuna Nation", dates back to the amalgamation of West African slaves and the Arawak and Carib Amerindians.
Punta is used to reaffirm and express the struggle felt by the indigenous population's common heritage through cultural art forms, such as dance and music, and to highlight their strong sense of endurance. Lyrics may be in Garifuna, Kriol, English or Spanish. Asi fue que yo consegui para poder venir a los Estados Unidos. They were seeking people who would come here to work.
You understand? That is how I was able to come here to the United States. Yet determining the actual population of Garifuna from Honduras in New Orleans remains an ongoing challenge.
According to the U. Census data, Hondurans are New Orleans' largest Spanish-speaking cultural group with a population of 11, The census form does not allow for mixed African and Central American ancestry, so it is difficult to determine exact population numbers. Additionally, many Garifuna refer to themselves as a race and have issues identifying as either Hispanic or African-American for the census.
This is further complicated by the fact that Garifuna now live in other Central American countries and could be counted in the U. Census as from other countries. Further, numbers of documented and undocumented Garifuna people arrived after Hurricane Katrina, while others evacuated and did not return. These latter Garifuna—typically men—arrived and continue arriving as a consequence of hurricanes and bad storms to do reconstruction work and send money back home to their families.
He explains, "I came here in in search of a better future. And while quietly rebuilding New Orleans along with other Central American counterparts, this new generation of Garifuna is equally contributing to the culture of New Orleans in other ways.
With music and dance being such an integral part of their traditions and daily life, the Garifuna enjoy sharing these with New Orleanians whenever possible. He recalls this intercultural music experience:. I had the pleasure of sharing my Garifuna culture, and it was very interesting to integrate the Garifuna music with other cultures here in New Orleans, to share in community making. To share in music, in rhythms with other cultures. To play to the same rhythm. It was a marvelous form of excellence.
It makes me realize that we can shine in this place that is New Orleans. Yet as a whole, the Garifuna of New Orleans remain mostly invisible. Most New Orleanians, will say that they have never heard of the Garifuna, but when told a little of their history and traditions, they appear fascinated, want to know more, and wonder why they have never heard of them.
They are even more surprised to learn that there is a sizable population living in the greater New Orleans area. One reason that may account for their remaining a mainly insulated community originates with the experiences faced by the first wave of Garifuna. Arriving in the s and early s, being dark skinned, and speaking Garifuna and Spanish, it was difficult to fit into African-American or Spanish-speaking circles, or the community at large.
Through the passing of time and intermarriage with Hispanics or African Americans, the Garifuna appear to have overcome some of the earlier ethnic, racial, and cultural isolation. We have a culture of joy, of warmth, of a friendly nature, we laugh a lot like New Orleanians.
We enjoy life. That's how we are. Many other people enjoy our culture too. Perhaps with the exception of Cuba, no other Latin American or Caribbean country as a whole is as noted for the mulitiplicity of their music and dance forms as the transnational Garifuna.
Well known for its strong West-African influence on the vigorous rhythm of drumming styles and dance forms, their music is also highly indicative of the African oral tradition of call and response patterns in songs, and allusions to the sacred or ancestor worship. The Garifuna say their music is not about sentiment or emotion like in most other Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Garifuna say their music is about events, rituals, and concerns. It's about describing and dealing with the world around them. Rutilia Figueroa, a Garifuna elder has the following description of the meaning of their music:. The Garifuna sing their pain. They sing about their concerns. They sing about what's going on. We dance when there is a death. It's a tradition [meant] to bring a little joy to the family, but every song has a different meaning. Different words. The Garifuna does not sing about love.
The Garifuna sings about things that reach your heart. The Garifuna enjoy playing and dancing to their music during birthday parties and other celebratory events, as well as rites of passage. They also listen and dance to their music at community festivals, sports bars, and in the church where the music and dance take on a more spiritual and reverent tone. A traditional Garifuna band is generally composed of drums and call and response vocals following the Garifuna's West African heritage.
Typical instruments include hollow log garaon drums, which involve the primer ; a tenor drum which is also considered the heartbeat or heart of Garifuna music ensembles. Then the segunda , a counter-rhythmic drum which acts to shadow the primera and tercera. Finally, there is the tercera or third drum that maintains the continuing bass line.
Other percussive Garifuna instruments that are scratched, beat, or tapped include a wooden guiro or clave , and other percussion.
In line with the traditions of other indigenous populations from the Americas, siseras or maracas and other organic shakers made from a gourd and filled with dried seeds also find their way into the music. Instrumental variables may further include wires pulled over hollowed drums to give the Garifuna music a natural "zzzzzz" sound equally found in the music of West Africa. Perhaps with the exception of bottle percussion, all instruments are made from the first generations of things found in nature including turtle shells, wood, seashells, and more.
I think one of the reasons our music is so compelling is 'cause it's so natural. It's of the earth. It's part of everything natural. The shell is something you eat and use. So it's something you feel. All the Garifuna instruments are handmade. That's what we feel. And when you hear it, it calls to your heart.
The drums just beckon. The drums are central to a variety of Garifuna music and dance forms that include the hunguhungu, mascaro, indio barbaro, chumba, guanaragua, gunchei, luyano, yankunnu, paranda and the more popular punta , as well as its more modernized version, punta rock. Each musical style differs in its rhythm and form of expression and aside from enjoyment in social settings, is otherwise attributed to an event or time of the year including the Christian holidays of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the day after Christmas, the Epiphany, and also New Year's Eve.
There are many stories to account for the name given to the most popular Garifuna music and dance, the punta. Some of these stories are based on meaning, while others are based on myth. In Spanish, the word punta means "point" as in "tip," and some say the dance derives its name from being performed with the very tips of one's toes.
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