National Afro-Peruvian Museum in Lima, Peru

After decades and decades of neglect, the government of Peru finally decided to recognize and salute the African descendants that form perhaps as high as 10 percent of its population.  An important element in this recognition was the creation of the Museo Nacional Afroperuanos (National Museum of the Afro-Peruvian Peoples) in the capitol city of Lima.

The museum was given a fine building -- a beautiful late 18th century edifice -- as well as a budget and a director.  Under the director, the museum built up a collection of artifacts and documents related to the history of Afro-Peruvians including the two and a half centuries in which they were enslaved in Peru.

The museum also engaged in a great deal of outreach, including classes in dance, cajón, history and culture.  These classes, some directed towards adults and some intended for children, were for the most part free.  They boasted good instructors, including Lalo Izquierdo, the star of our documentary A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz, who taught many of the cajón classes.

Then, a few months ago, something happened.  I am not very conversant with Peruvian politics, so I can´t really tell you what, but I can tell you the effects.

The museum´s director, Dr. Augusto Lavala, was terminated.  No new director was hired.  The budget was either cut drastically or completely eliminated.  All the classes had to be cancelled.  And then, the government turned the administration of the museum´s building over to a government organ unrelated to Afro-Peruvian culture (the Oficina de Participación, Proyección y Enlace con el Ciudadano).

I am very, very sad to see this happen.  In any event, if you want to see the museum´s still extant web site, which gives a virtual tour of the building it no longer occupies, go HERE.  If you want to see photos from the former classes, and other evidence of what the museum used to do, go to its Facebook page, which is HERE.

One happy note:  Lalo Izquierdo and others are continuing to give classes in cajón, Afro-Peruvian dance, and more in the town of San Luis de Cañete, to help maintain the tradition.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the Centro Cultural Afroperuano San Daniel de Carboni of the predominantly Afro-Peruvian town of el Carmen, Peru.

AND AS USUAL, if you want to sign up for our newsletter, go HERE.

"Toro Mata," an Afro-Peruvian classic

Toro Mata is one of those performance numbers that nearly disappeared forever from the world, but was saved from oblivion just in time.  And I am so glad.

It has great rhythm, tells a great story, has really interesting costumes and the story of its background is so intimately tied to Afro-Peruvian history that you realize it is a treasure.

Now, where do I start?

Caitro Soto, recently deceased, was a leading figure in reviving Afro-Peruvian music and dance, and bringing it to a wider public.  He was able to do so in part because his grandmother and great-grandmother taught him many of the old, old songs when he was a boy.  And he was a boy who loved to sing, loved to play the cajón, and was proud of his culture.


Here, Caitro Soto sings Toro Mata, not long before he passed away.

Toro Mata is one of the music and dance selections that he learned from his grandmother and great-grandmother.  The great-grandmother in particular was only one generation away from the days of slavery, and knew many of the old songs dating from that time.

Toro Mata tells the story of two friends, both Afro-Peruvians at the time of slavery, who belonged to a man who raised bulls for bull-fights.  One of the friends had been drinking, and decided in his slightly inebriated state, that he´d like to try his hand at bull-fighting.

 
Here is a version of Toro Mata by Susana Baca.  There is a short commercial before she starts...SORRY!

The other people present agreed to this and gave him a bull, but his friend urged him to be cautious.

When he tried to fight the bull, the bull went after his black skin and not the red bull-fighter´s cape.  He couldn´t get away from the bull.  His friend tried to get him to stop, but it was no use.

We don´t hear the final outcome, but after all, the song´s title is Toro Mata, which means "the bull kills."  I think it´s fair to assume that this is what happened to him.

 
Gabriel Alegría´s interpretation of Toro Mata, 2009...all instrumental.  (He´s a jazz musician.)

The costumes for the dance, and the steps and movements in the first part of the dance, are a caricature of the minuet.   The Spanish slave-holders, at the time the song was created, loved the minuet, and Toro Mata not only tells the sad story of the would-be bull-fighter, but also makes fun of those slave holders.  This was one way that Afro-Peruvians found the courage to deal with their harsh lot...a resilient people.

The rhythm of Toro Mata is called the lando.  It´s close to what, when I was growing up in New Orleans, was referred to as "bump and grind" music.  It´s very compelling.  Great stuff to dance to.

Eva Allyón´s Toro Mata, performed a year ago.

We have one version of Toro Mata in our documentary, A Zest for Life, and also on our CD, Afro-Peruvian Rhythms.  But it is such an evocative and popular number that as we´ve seen above, many famous artists have their own version.

A couple of comments I´d like to make about these several artists and their versions of Toro Mata:  the one person among these that seems genuinely interested in pointing to this song as part of Afro-Peruvian history and the Afro-Peruvian tradition is Caitro Soto.  In addition, none of the versions I have here show the dance, which in my opinion is a shame.  (The version in our documentary includes the dance as well as the song.)

Want a free download of our version of the music?  Go to www.AZestforLifeCD.com.

And to see the dance as well, as performed by our artists, you have to wait until October when we release the DVD.  Again, SORRY!

OUR NEXT POST will be about the Hatajo de Negritos in Peru.

Caitro Soto

Caitro Soto playing the cajón.

Caitro Soto (Carlos "Caitro" Soto de la Colina) was a well-known percussionist particularly well known for his mastery of the cajón.  He was one of the founders of Peru Negro, one of the most important organizations dedicated to the preservation of Afro-Peruvian music, dance and culture.


Born in 1934 in the largely Afro-Peruvian town of San Luis (Cañete province), he died in 2004 at the age of 70 in Lima, Peru´s capitol.  Cañete province is sometimes known as the "cradle of Afro-Peuvian arts" and between the time of the Spanish conquest and the 20th century, it was full of plantations dedicated to growing sugar cane, cotton and other products.  Most of the labor to work these plantations, up until the mid-19th century, came from Africans who had been enslaved and brought to the area, and later, their descendants.  Slavery wasn´t abolished in Peru until 1854.

Caitro Soto is best known for his unique version of the traditional Afro-Peruvian song, Toro Mata.  He based his version on the song as taught to him by his grandmother and great-grandmother, and other family members.


I wanted to post a link here to a video with his biography, but it doesn't work and seems to have disappeared.  Instead, here he is performing Toro Mata.



Toro Mata, which is also performed by our group on our documentary, A Zest for Life, isn´t the only song that Caitro Soto rescued.  He collected songs from his ancestors and the elderly inhabitants of his native town, San Luis de Cañete, songs that recounted and illustrated the life of Afro-Peruvians during the time of slavery and the first few decades afterwards.  These were country folk who did back-breaking work in the fields and their hardships are reflected in the songs they created.

For collectors of trivia, Caitro Soto had a role in the movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, about Che Guevara´s youth.  He played one of the people in the leper colony.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about Afro-Peruvian zapateo footwork, including some performed by Caitro Soto.

Dance of the Devils--a traditional Afro-Peruvian dance

In doing research about Afro-Peruvian music and dance, I've learned about the Dance of the Devils (Son de los Diablos) and the Hatajos de Negritos.

We spend a certain amount of time on the Hatajos de Negritos in the documentary, A Zest for Life.  You should even expect to see some video clips from this celebration on the DVD, including some of the fancy  zapateo footwork.  It's a 300 year old set of dances accompanied by music intended to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.  It starts on Dec. 24 and ends on Christmas day, but then there's another celebration on 12th Night (Jan. 6) to commemorate the arrival of the wise men at Bethlehem.  We'll talk about it more in another blog.

Watercolor by the 19th century Peruvian artist, Pancho Fierro

The Dance of the Devils (Son de los Diablos) is something we only have time to mention briefly in our documentary.  It also uses the fancy footwork that Afro-Peruvians developed called zapateo.  It's a dance done in a group, with a head devil and his devil underlings.  It seems to be performed mostly by men and is accompanied by musicians (or music on CD if you don't have enough musicians).  It's done as part of the Catholic religious celebration called Corpus Cristi, which comes in the early spring.  And it dates back to the time of slavery.

The dancers wear masks of devils.  The chief devil carries a large book in which are written the names of all the people he will carry down to hell in the coming year (or that he carried down the past year-I'm not sure which).  Traditionally, the devils would dance through the streets, showing off the book and at least in the old days, spreading a desire to be good--at least, good enough not to have your name in that book.

A modern performance.  Photo:  America Baila Dance Company (Austria)

Currently, the dance is mostly done as a performance presentation, although in 2004 it was performed on the streets of Lima, Peru, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the ending of slavery.  (Note that sources give two different years as the year that slavery ended:  1854 and 1856.  Again, I'm not too sure why,.)