Afropop Worldwide Seminar in Cuba--Dispatch 1
Text and photographs by Sean Barlow

Fourteen intrepid Afropoppers arrived safely in Havana Thanksgiving morning. El Vaquero aka Ned Sublette, our fearless leader, met us at the airport. Ned and his author wife Constance got here a few days early to scout out what´s happening, and we´ve hit the ground running.

The city looks amazingly normal considering Cuba was slammed by Hurricane Michelle´s 135 mph winds about two weeks ago. A few trees are down here and there in Havana but the worst damage devastated the center of the country where we drive in a few days. All over the city are big billboards declaring "Recuperaremos. Adelante!" ("We will recover. Forward!"). You also see big billboards showing an image of Fidel giving a speech with the slogan "Cuba. Contra la terrorismo y contra la guerra" ("Cuba. Against terrorism and against war"), referring to the war in Afghanistan.

We returned to the home of the extended family of Cari Diez for our welcoming Thanksgiving dinner. Cari's Mom, God bless her, has hunted up some turkeys to add to the feast of yucca, rice and beans and other dishes. Three generations greet us in a courtyard dominated by a big shade tree, shades of West Africa. Cari is a longtime friend of Ned's, and she is sky high right now because the record she produced for BIS music "La Rumba Soy Yo" (I am Rumba) just won the Grammy for best folkloric Latin album of the year. Cari has selected a very talented trio called Los Tainos for the evening´s entertainment. Guitar, tres, and percussion. You see the same line-up at restaurants and highway rest stops all over the country. Come to think of it, you rarely hear any muzak in Cuba. There´s so much musical talent, and the musicians need work. I´ll take Cuban classics performed live over Lionel Richie and Britney Spears any day.

The 5 to 11 year old nieces and nephews of Cari are excited the Afropoppers are visiting. They run around playing, their dark eyes dancing, and they push each other forward to say "My brother sings." Or "My sister plays the piano." So of course we encourage them to perform. Really feels like Cari´s family has adopted us this Thanksgiving, so close to the US mainland but such a separate reality.

The next morning our excellent local guide, Jesus Garcia, leads on us on a walking tour of Old Havana. This is the part of the city where you see plenty of European and Japanese tourists but very few Americans. The street freelancers are out in force--artists drawing your picture for a dollar, old ladies smoking cigars beckon you to take their picture, strolling acoustic trios, etc. The architecture is magnificent. Two and three story colonial era houses in pastel colors of ochre, turquoise, and pink.

In the evening, we drive to Guanabacoa about 20 kilometres west of Havana. Guanabacoa is famous as a center of Afro-Cuban religious practice. Tonight is amateur night at the local open air community theater. It´s the annual Wemilere African Roots Festival and they are featuring Brazil. An out of tune forro group from northeastern Brazil, missing their accordion player and led by a Charlie Chaplin-like comic, entertain. The crowd is polite but thankfully we move on to local groups eventually. A rumba group performs, featuring a woman singer doing rumba guaguanco which is a challenge because she has to sing while guys from the audience jump on stage to dance with her. This dynamic of this dance is a coy woman avoiding the guy´s sudden thrusting movements or gestures towards her vitals. The crowd loves it. Looking around, lots of the seated locals shake their shoulders like the guys onstage. We have a jolly crew of teenagers seated right behind us who feed us local rum and insist we take their pictures. About four other groups perform, nothing top notch but the ambience is a lot of fun.

Then it´s time for a fast drive back to Havana for our first night of timba research. Timba shows never starts before 1 in the morning. The featured group tonight is one of the current top timba groups--Charanga Habanera led by David Calzado. Wow! What a sound! It´s a 17 piece band featuring four guys singing and dancing up front, a wicked horn section with all the moves, and a blond black guy on stand-up bass leading the rhythm section of bongo and timbales. No drum kit. They are so disciplined. The choreography. The flow from song to song. Louis Head, one of our tour leaders representing our partner organization for this Afropop tour, CRAG, tells me David Calzado has done all new horn arrangements to their hits and they sound great. The concert takes place on the 31st floor of the Havana Libre Hotel (formerly the Hilton), overlooking the famous Malecon that runs along the water´s edge into Old Havana. Around three in the morning the band breaks and international disco takes over.

The next day the group goes to La Fundacion Yoruba where the Yoruba orishas celebrated in the Afro-Cuban religion, regla de ocha (commonly referred to as "santeria") are handsomely displayed in sculptures, and you can learn a lot about the attributes and personalities of the orishas with the detailed interpretation by the museum guide. Afterwards, we go to the Cabaret Los Vegas in Centro Havana for some rumba and orisha dances. A wonderful group of musicians play traditional percussion and sing in powerful close harmonies. They are wearing baseball shirts--the Indians, Angels, Yankees. The room is small and crowded mostly with locals. It´s dark and smoky. When the orishas come out one by one--Elegua, Chango, Oshun, Yemanya, Babalu-aye, and others--the audience sings along. Elegua is a trickster and she´s smoking a cigar and carrying a crooked cane. She goes around the room sitting on people´s laps. She finds Jim in our group and gives him a big hug. Tonight we go to see an up and coming singer on the international circuit, Polo Montanez who will be performing at the elegant Hotel Nacional. He's from Pinar del Rio in western Cuba and sings in the guajira tradition you might know from Eliades Ochoa of the Buena Vista gang. The truly hard core in our group take in another timba group, Bamboleo, from 1 to 3 am, before our 8 am rendez vous to start our drive to Oriente.

Stay tuned for more dispatches from Afropop´s visit to Cuba. Don´t know when the next time I´ll find an Internet café, but I´ll try to send more news mid week next week from Santiago in Oriente, at the other end of the island. Hasta luego!