[HNA] Garifuna cultural celebration

[Charlie Welch]

There will be a celebration of Garifuna culture

Sunday Sept 20th
 From 4 PM to 10 PM

With music, food and more


Roxbury YMCA
285 Martin Luther King Blvd.
Roxbury


Boston Globe, 9/9/01

ON THE RISE

By David Wildman, Globe Correspondent, 9/9/2001

Omar Suazo, the toast of his native Honduras and an innovator of a style 
of music known as punta rock, tours the world regularly but rarely plays 
in Boston, where he now lives.

''It is difficult to sell booking agents here on this music,'' said 
Suazo's wife Cindy Suazo, who is also his manager.

The crowds that come out for Latin music around here are expecting to 
hear more of a merengue style, but punta is very different.

Suazo, 30, plays the music of the Garifunas, a rich mix of African, 
Arawak, French, Spanish, and black Caribbean people who originally lived 
on the island of St. Vincent, north of Venezuela, and who were deported 
in the early 18th century to Honduras and Belize in Central America.

Punta is the percussive upbeat music played at Garifuna funerals, where, 
according to Suazo's percussionist Alvaro Castillo, the music blesses 
the soul.

Punta continues to be played in Honduras and Belize, with lyrics sung in 
Honduras generally in Spanish and in English in Belize. Punta rock comes 
from the more westernized Belize version, which uses electric guitar and 
bass.

While Suazo does use electric instruments, he is determined to sing in 
neither Spanish nor English but to uphold the tradition of the original 
Garifuna language, which he admits can lead to confusion with the local 
Latin crowd that speaks mostly Spanish.

''People around here really like this music when they are hearing it for 
the first time, people from Honduras, Guatemala, and even Americans,'' 
said Suazo. Still, it can be difficult bringing something new to the 
community.

In addition to the language barrier, the music itself sounds remarkably 
different from salsa and merengue. Drum triplets charge along at a 
breakneck pace while the bass hits staccato downbeats. This contrasts 
with Latin styles, where the bass tends to play the role of the rhythmic 
spoiler, accenting mostly the upbeats to give the music a complex, 
unbalanced feel.

It is, however, an effect that Latin music dancers are used to moving 
to, though the unfamiliar language combined with the unusual rhythm 
necessitates learning a different dance style.

Suazo has become an ambassador of both the Garifuna language and the 
dance, teaching from the stage, sometimes holding workshops in cities 
where the group plays. A Garifuna community organization in Nicaragua 
paid him to travel there to teach the roots of the culture.

Suazo writes and plays original music in the Garifuna language. His 
latest CD release is called ''Tanari Mama'' and is a tribute to his 
mother, who died six months ago.

Omar Suazo and his 15-member punta rock band will appear in a rare local 
performance today, 2 p.m., at the Jamaica Plain World's Fair on the main 
stage in Hyde Square.