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Garifuna News and Press ArticlesHonduras Holds Interagency Workshop Safeguarding American Garifuna People's CultureOctober 10, 11, 12, 13, 2013
NOTE FOR ARTISTS: We do allow for the sharing of booth space. This option is idea for those who may find our booth prices challenging. You may make this request by emailing artmarket@paff.org. Please note this is not guaranteed and depends on whether or not we have other artists who request to share booth space. If you have a specific fellow artist you would like to share with, encourage them to apply. A separate application is required for each artist. Denote in each of your applications your specific sharing preferences. Garifuna of RoatanDecember 2011 To travel to Honduras is to walk into the richness of Africa. Being GarifunaNovember, 2011Teofilo Colon Jr.'s family emigrated from Honduras but the flag the Brooklyn blogger flies isn't blue and white. It's the yellow, black and white banner of the Garifuna people. "My family insisted, telling all of the children: 'You are Garifuna'" said Colon, 37. "I rarely heard 'Hondureño' growing up. It was always 'Garifuna.'" Colon's ethnic group is descended from native Carib and Arawak peoples and West Africans said to have escaped slavery in a 1600s shipwreck off St. Vincent. The British later forced the Garifuna from the island and they settled along the coasts of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Local leaders believe there are more than 100,000 Garinagu (plural for Garifuna) in New York largely in the South Bronx but also in Brooklyn's East New York and Brownsville. Many of the 87 victims in the horrific 1990 Happy Land social club fire in East Tremont were Honduran immigrants of Garifuna descent. Every November, local Garinagu celebrate Garifuna Settlement Day which marks their arrival in Belize with a Yellow White and Black gala in the Bronx. Colon a community fixture in his signature bright yellow glasses started a blog last year called "Being Garifuna" where he documents local cultural events, starts debates and champions successful Garinagu...continue Garifuna article here. Afro-Descendants Deserve to Be CountedSeptember, 2011Throughout the city, summit posters and signs were everywhere. It seemed as if the gathering was finally affording Afro-Hondurans overdue recognition. Opening ceremony speakers included Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom, government representatives, and the mayor of La Ceiba, among others. They spoke out against discrimination and stressed the need to work collaboratively to promote greater inclusion. But a counter assembly outside of the summit grounds led by the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña painted a different picture. Organizers argued that despite the rhetoric of inclusion, many members in the Afro-Honduran community felt excluded from the summit and that participation had been limited to international delegations and select Hondurans. The summit raised a fundamental question: how can we bring together participants from the region to discuss issues of representation for Afro-Descendants, while at the same time fail to address the issues faced by local Garifuna communities, such as the impact of Model Cities? Were the organizers perpetuating the very problem they were seeking to tackle? Continue America's Quarterly News Article here.
Garífuna Promote Cassava ConsumptionDecember 17, 2010 More than fifteen Garifuna communities are producing cassava and producers say they are looking for more sustainable new markets for export.
HIV Epidemic in Honduran GarífunaDecember 2, 2010The relatively well-studied case of the Garífuna in Honduras represents another important exception to the trend of an epidemic ignored. Numerous researchers have undertaken projects with Garífuna ICs, calling attention to the specific dangers they face. However, one should not interpret the attention garnered by this particular IC as evidence that HIV/AIDS is being adequately addressed in indigenous populations. Rather, this case stands as a testament to the need for further development of IC-targeted HIV/AIDS policies. For instance, an article in the Honduran news-source El Heraldo agreed that the Garífuna HIV/AIDS situation is well known, but only because the Garífuna is one of the very few ICs “subjected (sometidos) to evaluations and studies related to the virus.” The author went on to point out that “there exists no material about HIV in indigenous languages” and that, specifically in Guatemala, only 55 percent of infected indigenous peoples had access to retrovirals.8 A 1998 survey of 310 Garífuna by the Honduran Ministry of Health found 16 percent of those aged 16-20 to be HIV positive, compared to only 5 percent of the same age group among the general population.9 A more recent study10 showed a slightly lower HIV rate in this IC, 4.5 percent, but it does not contradict previous data since the median age of participants was 30. 12 percent of the male participants reported having received money for sex in the past year. This finding is interesting, in that it is rare for such a high percentage of men to be involved in sex work. Miriam Sabin reported in 2008 on a project her team had organized to analyze Garífuna risk behaviors.11 They found that many Garífuna associated condoms with HIV, but in a way that stigmatized their use rather than encouraging it, even though condoms were readily available. For example, the study found that most condom purchasers are “foreigners or men from Honduran cities going to Garífuna communities to have sexual relations with local Garífuna women,” negatively characterizing those who use condoms and making their use less likely among the general IC. In addition, it revealed an alarming number of formidable misconceptions held by the community when it came to HIV/AIDS, such as: “persons who look healthy do not have HIV/AIDS” and “youth are too young to have HIV/AIDS (and thus are sought out as sexual partners).” Finally, the report recommended that future HIV/AIDS policies for Garífuna focus on educating traditional healers, as it explained that they “may be sharing incorrect HIV prevention messages” such as selling ‘cures’ for HIV/AIDS... Excerpt from Scoop - HIV/AIDS in Indigenous Communities. Corozal Hometown Association Honored
New York The Board of Directors of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization is pleased to announce that the Corozal Hometown Association. (ASUNCOR) by its Spanish acronym) will be presented a Garifuna Coalition Award during its Annual Yellow, White, Black Gunchei 2010 Fundraising Gala, scheduled for Saturday November 20th, 2010 at The Eastwood Manor located at 3371 Eastchester Rd Bronx, NY 10469.
GARIFUNA AMERICAN HERITAGE AWARDSSeptember, 2010 Anita Lambey Martinez is a recipient of the Garifuna American Heritage Award. The ceremony will be held September 25, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Martinez has been a community activist for nearly thirty years. She started her service to the community after she immigrated to the United
States in 1978. In 1981, she joined the Preservation of the Garifuna Culture
Society (PGCS). She served as President of the group and organized Garifuna
participation in the Opening Ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
During this time, she also directed the Walagante Garifuna Youth Group and was
co-editor of "Luganute Garifuna" newsletter.
Garifuna Woman Being HonoredAugust, 2010 The Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization in New York, NY, announces that Board member, Aquina Valentin, will be the recipient of a Barauda Award from Hondurans Against AIDS, Inc. on Saturday September 11, 2010.
NY Garifuna Meet with Government RepresentatiavesJuly 17, 2010Commissioners from all the various city departments, and President of the United Garifuna Association, Mr. Alfonso Cayetano, as well as the oldest Garifuna association in New York City, welcomed a distinguished guest from Honduras. Mrs. Rosita Alvarez, the counsel for the Honduran government in New York City, addressed the auditorium, packed to capacity - some people had to stand at the back of the auditorium. The welcome address was given by Mrs. Mirtha Colon, She started off by thanking Mayor Bloomberg for taking the time out to come with his commissioners to hear out the concerns of her people. She also encouraged her people to take the opportunity to address all the issues that are of major concern to them in the Garifuna community. After her welcome address, she introduced the president of the Garifuna Coalition in the U.S.A. Mr. Jose Avila, the designated master of ceremonies for the event,introduced the mayor . Mayor Bloomberg stepped to the podium after he was introduced, and was welcomed with great applause by the audience. The mayor thanked the associations for inviting him to the event and he said thank you in the Spanish and Garifuna languages. He joked about his problem learning Spanish and stated that Garifuna would be much more difficult for him to learn. Most Garifuna people speak two to three languages in addition to their native tongue because of their interactions with people from various cultures in the countries where theyoriginally came from in Saint Vincent andCentral America. Mayor Bloomberg went on by thanking the Garifuna community for playing a vital an integral part in the daily growth of New York City which is known for its richness in cultural diversity. He also spoke about the hard economic times facing the city. However, he reminded the audience that New York City residents are tough and fighting people and if they could have rebounded from the attack of 911, they will be able to recover from this economic crisis we are currently experiencing. He outlined some of the programs that his administration has embarked on to: create jobs, reduce crime, lower taxes and other areas to make life easier for New York City residents. After his speech the floor was opened for questions and the audience took full advantage of the questioning. The questions had to do with issues concerningeducation, housing, immigration, crime, rent, HIV AIDS, employment, a cultural center for the Garifuna people through the mayor's office, the declaration of 19th of November as Garifuna Settlement Day, business assistance, telemarketing and collection harassment from businesses and promises made to the Garifuna community by the Dinkins Administration. The mayor answered most of the questions and for those he had little or know knowledge about, hedirected the questions to the commissioners that dealt with the respective areas. The mayor pledged that he will do something as soon as he returns to his office to make sure that his administrationput in motion all the issues that are of concern to the Garifuna community here in New York City. The last Town Hall meeting that was held with the Garifuna community was in 1991 when Mayor Dinkins the first Black mayor was in office 19 years ago, shortly after the Happyland fire that took many Garinagu peoples lives. The Garifuna community was thankful to Mayor Bloomberg for coming to the meeting and gave him a Garifuna drum as a gift. The mayor happily played the Garifuna drum and waved the audience goodbye. It is now left to these two associations who sponsored this event, to seekout all the other Garifuna associations in New York City and work with them hand in hand as brothers and sisters to accomplish all their goals and ensure that the mayor's promises are fulfilled. Garifuna DayMarch 31, 2010New York The Board of Directors of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization is pleased to invite the Garifuna Community and friends to The Garifuna Day Street Festival to be held at 344 Brook Ave (between 141 & 142 St), Bronx, NY 10454, from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM. Its objective is to commemorate the 213th anniversary of the exile of the Garifuna people from St Vincent on March 11th, 1797 and their settlement in Central America on April 12th, 1797 during Garifuna Day in New York City and its an integral part of the Garifuna Heritage Month in New York. The goal is to educate and create awareness and appreciation of the Garifuna culture and its contribution to the culture and society of New York. The Garifuna Coalition Inc., in partnership with the Evangelical Garifuna Council of Churches Inc, presents Garifuna Day to promote cross-cultural understanding and celebrate our history, culture and religion, and their importance in shaping and enriching New York City. On May 18th, 2001 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared The Garifuna Culture a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangibles Heritage of Humanity." The celebration will feature Garifuna music, entertainment, food, special guests including Assemblyman Michael Benjamin from Assembly District 79, sponsor of Legislative Resolution K1120, memorializing Governor David A. Paterson to declare March 11 - April 12, 2010, as Garifuna-American Heritage Month in the State of New York. Assemblyman Benjamin will present the resolution during the Garifuna Day activities. Garifuna Pride - Our Voice - Our VisionPreservation of the Garifuna Culture Cause Garifuna Ethnic Group Seeks Voice In New York CityNovember 15, 2009For centuries, home has been a transient notion for the ethnic community known as the Garifuna. Pushed around the Caribbean region by various colonial powers, many sought safe haven in New York beginning in the 1940s. They've kept coming in small waves, but have maintained a low profile until now. On the cusp of the 2010 census, community leaders are asking Garifuna residents to stand up and be counted. Ruben Gwaite sounds like a typical East Coaster. "For a living I dispatch limos," he said. "But 'm also a musician. I was born and raised in Boston. I've been in the Bronx 16 or 17 years by now." You'd never know it from the accent, but English is actually Gwaite's third language. A native of Honduras, he also speaks Spanish, and is currently re-learning a language that shares its name with his ethnic group, Garifuna. When Gwaite walks down the street in the South Bronx, people probably assume he's black because of his skin color, or Latino, because he can speak Spanish. Officially, he's neither. Like all Garifuna, Gwaite is a descendent of shipwrecked slaves who landed ashore in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the 1600s. They intermarried with Caribbean indigenous groups and spawned an entirely new and distinct ethnic group, with its own language, beliefs and practices. Gwaite's people have been trying to hold onto their unique culture ever since. Embracing The Garifuna CultureThe Saturday morning scene at Casa Yurumein, a converted old convent in the South Bronx, suggests they've done just that. Gwaite, and a dozen other teens and adults, take a weekly Garifuna language class there. Casa Yurumein is a community haven full of old ancestral photos and cultural artifacts, like wood utensils. Not only does it look and sound like a Garifuna revival, but it smells like one, too. Mirtha Colon cooks up some of the typical dishes from her native Honduran village there. "We're cooking hoodootoo, one of the main Garifuna dishes," she said. "Mashed plantains and fish soup." The Garifuna historically were punished for expressing their culture and language back in their countries of origin a list that includes Belize, Guatemala, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nicaragua and Honduras. Bronx resident Maria Elena Baltazar says because of that, not everybody born Garifuna stays in the community. "We've always lived among other people," Baltazar said. "In Guatemala, in Honduras, we live among the majority, and so you're trying to be like this person, to be in this class of people, so you have to negate what you are, in order to fit in." Baltazar admits in the past she and her Garifuna friends have tended to assimilate outside the home, passing as black or Latino, and when they get home and close the doors, they are Garifuna again. But community leader Jose Avila says they should be Garifuna all the time. In the past year, he has organized cultural gatherings, award ceremonies and even Garifuna Month in the Bronx. Getting CountedAvila is convinced that more than 100,000 Garifuna live in New York City, and he's trying to use the upcoming 2010 census to prove it. "It's not just about being counted," Avila said. "It's about resource allocation. It's about housing. It's about transportation, education Ñ which translates into schools." Avila is busy giving talks and presentations, explaining how easy it is to be counted and why it's important. He says in the last census, hundreds of thousands of Bronx residents marked "other" for their ethnicity. In order for the Garifuna to get an accurate tally, they simply need to write in the name of their group. Every third Sunday of the month, the Garifuna celebrate their culture with a traditional mass at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. Women in colorful blue and pink traditional dresses and head scarves dance down the aisle, accompanied by men with drums and tambourines. After a recent mass, 47-year-old Raul Melendez leaned against the church, trying to stay warm in a driving rain. Melendez said he loves the U.S., but being Garifuna is more important to him. "The Garifuna person who doesn't speak Garifuna has no identity," he said. "The person who has no identity, who has no origin, is buried." Two years from now, when the new census results are released, Melendez will find out for the first time just how many of his fellow Garifuna living in the United States agree with him.by Jesse Hardman Celebrating 211 Years of Garifuna PresenceOctober 27, 2009During the last decade of the 17th century, the island of Saint Vincent changed drastically. The new "Black Carib" society grew quite rapidly, giving birth to what has been called the "Golden Age" of Garifuna history. Nostalgia for these times still lives in many Garifuna songs and ritual traditions. It was also during this period that legendary personalities emerged for the Garinagu, such as Chatoyer, the commander and chief of Yurumein, who fought with such braveness to defend his people against European hostilities. By the early 18th century, although conflict had increased between Garinagu and colonists, quite friendly relations were established between the Garifuna and French Christian missionaries. Many traces of their exchanges still remain, such as many French words incorporated into the Garifuna language. -- Excerpt. Read the entire informative article from the Bay Islands Voice. La Ceiba, Honduras Artist Receives AwardSaturday, October 10 2009
The Sunshine Awards organization was founded in 1989 to recognise and pay tribute to the creators, producers and performers of the various Caribbean art forms. Over the years, the program has expanded in scope and depth, extending the canopy of awards to Central America, South America and Africa. Garifuna work to keep their traditions aliveAugust 17, 2009The rhythm of the beating of handmade drums and singing in a hybrid language that blends French, English, Spanish and Arawak Indian can often be heard in Houston, Texas' Fifth Ward. Almost daily, Honduran parishioners gather inside a two-story wooden church to worship and teach their U.S.-born children the Garifuna language using a colorful workbook. In between "hallelujahs" and "amens" and reading from their Spanish-language Bibles, the more than 50 churchgoers respond to Pastor Erick Suazo's sermons with Garifuna words. In a shotgun house a few blocks away from the Mercy of God Church, Honduran immigrant Santos Sambula and his group rehearse their African-inspired dances and music. This Afro Latino immigrant community known as Garifunas, or Black Caribs, is trying to retain its identity in a new home. "We don't want to lose our culture," said Sambula, who organized Ballet Garifuna, a dance and music group seven years ago. The troupe, with its female dancers clad in colorful batiks, was set to perform last week at the Talento Bilingue de Houston annual gala. "Some people say it's hard to learn Garifuna. It's not hard. Our children have to speak Garifuna," said Suazo, who started the Pentecostal church more than six years ago. "Sometimes our children are born here, and they cannot go back to Honduras and speak to their grandmothers." It's a language their ancestors developed centuries ago during their journey from West Africa to islands off the coast of Venezuela where their slaves ships were shipwrecked in 1635. After losing a war against the British, Garifunas were forced to move to Central America. Today, Garifuna communities exist in Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua, with the largest group in Honduras. "It's quite a colorful history and a very, very interesting one," said Edmund T. Gordon, a University of Texas anthropology professor who has studied Garifunas in Central America. "Garifuna are an amazing set of people. They're extraordinarily adaptable." It's difficult to keep tabs on the Garifuna population because some move often, but about 250,000 live in Honduras, said Victor Virgilio Lopez Garcia, who penned eight books about Garifunas. "Garifunas are spread across the world," said Lopez, a resident of the Honduran village of Tornabe. In the past few decades, Garifunas emigrated to U.S. cities including Houston, where about 4,000 from Honduras live, Sambula estimates. Garifunas originally settled in Houston's Fifth Ward where they could blend in with the area's black residents, said Nestor Rodriguez, a University of Texas sociology professor who formerly worked at the University of Houston and studied the Garifuna. He said many Garifunas were merchant marines who arrived in Houston aboard ships in the 1980s and stayed here. Suazo worked as a ship machinist in New York until he moved to Houston. Celania Ramirez, 29, was born in Honduras and moved to Houston as a child with her father, who still works as a ship engineer. Ramirez describes herself as both black and Hispanic and tries to immerse herself in the culture by cooking traditional dishes like machuca Ñ mashed green plantains with coconut milk soup and fried fish. She lives in the Heights area and visits the Fifth Ward enclave when Garifunas play soccer there. "I love to be around the culture," Ramirez said. Garifunas born in the U.S., such as Emily Lino, 18, also respect their heritage by dancing with the Ballet Garifuna troupe. She said people are surprised when they hear the African-American speaking Spanish and Garifuna. Alex Suazo, 18, Erick Suazo's son, sings and records Garifuna music in his Suazo Recordz studio and wants to learn as much Garifuna as possible so he can visit Honduras and teach people about getting ahead. But even with these youngsters so interested in the culture, it's hard to retain after several generations live outside of Central America, Rodriguez said. "People are actively working to keep it alive," he said. Part of the challenge is that community members who live in neighborhoods across Houston have trouble organizing. "We haven't been able to unite more because we don't have our own center," said Sambula, as he sat in his living room stuffed with drums, Garifuna dictionaries and paintings depicting his people's history. By JENALIA MORENO Paradise LostJuggernaut of international tourism is radically altering life for the impoverished Garifuna of Honduras, whose white-sand beaches are becoming hot property for big-money developersThe Star PhoenixPublished: Saturday, April 04, 2009There is a spindly wooden lookout tower on the north coast of Honduras from which you can see everything. Standing on the fourth-storey platform, Alfredo Lopez surveys the Caribbean Sea, sparkling and hazy in the late-afternoon sunlight. Waves crash against the coastline, which, in either direction in this expansive bay, is a tangle of jungle dotted only with a few far-off buildings. But Lopez has come for a different view. Below him, dusty swatches of road have been cut into the forest. Dump trucks, young men in reflective vests and a blue porta-potty stand among the palm trees. "I can't believe it," Lopez says, squinting into the sun from beneath his ball cap. "I've been coming here for years and years and years . . . Everything's going to change." The view represents all that Lopez has feared, and everything he's been fighting against, for more than a decade. It's the beginnings of the Tela Bay Project, the biggest tourism development Honduras has ever seen. "Here, we believe they're going to build a couple of hotels. And then the golf field is going to be half a kilometre from here," he says, motioning into the jungle. The $190-million project, slated to be open for business in 2011, is touted as a developmental milestone for the impoverished Central American country. But for Lopez, it is a threat to the environment and his way of life. Lopez is Garifuna, an ethnically distinct people descended from escaped African slaves, who many worry are now threatened by Honduras's tourism boom. The Garifuna have always been outsiders. Their ancestors are thought to have been shipwrecked from African slave boats centuries ago, settled on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and mixed with the indigenous Arawak and Carib people. But in 1797, the so-called "black Caribs" were pegged as troublemakers and deported by the British to the Honduran island of Roatan. From there, they made their way to the mainland, establishing coastal villages from Belize to Nicaragua. For years, life for the Garifuna was all about fishing, farming and work on international fruit plantations. But change is afoot in these sleepy seaside villages. The Tela Bay Project (also called the Los Micos resort) is just the most extreme example of how the juggernaut of international tourism is radically altering life for the Garifuna. Their white-sand beaches are becoming hot property. Poverty, which has already driven many Garifuna to seek work in the U.S., is compelling families and towns to sell off land to private investors. Garifuna language, music and dance, proclaimed by UNESCO as a "masterpiece of the intangible heritage of humanity," are now deemed threatened. "We're fighting for survival," is how Lopez puts it. The stocky, serious man is at the forefront of a Garifuna-led struggle against the development of Honduras' coast. A member of the Garifuna rights group OFRANEH and involved in a grassroots activist radio station, Lopez was imprisoned for years for what he says are groundless drug charges trumped up to silence his activism. In Garifuna villages, stories abound of anti-development activists being murdered or intimidated. Amnesty International has documented allegations such as a protester being abducted and beaten by private security guards, and a local leader threatened at gunpoint to sign over community land. Lopez calls it a war. Lopez climbs down the tower, jumps into his Toyota pickup truck, and takes a drive down the coast. Before long, the narrowa road spills into the tiny community of Barra Vieja. The homes here are built the Garifuna way: thatched from palm leaves and just metres from the sea. In the shade, a family swings in a hammock. Chickens and horses and scrawny dogs line the side of the road. If a war is underway, this mellow idyll is the front lines. Barra Vieja, Lopez says, is one of several Garifuna communities within the planned resort development. But, unlike in other communities along the coast, he says residents here have dug in their heels and refused to allow development on their traditional land. "We're really worried, because this is the last resistance, Barra Vieja," he says. Guillermo Albarez, a diminutive 71-year-old, pauses from chopping firewood to chat. He has lived here all his life, he says, and has no plans to leave. "We're going to continue to fight . . . The project is a mess to us, because they don't leave us to live our life like it was." But the options, even Lopez admits, are limited. Crews have already begun work on either side of Barra Vieja, on the main construction site and by the next town down the beach, the Garifuna village of Miami. Further down the beach, it's obvious where Barra Vieja ends and Miami begins. The tiny dirt road widens and work crews reappear, piling rocks. Tall pillars, probably for street lights, suddenly dot the roadside. Miami itself looks much like Barra Vieja; as the sun sets on this tiny strip of beach and toddlers play with fishing nets, it's difficult to imagine a place more tranquil. But unlike its neighbour, this community is an official "partner" on the Tela Bay Project. The future of both towns is unclear. Lopez says much of the land in Miami has been split and sold to developers. Land ownership is a complicated and contentious matter in Garifuna communities. Though most have communal titles, multiple ownership claims exist and land is sometimes bought and sold illegally. Now, with land sold and the resort coming, Lopez holds out little hope for Miami. "Nobody is going to be able to stay there, in the middle of hotels," he says. "They don't want to be having people, fishermen, in the middle of a big hotel. There's no way. It's already gone, we've already lost it." For Ricardo Martinez, the Tela Bay Project is the culmination of a life's work. Even before he was Honduras' tourism minister, he was planning the resort, which has been 40 years is the making and is financed as a public-private partnership. Now, sitting in his fifth-floor office in his country's capital, Martinez minces no words about those who would thwart the project. He claims that Barra Vieja is not a Garifuna village at all. Rather, he calls its inhabitants "a band of criminals" who only recently settled on the beach in hopes of obtaining title of the land and then selling it for profit. OFRANEH denies this, saying the community goes back at least to the 1940s. Martinez says he's seeking a court order for the military to remove the residents of Barra Vieja. "Some people are going to get hurt, but they're not going to be Garifuna," he said. "The Garifunas are the most peaceful people I ever met in my life." As for Miami, Martinez insists no one will be displaced. Rather, he says it will become a showcase of Garifuna culture for tourists from nearby hotels. "Miami is going to be a beautiful village with a lot of Garifuna taste, with a lot of Garifuna restaurants," he says. "There are going to be small piers where the Garifuna people will give boat rides to the tourists around the park." Many worry that the resort and golf course will do harm to the lagoon and jungles of the surrounding Jeanette Kawas park, which, ironically, was named for an environmental activist mysteriously killed more than a decade ago. Martinez concedes that 310 hectares of parkland are slated for development, but says that this sacrifice will allow the rest of the park, 70,000 hectares, to be protected. He argues, too, that the resort will help the Garifuna. Pointing out that many communities live off remittances sent from relatives in the U.S., he says the project will provide good jobs and allow Garifuna people to stay in their hometowns. Martinez accuses people like Lopez of being stuck in the past. "It is inevitable that the children will no longer speak the language because they're not interested," he said. "They're more interested in speaking English to get better job opportunities. They're more interested in understanding Bruce Springsteen songs than their Garifuna singers. And this is a brutal reality." Lopez won't accept this kind of argument. For him, communal land ownership and decision-making are essential to being Garifuna. So is the beach. Once it's split up into private parcels, he fears, fences and armed guards will follow and the Garifuna will slowly be forced out. "Garifuna people without the beach (are) not Garifuna," he said in an interview at his mother's house in his home community of Triunfo de la Cruz. "If we become a private person, we (are) going to lose the sense of community. That's why we fight." When Lopez drives through town, greeting every second person he passes with a wave and a "buenas," the sense of community is evident. So is the poverty. The town, bigger and more modern than Barra Vieja and Miami, is full of cinder-block houses, some half-built, some apparently abandoned in the process years ago. The roads in Triunfo de la Cruz are terribly rutted and potholed, and the main road into the village is far worse: only a raised centre strip is paved, meaning oncoming traffic must play chicken until one driver relents and rolls off into the dirt. A volunteer crew of townspeople is working to fix up the road with dump trucks full of rocks, but the task is gruelling. This kind of hardship is prevalent across Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, with more than half the population living in poverty. Martinez hopes the Tela Bay Project will provide some relief. "You need the big developments," he says. "Of course I would love to see my country develop by small businesses and medium-sized businesses, OK, but that doesn't pay for the roads or for the hospitals or for the education, unfortunately." Lopez isn't the only one worried that megaprojects will only benefit rich investors and marginalize locals. But, Lopez says, there's a middle road. Down the beach from his hometown is a cluster of cabins, rundown and overgrown. He says a group of local women is trying to start up a cooperative community tourism project here. "We aren't going to stop the tourism. We know that," Lopez says. "We think development, it's not necessarily (to) have a big hotel in our land. A small business, if we own it, we're on the road to develop ourselves." About 100 km down the coast from Tela Bay, the beaches are just as beautiful and the Garifuna communities just as vulnerable to privatization and development. "I am worried," says local conservationist Adoni Cubas, standing on a dock near the city of La Ceiba. "In my opinion, this area is in danger of being another Bahia de Tela." Instead, Cubas wants to help nearby Garifuna communities develop in the opposite way from Tela Bay -- by harnessing tourist dollars on their own terms. "(Tourism) is exploding," he says. "In my opinion, if the community doesn't feel they can do business with (tourists), they will sell the land." Cubas, who works for the Cayos Cochinos Foundation, collaborates with other conservation groups to create small-scale, locally owned tourism ventures in Garifuna communities. On this sunny morning, he's working with Nanzi Duarte of the World Wildlife Fund and Anthony Ives of Intensive Heart Ventures/Grupo de Apoyo al Desarrollo. The three don life jackets and hop in a speedboat to check on the progress of the projects they've helped create. An hour of rough waters later, the group arrives at Cayos Cochinos -- an archipelago of islands, cays and coral reef. It's a protected marine area, part of the treasured Mesoamerican reef, and home to two Garifuna communities. The boat pulls up to the old dock at East End. This community has the feel of an ancient pirate pit stop, a hodgepodge of mud houses nestled between lush mountains and a crystal sea. A family, standing knee-deep in the ocean, guts a pile of fearsome pink fish on their side porch-cum-dock. There are pluses and minuses to living in a marine park. Because of strict environmental regulations, villages in Cayos Cochinos are largely protected from huge developments like the Tela Bay project. However, the Garifuna, for whom fishing is a way of life, now face not only depleted fish stocks but also regulations on how and what they can catch. "Years ago, there was a lot of fish, marine life," explains East End resident Francisco Velazquez. But recently, says the lanky and soft-spoken man, it's a struggle to get by. "There were times when we didn't have enough money earned from fishing that we had a hard time feeding our children," he says. "We started thinking, you know, tourism is going to come and if tourism comes and we are out of the process, it's going to be a problem." That kind of thinking, plus a lot of help from groups like the World Wildlife Fund, has culminated in the spot where Velazquez sits now. He's on a veranda, shaded by palm trees, just metres from the lapping waves. This is the pride and joy of East End: a brand-new restaurant and guest house. Simple, clean, nuzzled in a fascinating community and with a view beyond belief, at $80 US a night for an eight-bed cabin, it's an adventure traveller's dream. The villagers have high hopes their new venture will pay for their kids to go to school on the mainland. But, on this morning, the varnished mango wood tables are empty. "Nobody knows about this project yet," Velazquez says. "The tourists aren't coming." The tourists are coming, however, to their neighbours in Chachahuate. By the boatload. This sandy cay, just a few minutes' boat ride from East End, is the next stop for the trio of conservationists. The island, no bigger than a football field, is crowded with grass shacks and fishing boasts and, this afternoon, Canadian tourists. It's no wonder they've flocked here: it's like a slice of the South Pacific. But there's something incongruous about the bikini-clad, beer-clutching day-trippers picking their way past playing children. The kids, in turn, largely ignore the foreigners sunbathing between the fishing boats. Cubas has mixed feelings about the community tourism projects here, a hostel and a restaurant. On a busy day, 70 tourists visit, doubling the island's population. The influx, he says, is changing the community. If there's a downside to the boom, the islanders aren't dwelling on it. "(Tourism) is a benefit, lots of help for us," says Lesbia Arzu, who runs the hostel, empty today. "We make the rules with the tourists. How they snorkel, where and how they can do it, how to use water, how to take care of garbage." Roman Norales, who co-ordinates the restaurant, says there's a good relationship between locals and visitors, who are interested in Garifuna culture. Norales sees tourism as a complement to traditional livelihoods. But replacing fishing, he says, would be impossible. "It's cultural. It's our inheritance," he says. It's mid-afternoon and time for the tourists to leave, before the winds pick up. The Canadians, pink and dazed, pile into their boats and in no time the island is emptied of visitors. Arzu and Norales take a seat in the shade and pull out a calculator and notebook. They start to tally up the day's earnings into careful columns of fried fish and beer. A woman in an apron emerges from the restaurant to help. As they continue their labours, the raucous pounding of drums rises in the distance. In a shady patch of sand, around the corner from the restaurant, a dance party has broken out. Two young men beat drums and another leans back in his chair with a shaker. The village's children giggle and crowd around, taking turns dancing. From toddlers to precocious teenage girls, they show off the gyrating, rhythmic moves for which the Garifuna are famous. It's the kind of display for which tourists would pay top dollar. But, on this sweltering afternoon in their hometown, they're dancing just for themselves. ----------------------------------------------The Mega Tourism Industry Threatens Garifuna Villages in HondurasTriunfo de la Cruz, Honduras - Right between tropical rainforest and the Caribbean Sea in remote corner of Central America, 76 Garifuna villages lay scattered along hundreds of kilometers of beaches in the north coast of Honduras.
The Descendants of a 17th-century union of a fierce indigenous people with the survivors of two shipwrecked slave ships, the Garifuna inhabit one of the last pockets of communally held land in the world. They live as they have for centuries: relying on the sea for fishing, relying on the beach for coconut and fruit, on their land for rice cultivation and on the hillsides for growing yucca and gathering firewood to prepare their meals. Their wooden homes are built along the beaches or on stilts above the water. The Garifuna men fish from dugout canoes and dive with spears along the reefs.
Punta Gorda, garifuna culture and exuberant beautyTuesday, April 29, 2008 Punta Gorda, Bay Islands. - This community inhabited by garifunas is "the other side of the moon" and should be an attraction for tourist and investors because of its exuberant natural beauty and the ecologic conservation.
First Garifuna Hospital in HondurasMonday December 10, 2007 The remote community of Ciriboya jurisdiction of the municipality of Iriona in the department of Colon counts with their own hospital clinic as of December 08, 2007. Thanks to the Cuban medical brigades and the cooperation of union of workers from the United States of America represented by California vice-governor John Garamendi. The Hospital inauguration was done during midday of December 08, with the presence of personalities such as the Cuban ambassador Juan Carlos Hernandez, the municipal commissioner from La Ceiba, Bernard Martinez and the building manager Doctor Luther Castillo. This work was also built with the collaboration of the first garifuna doctors graduated from the Cuban Medical School ELAM and the communities that worked hand in hand everyday. The California vice-governor arrived along with his wife the day before the inauguration to Honduras and shared the culture of the Honduran black communities. The Luagu Hatuadi Waduheñu Foundation (For the Health of our Town), was founded by the ELAM first graduates, they started by donating 15 of their vacation days to give medical assistance and medication around 19 garifuna communities. Bernard Martinez said this Project comes to a remote community to cover all the urgent basic necessities of a town that has been historically marginalized and forgotten by the different administrations. He also said he is thankful to the Cuban community and the town of Sacramento, California, because together they made this social Project of big interest to the Garifuna people of Iriona. He then added that the new professional leadership of the garifuna community breaks with the norms established by the traditional leadership that has solely made actions of ungenerous form that doesnt cover in the minimum with looking for alternative solutions to the problems raised. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday June 15, 2007 Music is often used to highlight a particular cause, but it's a rare album that suddenly brings attention to a little-known community struggling to preserve its identity. Watina, by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective, is a remarkable reminder of the rich culture and extraordinary history of a people scattered across the Caribbean coast of central America. It is also one of the most unusual, intriguing and rewarding albums of the year. Andy Palacio, the best-known musician and spokesman of the Garifuna community, has spent much of his life exploring and promoting the culture of his people in a career that has taken him from local pop idol to senior government official. Now, at 46, he has a new role, recording and touring with the Garifuna Collective, an unlikely band of young and elderly musicians who could prove to be a central American answer to Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club. Their story starts with a 17th-century shipwreck: the Garifuna are the descendants of Africans who escaped from slavery in 1635, after two slave ships sank off the island of St Vincent. The survivors intermarried with the local Carib and Arawak people of the island, and from that union came the hybrid culture known as Garifuna. However, in 1797 the island was attacked by the British, who shipped the Garifuna off to the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. "They were just dropped there," says Palacio. "The British must have thought that we would just vanish, but look at us now! There were just 2,000 on the slave ships, but now there are half a million Garifuna worldwide." Some of those dumped on the island escaped to Honduras, on the Central American mainland, where the majority of the Garifuna communities can still be found today. From there, others migrated to Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize, where Palacio was born. The Garifuna have a distinctive culture, "with our own language, music, dances and cuisine," says Palacio. But in some countries, they struggled to survive and were not recognised for centuries. He describes a visit he made to the Garifuna community in Nicaragua back in 1980, soon after the Sandinistas had taken over. "I couldn't find anyone under the age of 50 who could hold a conversation with me in our own language. The Somoza government had never acknowledged the existence of the Garifuna community, and the Sandinistas didn't know they were there. I told one of their commanders about it, and he asked the press corps to interview me. I said, 'These black people you see here are not the same as the black people you see over in that village,' and the newspaper the next day had the headline that a new race had been discovered on the Atlantic coast." Palacio's mission to preserve Garifuna culture started early. Born in Baranco, the southernmost coastal village in Belize, near the border with Guatemala, he was inspired by his father, a sailboat captain who sang for his passengers, to start a band while at school. From playing mostly reggae and R&B, he decided to focus on Garifuna music as his "contribution to the survival of the culture". It was then that he discovered punta rock, a dance style that mixes Garifuna influences with other Caribbean styles such as zouik and soca. It mixes electric guitar and bass with the catchphrase hooks and aggressive beats associated with punta, which Palacio describes as "a sensuous, flirtatious dance that focuses heavily on the pelvic area". After leaving school, he hosted a Sunday afternoon radio show in which he featured punta rock musicians such as Pen Caytano and the Turtleshell Band, and helped popularise the style within Belize and across Central America.He started writing punta rock songs of his own; a visit to London led to a series of eight-track recordings in a Hackney studio that made him a celebrity back home, and his career began to take off in Central America and beyond. He even appeared in Britain at a punta rock tour in 1992. With the help of producer Ivan Duran, founder of Stonetree records, Palacio began to expand his range, moving away from punta to explore other Garifuna styles like the Latin-influenced paranda, and to work with other Garifuna musicians, including the singer and songwriter Aurelio Martinez. But by 2000, Palacio's musical career seemed to be slowing down. "I reached a point when I needed a secure wage. I didn't feel I was realising my dreams for my entertainment career, so I figured I should put it on the back burner. I have training as a teacher and in community work, so thought I should restart a public service career." And so began his successful new role as a civil servant. Palacio started as a rural development officer and is currently the deputy administrator of Belize's National Institute of Culture and History, as well as a cultural ambassador for his country. None of this stopped his involvement with music, or the Garifuna community. He recalls recording the Watina album: "I would leave the office on a Friday evening, and travel to Hopkins, a small village by the sea where Ivan Duran had set up the recording equipment. I would return from the sessions on Monday morning, and go straight back to work." The aim behind the project, he says, was to "not play punta rock - to go beyond paranda to explore the more soulful and spiritual sounds of the Garifuna repertoire". It was not just a Belize-based project but also involved musicians and songwriters from the communities in Honduras and Guatemala. They were, he says, "fantastic players, but very few are professional. For most of them, music is something you do in your free time." The cast who assembled at Hopkins village included fishermen and wage labourers, along with Aurelio Martinez, who is now a congressman in Honduras, and an extraordinary singer-songwriter called Adrian Martinez, a schoolteacher. They were joined by Paul Nabor, another singer-songwriter-guitarist, who is now 79 and, Palacio says, "legendary in the Garifuna community for playing in village festivities". The album includes a gently percussive song by Nabor, in which he is joined by Palacio and a rhythm section using anything from Garifuna hand-drums to rum bottles, telling the story of a fisherman who loses his canoe, and pleads for God to save him. Other songs feature the gently rousing electric guitar work of Eduardo "Guayo" Cedano. Then there is Adrian Martinez's exquisite and powerful prayer Baba. "He wrote it recently but it sounds like an old song," says Palacio. "It's now sung regularly at Catholic church services." The song is, he says, an example of dugu, "the highest form of spiritual expression that we have". It is both a musical style and a complex healing ceremony that involves mediation with the ancestral spirits through dance, prayers and medicinal herbs, in a community where "Catholicism and Garifuna spirituality now coexist". The album was intended as a way of documenting Garifuna culture and showing how it could be a "foundation to create contemporary material", but the project has gone far beyond the musicians' original intentions. In other words, this varied, soulful set has been so successful (it's currently No 1 in the European world music charts) that Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective have embarked on their first lengthy tour. Before leaving for Europe, they gave an emotional show in Belize, where Palacio was delighted by the outpouring of support from the younger generation: "The album is inspiring them to return to their roots and reconnect." -----------------------------HONDURAS - A fading culture clings to rootsThe small and politically marginalized Garifuna community has maintained its rich African heritage but is struggling for the rights and education needed to survive.BY NANCY SAN MARTIN Published June 10, 2007 TELA, Honduras -- The three women in pumpkin-colored skirts, with sand clinging to their bare feet, held maracas over their heads and shook them in rhythm with drumbeats. Nearby, bare-chested men with colorful headdresses moved with snakelike motions. The men and women then joined for an explosive Baile de Guerra -- a 200-year-old war dance commemorating their ancestors' liberation from English enslavement. The dancers were Garifuna, descendants of African slaves who were shipwrecked on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1665 and mixed with Carib and Arawak Indians. After clashes with the English, they were sent in 1797 to Honduras, from where they spread to neighboring Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize.Ironically, the dancers were celebrating a planned tourism development that could further erode a unique community with an already muffled political voice, dwindling numbers and vanishing culture. Blacks account for only 2 percent of the people in this nation of 7.4 million. With virtually no economic clout, widespread poverty and voter apathy within their community, the Garifuna face a difficult challenge keeping their land. "The investors and the government divided the [Garifuna] community through money; public opinion was bought," said Domingo Alvarez, 65, a senior official of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras. "Even as there are denunciations, others simply dance to the tune of the state." TOURISM, INVESTMENTThe Garifuna population in Honduras is officially estimated at 45,000, dispersed across more than 30 communities. They speak their own Africa-based language, Garifuna, as well as Spanish and English. But while their communities are promoted in Honduran tourism pamphlets, their numbers are too small to carry political weight. "We are a minority, and even after 200 years of being here, we are still considered foreigners," Alvarez said. Today, Garifuna communities can be found in small towns along Honduras' Caribbean coast, including one named Miami, a tiny slice of shoreline where families still live in straw huts. But they are struggling to maintain their roots amid a dwindling population and several divisive issues -- the most contentious of them the swath of land where the war dance was held in October. The site is being developed into an $11 million Micos Beach and Golf Resort. Land where about 35 Garifuna families had lived for generations was expropriated by the government for the project. During the groundbreaking ceremony, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya promised that about $3 million would be set aside to invest in money-making projects specifically for the Garifuna -- but the community remains skeptical. "We live a little poor," said Isaac Arriola, 34, who was at the dance to celebrate the project. "I think we are going to get some work and get some money." "Maybe we are going to clean or cook, but we won't have the top jobs," countered Climaco Martinez, 66. "We don't have the necessary training to do anything else, and the government won't invest in that." Martinez's wife, Balbina, said that while the planned resort could provide jobs, she worries about its impact on Garifuna society. "When I grew up over here, we were innocent," she said. "My grandmother never went to the doctor. She used herbs for ailments. There are hardly any herbs anymore." TRADITIONAL BELIEFSThose who still believe in herbal remedies infused with a dose of spirituality now turn to Felix Valerio, a respected curandero, or medicine man. The rugged 70-year-old gets around on a rusty bicycle and is always barefoot "to feel the power." "We are here to combat evil. We've saved a lot of souls," said Valerio, using the "we" to refer to himself and the spirits he prays to for guidance. Consultations take place in the bedroom of a modest Caribbean-style home. One corner contains an altar topped with several statues, a portrait of Jesus, candles and flowers. Valerio listens to his clients' problems and seeks guidance from spirits to provide a solution. Remedies consist of herbs combined with scented water that Valerio prepares in his tiny kitchen. People travel from all over the country to see him. Everyone leaves with a dose of advice and a bottle of herbal brew. Valerio, whose grandfather settled in the region in 1890, has lived in the same house since he was born. The house faces the ocean -- a Garifuna trademark. "The Garifuna have never liked mountains," Valerio said. "They've always liked the ocean, fishing." GOVERNMENT SERVICESIn the nearby fishing community of La Ensenada, Garifuna leader Gerardo Colon Rochez complained about a lack of government services as well as a loss of culture. "We have maintained our tradition, but we're also losing it," Colon said. "In part, it has to do with racism, but also partly due to us not mobilizing ourselves." "Look, this is the most touristic community and we don't even have potable water," he said. "Before, we could take water from the ground and boil it. But now, there are latrines for the tourists, and the septic tanks have ruined the ground." Garifuna artist Nicolás Colon Gutierrez is trying to inspire youths by teaching them to paint."In the Garifuna community, a lot of talent is being lost," he said. "This is the only ethnic group [in Honduras] that has maintained its language and culture." "Not all of them can make it to the United States or be doctors or professionals," he said. "But they can make a living as talented artists. Here, the community migrates because the government offers nothing for its citizens. This program is providing a message of hope." Hope also was at the core of a dance recital at a church in the community of San Juan, where a group of teenage girls held maracas over their heads, shaking them to the rhythm of drums played by a handful of boys. That performance was not about war. It was about cultural survival -- practicing for a parade that would celebrate their heritage. They planned to dance down sandy streets, behind a banner with these Garifuna words: "Lema Ibagari lau Emenigini Wabaruaguon" -- "Life and hope are just ahead." |
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