Sometimes music means more than just a good time. Rhythm and lyrics can uplift entire communities, preserve history and inspire the future. That's the kind of music made by Andy Palacio, who set out to save the culture of his people, the Garifuna, and is now the most popular performer in his native Belize. The Garifuna originated during the 18th century when African slaves mixed with Caribs, the warlike tribe from South America that conquered the region that bears its name.
When Great Britain gained the upper hand in the Caribbean, the Garifuna were shipped to Central America, first to Honduras and, in 1802, to Belize (which was British Honduras at the time).
Born in Baranco, Belize, Palacio grew up in a community where the Garifuna had become assimilated into the culture. Throughout the country, Garifunas were represented as teachers, lawyers and police officers. What was lost through the years, however, was the distinct culture that evolved from the blending of African and Amerindian beliefs, language and traditions.
"Kids grew up not caring about the language or even the identity," says 39-year-old Palacio. "It just wasn't cool to be Garifuna."
The thought that a unique culture, his own native culture, could completely vanish occurred to Palacio when he took a break from teacher's college and volunteered for a literacy program in a Garifuna village along Nicaragua's coast. There he recognized that the young people had absolutely no connection with their culture, language or traditions. "I realized that the same thing could happen within my lifetime back home in Belize. I came back an activist."
Interested in singing and songwriting, the self-taught musician's activism naturally took on a musical form. He scrapped his pop-music aspirations and turned to making Garifuna music as a way to help preserve the entire culture.
"Our traditional music and dancing were unavailable to the younger people," says Palacio, reflectively, "because they were only performed at weddings and other functions that were off-limits to kids. They grew up without a grounding in the root rhythms - African beats played on wood and deerskin drums accompanied by improvised voice."
Palacio began to write lyrics in Garifuna, as well as in English and Creole, to relay the Garifuna experience. After a stint in England through a cultural partnership program that enabled him to work with professional music producers, Palacio returned home, ready to bring his people's music into the mainstream. The result was "punta rock" - Garifuna rhythms and lyrics morphed into a danceable genre that soon became the country's most popular music.
While other Belizean artists had experimented with early forms of punta rock, Palacio is credited with its incredible growth. Thanks to his best-selling singles and albums - Keimon and Til Da Mawnin - he's become the country's most popular entertainer. His songs are heard pounding in every dance hall and blasting from homes in Dangriga and Punta Gorda. Kids are learning the language just to understand his lyrics. The popularity of his work is also creating a surge of interest in everything Garifuna and an inevitable corresponding rush of community pride.
"The kids feel it's now very cool to be Garifuna," says Palacio, who has become an unofficial ambassador for his country by touring throughout the Caribbean, North America, Africa and Europe. Not one to rest on his laurels as the Elvis of punta rock, Palacio has also hosted his own radio show, the Garifuna Half Hour, and currently serves as the information officer for the Belize Ministry of Rural Development and Culture.
PUNTA ROCKS
Keimon and Til DA Mawnin are available through Amazon.com. For Palacio's latest recording project, Paranda: Africa in Central America (Detour/WEA Records), he joined the region's last remaining paranda performers to capture and preserve the very roots of Garifuna rhythms.
Posted online 02/01/01.
