Dance of the Devils (Son de los Diablos) part 2 of 2

If you´re like me, you´re interested in where things come from.  Well, one of the people most knowledgeable about the Afro-Peruvian tradition is Nicomedes Santa Cruz, and he says the Son de los Diablos really didn´t come out of African tradition as most people assume, and instead, it´s very much a transplanted Spanish celebration.  Of course, African descendants have given it their own particular stamp, but, says Santa Cruz, its origins are in fact European.

Since the Son de los Diablos was originally part of the Corpus Cristi celebration, I checked out Corpus Cristi celebrations in Spain, and found that there are several in which there are special dances performed as part of the celebration.   Since the Son de los Diablos is a dance, and is supposed to have in part been something the Spanish Catholic slave owners used in order to convert Africans to Catholicism, I figured I should find out more about these dances to see if they resembled the Son de los Diablos.

 
This verison of the son de los diablos is by Perú Multicolor.  I like the dance, but the sound is not so good.  There´s some good zapateo about halfway through the video.

One of the most interesting celebrations in Spain for Corpus Cristi reminds me a good deal of the Son de los Diablos.  It takes place in a small town in central Spain called Camuñas (population 1,772).  In addition to a more standard religious procession, it includes two groups that parade and dance, one representing sin and sinful activities while the other represents virtue, and the virtuous.  It´s called the Pecados y Danzantes (Sins and Dancers).

Both groups, the one for the sins and the one for the virtues, dance wearing masks.  The costumes resemble somewhat the costumes worn by the dancers in the Son de los Diablos, but I think it´s mostly the masks and the parading of evil and evil beings that provide the link to the Afro-Peruvian celebration.  In addition, the sinful figures include the Demon/Devil (ah, ha!), the World, and the Flesh.

Image of the (sinful) World in Camuñas´ Corpus Cristi celebration.

 Best guesses are that the tradition of these dancing groups in Camuñas began in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The Son de los Diablos began no later than the 19th century, and probably started 100 or more years earlier, so it would have been very possible for the Camuñas celebration to have been brought over to Peru.

There are other places in Spain, larger places such as Toledo where the procession for Corpus Cristi includes figures of giants and, until recently, a monster called la Tarasca.  (The monster is in bad repair now, and so has not been taken out for the past several years.)  Again, the tradition in Toledo dates back several centuries. 

La Tarasca is also part of the Corpus Cristi celebration in Valencia (in southern Spain).  She´s part of a tradition that entered Spain from southern France.

It is said that la Tarasca was used by a saint to convert the local inhabitants (in Spain) to Christianity in the 17th century.  It´s not clear what religion they followed prior to their conversion.  This reminds me of how the Son de los Diablos was used in Peru.

One image of la Tarasca -- said to be part lion, part dragon, part turtle, part..... and very fierce.

In other words, although it´s certainly possible that the Son de los Diablos came from West African traditions of masquerade dancing, there is also plenty in the Spanish tradition that could have produced it.

I leave it to you to make a decision.

Want a free download of some Afro-Peruvian music?  Go to LINK.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the checo and the angara:  preserving traditional musical instruments.

Dance of the Devils (Son de los Diablos) part 1 of 2

As with most things in life, the more you dig down into the Son de los Diablos, the more complex you find it to be.  The more complex and also, the more interesting.

First, let's start by explaining that the Son de los Diablos is a dance and a procession or parade in which the diablos--the devils--dance down the streets (or these days, dance across the stage), accompanied by drum beats from the cajón and/or a cajita, a quijada de burro and a conga drum.  In addition, in the old days, there was also a form of harp but now a guitar is usually used instead.

The devils wear masks and also wear very colorful costumes, usually with a lot of frills and a lot of red.  There is a head devil, who is larger than the others, and then there are the littler diabolitos (little devils).

19th century watercolor by Pancho Fierro

In the watercolor, we see two devils, one with his mask lifted up.  We also see someone playing a harp and another person playing the cajita.  And one of the devils has a long whip.

You see it now as a stage production, or in festivals in certain regions of Latin America.  Traditionally, it was something that you only saw during processions down the streets in honor of a Catholic festival, the Corpus Cristi festival, which takes place in the spring (40 days after the Thursday of Semana Santa/Holy Week, which comes right before Easter).

Traditionally as well, the head devil carried a whip, and a huge book in which, it was said, he wrote down the names of all the people he was going to drag down to hell.

Most sources refer to it as something exclusively Afro-Peruvian but I have found in my investigations that it is also performed, and has been performed for generations, in certain African descendant communities in Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and Mexico.

Here's one version of the dance, by a group called Yuyachkani.

But it does seem to have been particularly important in Peru, and so its association with Afro-Peruvians is logical.

And its origins?  Well, it developed out of the Corpus Cristi celebrations in southern Spain, mixed with the African traditions (especially Congolese traditions) of the people kidnapped and brought over to Latin America as slaves.

It began in the New World about 200 years ago.  As time passed, and particularly after the abolition of slavery in the mid-1900s, in most areas it was all but abandoned but in recent decades, relying on the memories of community elders, it is once again a living celebration.

The group Baila América performs the son de los diablos.

In the photo above, the head devil has a quijada de burro, while the two smaller devils are playing the cajita.

 Now, however, it is not confined to the Catholic celebration of Corpus Cristi.  As suggested above, you also see it in other celebrations including ones that have nothing to do with religion.  And today it is also performed as a stage show by many cultural organizations.

OUR NEXT POST will give more details about the Son de los Diablos.