Festival Internacional Afrocaribeño - Veracruz, México - TT: International Afro-Caribbean Festival - TA: Veracruz, Mexico - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2002 by Eric Mindling

The port-city of Veracruz is arguably the music and dance capital of México. Bar there are 12 days each year when there's no arguing the point at all. If you like Caribbean music and dance, you'd be a fool to be anywhere else but in Veracruz at the Festival Internacional Afrocaribeño, which for the last eight years has filled the sultry, July air of Veracruz with sounds of tropical bliss.

At the 2001 festival, musicians came from Cuba, México, Colombia, Panamá, Jamaica, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to bring their unique sounds to Veracruz. Yet the festival could more accurately be called the Festival of Africa in the Americas, for the focus of the 2001 festival went beyond the Caribbean to include Brazil, Perú, the U.S. and even Senegal.

When you gather musicians from all of these nations you know it's going to be good. In 2001, Cuba was the featured nation at the festival with the all-star Estrellas Cubanas, Víctor Lay, Juana Bacallao and Yoruba Andabo all knocking people's socks off. William Cepeda carne from Puerto Rico, Rubén Blades from Panamá, Tanya Libertad stopped over from Perú and Olodum, with their high-energy samba-reggae came up from Brazil.

The heart of the festival is composed of a broad diversity of high caliber but non-headliner groups like Chuchumbé, playing son jarocho from southern Veracruz, Merenglass with its pulsating Dominican Republic sounds, Quetzal with a son jarocho, son montuno, rock fusion from L.A., Murah Soares performing Brazilian candomble and the Venezuelan group, Teatro Negro de Barlovento, presenting Afro-Venezuelan music, dance and poetry. And though the variety and depth of music presented at the festival is quite impressive, it is a relatively small festival. This means that it's easy to get right up front for the concerts and go around side stage after the concerts to meet the musicians.

The 12-day long event not only includes free concerts, but also dance and music workshops with some of the performers, art exhibits and lectures on themes of regional interest. Last year, the focus of these talks was coffee, this year it will be Black poetry.

If you're sorry to have missed the fun in 2001, you can make up for it this year. The festival will be held July 10-21, with the majority of the concerts happening over two long weekends (12-14 and 19-21). The featured nation at this year's festival will be Colombia. The theatre, music and dance troupe Fundación Colombia Negra, Los Pelaos' Afro-Colombian pop-rock fusion and Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto's traditional coastal music are all confirmed for the festival. Carlos Vives, Joe Arroyo and Ensamblaje Teatro are also possible guests from Colombia.

Cuba will also be there in force, as the festival will be honoring Nicolás Guillen, the Cuban National Poet. Invited from Cuba (though not confirmed) are Orquestra Aragón, Orquesta Aragoncitos, Ballet Folclórico Nacional de Cuba, and Isaac Delgado (timba).

The festival is organized by the Instituto Veracruzana de la Cultura (IVEC), and the intellectual author is long time Afro-Caribbean music journalist, Ernesto Márquez. To follow the festival's developments you might try checking IVEC's home page, www.ivec.gob.mx. You can also log on to the unofficial Afro-Caribbean Festival site, www.manos-de-oaxaca.com/afrocaribe/festival.htm.> Should you decide to go to the festival, you will want to get yourself to the city of Veracruz and find your way to the malecón, or sea front drive, where the concerts will be held. You will do well to make hotel arrangements in advance, as hotels are booked to capacity by Mexican vacationers for most of July in Veracruz. Another option is to join the Afro-Caribbean Festival Tour for a 10-day trip that includes concerts, dance lessons, meetings with festival musicians, and trips to the beach, the pre-Colombian ruins, and the colonial city of Xalapa. For more information on the tour, see www.manos-de-oaxaca.com/afrocaribe.> However you choose to do it, don't miss this festival. Short of spending years traveling the nations of the Americas in search of African influenced music, there is nowhere else on Earth you can go to see, hear and enjoy such a diversity of tropical music and dance.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Latin Beat Magazine

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