Museo afropeurnao de Zaña, Peru

The final cultural organization I want to write about is the Museo afroperuano de Zaña.  Located in the city of Zaña, in the northern coastal region, it has been extremely active over the past several years in activities intended to preserve and publicize Afro-Peruvian culture, including the music and dance.

Founded in 2005, their first major effort was the reconstruction of one of the percussion instruments developed by Afro-Peruvians, a drum called the tambour de botija.  "Botija" means "treasure."  It´s a bit unclear to me if they mean these instruments are treasures, or if it refers to one specific kind of drum.

In any event, they made a video in which people, mostly youth, are playing various of the drums and other percussion instruments of the Afro-Peruvian community, plus there is some dance, including a long section of the Dance of the Devils (son de los diablos).  It´s pretty interesting.

More recently, the museum (which is also very much of a cultural organization) began promoting a come-back of the percussion instrument called the "checo," made out of a gourd which has the same name.  This included planting the vine on which the checo grows, turning the gourds into percussion instruments, giving classes in its use, making a video about it, and petitioning the Peruvian government to declare the checo a national, cultual treasure.

And even more recently, they have published a book about Afro-Peruvian musical instruments.  This organization is definitely doing a lot to maintain Afro-Peruvian culture, and rescue some elements that were about to disappear.

OUR NEXT POST will announce that for future information about Afro-Peruvian culture, and other aspects of cultural diversity on which we focus, you should go to the blog Palomino Productions.

More about "A Zest for Life," documentary about Afro-Peruvians

I've been thinking a lot recently about what I would say if someone asked me, "Why in the world would I be interested in watching a video about Afro-Peruvians?"

Well, because they are resourceful, resilient, and have a great sense of humor.  These are skills all of us could use.

Plus the music and dance are really cool:  great rhythms, music and dances that you've almost surely never seen before, and unique percussion instruments.  Then, there's the connection with the larger African diaspora, the parallels with African Americans, and the fact that this is a cross-over, a bridge if you will, between the Latino and the African American communities.

Some of those percussion instruments (and Lalo Izquierdo).

In other words, why WOULDN'T you be interested in watching a video about Afro-Peruvians.

To the best of my knowledge, my documentary film is the ONLY video about Afro-Peruvians to be found for an English-speaking public.  There are some good ones in Spanish, but they are not accessible to people who don't speak that language, which is one of the reasons I made mine.

So I hope you will forgive me for running on a bit about my documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz.  

On the DVD for Home Use, which is already available, we have the A Zest for Life documentary itself, plus a slide show.

For the Educational version (which will be out in late November or early December), we've added five Extras.  Three of these are interviews with Lalo Izquierdo, and he´s talking about Afro-Peruvian history.,  Lalo is a very charismatic man, and these interviews are great stuff!  Here is one of them.



One of the other two Extras is about the hatajo de negritos in el Carmen, Peru and the other, about Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments, especially the checo and the angara.  Here´s the one about the hatajo de negritos.


Due to time limitations on documentaries produced for television airing, in A Zest for Life I was only able to briefly mention the son de los diablos.  But just as the Centro Cultural Afroperuano San Daniel Carboni de el Carmen, Peru is doing wonderful work in keeping alive the tradition of the hatajos de negritos (SEE HERE), the Museo Afroperuano de Zaña is helping keep alive the son de los diablos, as THIS VIDEO makes clear.

And that´s it, about A Zest for Life.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Peru´s national museum dedicated to Afro-Peruvian history and culture.