Positively Powerful

On Aunt Carrie’s Speak Easy blog, a light easy way to stay current on points of view on much that is happening “now”I read about Andy Palacio. Mr. Palacia was a bandleader and songwriter who spearheaded a revival of the Garifuna music of Central America. He died Saturday in his native Belize City, Belize. He was 47 years young. (See photos of Belize below.) As this Insights Into Cultural Understanding blog is dedicated to all aspects of culture, Aunt Carrie especially appealed to me with this focus on a musical genius, cultural heritage, legacy, and contribution. Read more in the NY Times obituary including this…

The Garifuna (pronounced ga-RI-foo-nah) are descendants of West African slaves who were shipwrecked in 1635 off the coast of what is now the island of St. Vincent and intermarried with local Arawak and Carib people. Garifuna villages arose on the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize. There are now an estimated 250,000 Garifuna people worldwide, a minority culture under pressure from assimilation and coastal development.

“I decided to use music as a medium for cultural preservation,” Mr. Palacio said in an interview with NPR last year. “At least we’d be able to use the language in the songs and keep them alive.”

The prime minister of Belize gave Mr. Palacio the Order of Meritorious Service in September 2007, and in November, Mr. Palacio was named a Unesco Artist for Peace. “I hope that our efforts will not only preserve Garifuna culture but also re-energize a generation,” he told NPR.

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