Afinacíon de marimbas

De hace rato mi post sobre la afinación de las marimbas está ahí, pero sigue generando diálogo, lo que me encanta. Recientemente, dejó un comentario el profesor Carlos Miñana, quien escribió el primer estudio tratándose del tema. Para los interesados en este asunto un poco esotérico pero para mí muy interesante y, además, importante, les sugiero la sección de comentarios sobre el post original aquí.

Why Afro-Colombians Oppose the Colombia FTA

February 7th, 2008

Marino Cordoba, founder of the Association of Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES), submitted this post as a guest blogger for The Hill.

The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is considered a non-starter in the U.S. Congress because the country is the world’s deadliest for union activists. Less known, but equally disturbing is the systematic violence now confronting Afro-Colombians.

African descendants comprise 26% of Colombia’s population. As with other African descendants, we face racial discrimination which results in economic hardships far worse than those experienced by the average Colombian. However in Colombia, a vibrant 1980s civil rights movement won full recognition of our cultural rights and collective ownership and community control of our territories and natural resources. The 1991 Colombian Constitution and the landmark Law 70 explicitly enshrine these rights and recognize official democratic Afro-Colombian governance structures, similar to those of your Indian tribes.

The administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has worked consistently to undermine our hard-won civil rights and our control of our territories. Systematic violence against our people and assassinations of our leaders continue unabated to this day.

At the end of 2007, angered by the strong opposition of the majority of Afro-Colombian communities to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA,) Uribe created a new Commission in Colombia that directly challenges our legal governance structure.

Cynically dubbed the Commission for the Advancement of Afro-Colombian People, it would undermine our communities’ ability to advance development strategies chosen by our people that comport with our needs and that help even the economic playing field.

Obviously, our official governance structure and our grassroots organizations oppose this new Commission. Despite this, President George Bush and other U.S. Uribe allies, such as Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and the vast array of lobbying firms hired by the Uribe government are now trying to tout this outrageous Commission as evidence that Afro- Colombian concerns are being addressed as they push to pass the FTA.

Don’t be fooled. President Uribe, the Bush Administration and Congressman Meeks may not like what authentic Afro-Colombian representatives are saying, but our legitimate governing bodies vigorously oppose the FTA, as well as other efforts by Uribe to impose natural resource exploitation projects in our territories without our consent.

Because the Colombian law is on our side, wealthy interests have employed illegal means to physically remove us. Joint operations between the Colombian military and illegal terrorist paramilitary organizations like the “Operation Genesis” in the Afro-Colombian Chocó region have targeted our leaders with assassinations while the Colombian military has aerially bombarded our communities.

Tens of thousands of us have been forced to flee. These attacks clear the way for the entry of oil palm plantations, logging operations, and mining projects advanced by allies of the Uribe Administration.

Colombia has more than 3 million internally displaced peope. This kind of forced displacement is now occurring in port communities and other regions supporters of the FTA seek to develop. None of our lands have been returned to our control.

Accompanying these physical attacks has been a legal assault aimed at formalizing the theft of our land. The Uribe government passed new Forestry and Rural Development Laws and has amended the Mining Law to extinguish our rights and empower oil palm, logging and other companies that have utilized the services of paramilitaries to occupy our territories.

Our communities have vehemently opposed these laws as unconstitutional. Recently the Colombian Supreme Court ruled against the Forestry Law, which would have removed our control of the forests on our land. Our Supreme Court ruled that under international and Colombian law, the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities that strongly opposed the law should have been consulted * which they were not.

The Colombia FTA is the same situation. It is a proposal that our communities oppose, about which our traditional authorities were not consulted, and which would lock in the paramilitary-financiers control of our land. Specifically, the FTA’s expansive foreign investor rights would empower multinational corporations investing in these projects with protections that would make restoration of our lands extremely difficult, even when we win in our courts.

Recognizing our opposition, Uribe and his allies devised this new Commission, which is stacked with Uribe supporters and individuals known to support the FTA, to feign “consultation” with Afro-Colombian communities and issue a determination that the FTA is good for us despite our communities’ contrary conclusions.

Rather than a positive development, this new Commission is a sophisticated ploy to undermine Afro-Colombian rights and is a part of a broader strategy to elevate unrepresentative and illegitimate pro-FTA individuals against the stated interest of Afro-Colombian communities themselves.

Congress can help Afro-Colombians by demanding that President Uribe respect the Colombian Constitution and terminate this Commission that challenges our civil rights. And, Congress should pass House Resolution 618 sponsored by Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) on the plight of Afro-Colombians.

Marino Córdoba is the founder of the Association of Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES). He played a key role in the struggle to secure Colombia’s progressive Law 70, which grants land rights to Afro-Colombian communities. After surviving many attempts on his life, Mr. Cordoba has been forced to live in exile in the United States.

Fakin' it - learning to fake play or really play musical instruments for the movies

Link

Academics and self doubt

According to The Chronicle for Higher Education, self-doubt and the nagging suspicion that we got to where we are by bullshitting, not brains is rife in academica.

"By many accounts, academics — graduate students, junior professors, and even some full professors — relate to this only a little less than they relate to eye strain.

The idea quickly struck a chord with scholars from the working class, along with other beneficiaries of the social mobility that infused higher education in the 1960s and 1970s. Those new academics bristled at the old guard's sense of entitlement. But they found themselves crippled by a stubborn inability to feel the same. Meanwhile, scholars who came from academic legacies — the children of the old guard — had feelings of unearned privilege to contend with."

Link

Racism in Latin America

The Post's Latino blog has an interesting post on racism in Latin America. New York being New York, it's mostly about the Dominican Republic and most of the responses are from Dominicans, but the things that come up show that these problems are bigger than just one country and in fact are common to Latin America. The idea that Latino is not a race, but that in fact we are split by our own internal hierarchies, is something that is not too often aired publicly in front of the Anglos, but it's important. But where does it leave us? Do national links get divided along racial lines as black Latinos squeeze into the dominant African-(North) American mold (despite cultural differences) and white Latinos make themselves into "the new white ethnic" (and take advantage of both relative privilege viz-a-viz their black countrymen and the underdog privilege of non-whites in a white world)? Does class get factored out? Complicated stuff, and difficult to make proscriptions about, but a useful discussion...

Be cultural, dammit!

This article in the Times focuses on the way in which a Chinese-run Tibetan festival is a scene for a particular kind of subterranean resistance on the part of the Tibetans, but there's something else there which is more interesting to me - the way the Chinese, insist that the Tibetans "be cultural" (as they are surrounded by Chinese soldiers with guns and billyclubs) in order to create the illusion that Tibetans are happy about Chinese domination and to promote tourism as a kind of cultural development. Tibetan ethnicity, then, becomes a resource for China, and if the Tibetans don't want to to utilize it, the Chinese are damned sure to encourage them...

Mexican Rock Goes Cosmopolitan/El Rock Mexicano Se Pone Cosmopolita

Cantan en inglés, se representan en MySpace.com, se visten como Captain America, y ya no tocan cumbia rockera. Si el rock en español de los 60 y 70 copiaba el Norte y el rock de los 80 y 90 (como Café Tacuba) hizo un híbrido mexicano, es esto salir del otro lado del túnel de una identidad impuesta? Una simple copia? O una copia con una nueva ironía que deja que tengan el cosmopolitanismo y la localidad a la vez?

Link/Enlace (en inglés)

They sing in English, rep on Myspace, wear Captain America suits, and don't play rocked-out cumbia any more. If 60s and 70s rock-en-español copied the North and 80s and 90s rock (like Café Tacuba) repped Mexican culture, is this coming out the other side of being forced to have a local identity? Or is it just back to copying? Or is it a new kind of copying with a built-in irony tactic?

Interacción "Socio-rítmica" con robots/"Socio-rhythmic" interaction with robots

Dance, Robot, Dance

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11434
La página no quiere traducirse, no sé porque, pero vé cliqueando los links para ver como la gente en el Japón está entrenado los robots a ser más amenos a la interaccíon social con las personas. Interesante que central en la concepción de lo social para estos investigadores son a) la mirada a la cara y b) el ritmo. Por eso, el robotcito amarrillo aquel, como se ve en el video, está entrenado mirarte en la cara y bailar a la música. Y no baila mal!

Marimbas históricas / Historical marimbas

There are some who say that the roots of the marimba of the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador are indigenous rather than African, based on the example of the Central American marimba (which, in fact, is also African.) I disagree. I won't bore anyone with the marimba's vibrato octaves and equiheptatonic tunings, which recreate marimba tunings in West and Central Africa, but Carlos Miñana's study on the subject is pretty convincing (here, in Spanish). It's a bit circumstantial, but the fact that there have been other black populations in South America which used the instrument also strongly suggests African roots, since the only indigenous groups that play marimba in South America live in or near the Pacific coast, that is to say, in close proximity to the descendents of Africans. So, below, check out the old pictures of marimbas. Most of these pictures come from reproductions in Austrian ethnomusicologist Helmut Brenner's new book. I'm sure it's excellent, but I'm even more sure its in German:
Marimbas in Lateinamerika. Historische Fakten und Status quo der Marimbatraditionen in Mexiko, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Kolumbien, Ecuador und Brasilien Hildesheim–Zürich–New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2007. Check Helmut's webpage here.

Hay algunos que sostienen que las raíces de la marimba de la costa pacífica colombo-ecuatoriana son indígenas, no africanas, basando su argumento en el ejemplo de la marimba centroamericana - que de hecho, también tiene sus raíces en África. Yo no estoy de acuerdo. No te voy a aburrir con una discusión de las octavas de vibrato o las afinaciones equiheptatónicas, que reproducen las afinaciones de las marimbas del África occidental y central, pero recomiendo el excelente estudio de Carlos Miñana al respecto. Otra evidencia convincente, es el hecho que otros grupos afrodescendientes también utilizaban el instrumento en Sur América, mientras los únicos grupos indígenas del continente que la usan viven en tierras vecinas con las poblaciones negras. Así que ve a estas viejas pinturas de marimbas. La mayoría de estas imágenes vienen de reproducciones en el nuevo libro del etnomusicólogo austriaco Helmut Brenner's new book. Me imagino que el libro es excelente, pero estoy seguro que no lo pudo leer - es en alemán:
Marimbas in Lateinamerika. Historische Fakten und Status quo der Marimbatraditionen in Mexiko, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Kolumbien, Ecuador und Brasilien Hildesheim–Zürich–New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2007. Ve la página de Helmut aqui.

"Negros tocando marimba y bailando." Acuarela del Perú, años 1782-1787. "Negores playing marimba and dancing." Watercolor, from Peru. 1782-1787. (Brenner 168)
Desafortunadamente, la acuarela es muy esquemática, y no se ven bien los resonadores de la marimba.
Unfortunately, the watercolor is very schematic, and you can't see the marimba's resonators very well.
"Brasiliano Moro, in atto de sonare la Marimba, bei Bonanni, 1722" "Moro brasileño, en el acto de tocar la marimba, Bonanni, 1722." "Brazilian moor, in the act of sounding the marimba, Bonanni 1722." (Brenner 183).
This one is even earlier, from an Italian Jesuit's account in 1722, but even more stylized, with its neoclassical "moor".
Éste es hasta más viejo, de la crónica de un jesuita italiano de 1722, pero también es hasta más estilizado, con su "moro" neo-clásico.

Acuarelas/Watercolors, Carlos Julião. Río de Janeiro, 1764-1795. (Brenner 186)

Close-up from the images above. Now we can see that they are arc marimbas with gourd resonators, like some found in Central America.
Magnificación de las imágenes arriba. ahora sí podemos ver que son marimbas de arco con resonadores de calabaza, como las centroamericanas.

Litografía/Lithography "Un baducca en S. Paulo" "A Baducca in São Paolo." Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, 1817. (Brenner 188)
This one also shows a gourd-resonator marimba.
Esta litografía también mustra una marimba con resonadores de calabasa.

(Brenner 192)
Parece que todavía, o por lo menos en años más o menos recientes, se toca una marimba parecida en Brasil, específicamente en la Isla de San Sebastián en el Estado de San Paulo. Nótese las teclas afiladas a puntos, que también era parte de la apariencia de la marimba colombiana hasta que se empezó a afinar las tablas con cegueta además del tradicional machete.
It looks like still, or at least fairly recently, there are people who play marimba in Brazil, specifically in the Ilhão de São Sebastião in São Paulo state. Note the pointed ends of the keys. Colombian marimbas used to look the same way before musicians began tuning marimba keys with hacksaws alongside the traditional machete.

Comisión Corográfica, Barbacoas, 1850s.
This one is Colombian. Note that it's the white guy who's playing, suggesting that the marimba began to spread across racial lines, which would also explain its being taken up by nearby indigenous people...
Esta imagen es colombiana. Interesante que el músico es blanco, lo que me hace pensar que la marimba empezó a sobrepasar las lineas étnicas en la zona. Eso también ayudaría a explicar su adopción por los indígenas cercanos...

Marimba indígena / Indigenous marimba

Vos sabías? Los idígenas Awá colombianos y los Colorados (Tsáchila) y Cayapa (Chachi) de Esmeraldas, Ecuador (zona donde prima la cultura afropacífica igual como en Colombia, con la diferencia del accidente histórico de la frontera) también tocan marimba. Estos indígenas comparten el Litoral con los negros, y el terriotorio Awá extiende hasta la cordillera nariñense. Parece que adoptaron la marimba de sus vecino negros, aunque existe la teoría (errónea, en mi opinión) que la marimba priginalmente era indígena. Aquí una foto del antropólogo Izikowitz, quien estuvo con los Cayapa en los años 1930. Notá que está tocando flautas también.

Did you know? The Awá of Colombia and the Colorado (Tsáchila) and Cayapa (Chachi) of Esmeraldas, Ecuador (an area where the Afropacific culture is largely the same as over the border in the Colombian Pacific) are indigenous groups which share the Pacific coast with Afrocolombians (although Awá territory extends into the Andes). They also share the marimba, which they appear to have adopted from their black neighbors, although some believe, wrongly, I think, that the marimba was originally indigenous. Here is a photo by the anthropologist Izikowitz, who was with the Cayapa in the 1930s. Note that they're playing flutes too.

Videos de Música Afropacífica - Afro-Pacific Music Videos

Finally, somebody put some decent videos of the music and dance of Colombia's southern Pacific (a.k.a. "currulao") online. All of these are from a group called Buscajá, based in Buenaventura. It's a folkloric group, so the dance you see is choreographed instead of the usual freestyle, but the elements the choreography is based on are the real deal. As for the music, you might notice a bass and drum kit. These are also new developments; it seems that they come from producer Alexis Lozano's (yes, of Guayacán fame) insistence when the group recorded its first CD around 2001. They actually do it pretty well!

Por fin, alguien colocó en línea a unos videos buenos de la música y danza del Pacífico sur ("currulao"). Todos son del Grupo Buscajá, basado en Buenaventura. Es un grupo folklórico, así que la coreografía que ves es un montaje en lugar de la forma más espontánea que uno ve en la cotinianidad, pero los elementos de la coreografía son lo mero merito (como dicen los mexicanos.) Verás que la música incluye al lado de los instrumentos tradicionales un bajo eléctrico y una batería. Estos son innovaciones; parece que son idea de Alexis Lozano (sí, el mismo de Guayacán) cuando el grupo grabó su primer CD alrededor del 2001. Los instrumentos agregados no suenan mal!

Los performance de los primeros 3 videos son en la Plaza Bolívar de Bogotá, a lo mejor para el Día de la Afrocolombianidad (conmemoración de la abolición de la esclavitud en 1851, recientemente reconocido por el gobierno colombiano) el 21 de mayo.

The first three videos are from Bogotá's central plaza, probably for May 21 - Afrocolombian Day, the anniversery of the abolition of slavery in 1851, recently officialized by the Colombian government.

La roseria

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LA BRUJERIA DEL BUM

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This next one is a mapalé. The mapalé is from the Atlantic, not the Pacific, coast of Colombia. It still is pretty frequently performed by Pacific Coast folkloric groups, so much so that some people seem to believe that the mapalé can be found in non-staged contexts in the Pacific. While this is not true, its interesting that these groups have taken it on - I suspect that it lives up to people's (both audiences' and performers') ideas about black mucicality, sexuality, and energy - Pacific coast music is simply too slow to show this kind of "hot rhythm" that is supposed to be so inherent to blackness. (See Ronald Radano's book on this "hot rhythm" thing.)

El siguiente es un mapalé. El mapalé es un género del Atlántico, no el Pacífico. Pero se ve mucho en el repertorio de grupos folklóricos del Pacífico, tanto así que algunos parecen creer - erroneamente - que el mapalé existe en el Pacífico afuera de su puesta en escena folklórica. De todas maneras, es interesante que los grupos folklóricos hayan adoptado el mapalé - tengo la sospecha que conforma con las ideas de la gente (tanto los públicos como los dirigentes de los grupos folklóricos) sobre la musicalidad, sexualidad y energía negras - la música tradicional del Litoral Pacífico es simplemente demasiado lento para mostrar este tipo de "ritmo caliente" tan integral a nociones comunes de la negritud. (Se recomienda el libro de Ronald Radano en torno a eso del "ritmo caliente" negro.)

Tasquero

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CURRULAO

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This video looks is your classic folkloric group montage. Here, they are recreating the mix of indigenous and Afr0-descendant people. The Indian is guarding his women from the two black guys, but once a black woman seduces him with her currulao dancing, the miscegenation is on.

Este video es en el estilo clásico de montake de grupo folklórico. Aquí, están actuando el mestizaje entre los indígenas y los afrodescendientes. El indio cuida sus mujeres de los dos negros, pero cuando sale la negra a seducirlo con su currulao, sabemos que van a resultar unos zambitos.

ZAMBO

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currulao del diablo

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grupo buscaja

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