Clave: Please tell us about Paracumbé.
Nelly: Paracumbé is a group dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and dissemination of Puerto Rican music; specifically, music with a strong African influence. It is a group that has investigated and rescued genres and musical rhythms from their primary roots and from the traditions of our elders. It is music that otherwise would have been lost in time, because many young people may like it but lack the ability to conduct field investigation and to translate the information into music for the public. This is precisely Emanuel's area of expertise since he is an ethnomusicologist.
Clave: Where was Paracumbé born?
Emanuel: It was born in 1979 in the town of Carolina. It was a group in a high school where I worked. After I stopped working there the members continued to play with me. Originally the group had another name. Eventually I gave it the present name.
Paracumbé is the name of a music and dance genre of the 17th or 18th century. Manuel Alvarez Nazario, a Puerto Rican linguist, came across a passage in a manuscript that reads like this:
¿Pues qué, no me conocéis?
El paracumbé de Angola, ciudadano de Guinea
Casado con la amorosa que escogí yo por mujer
Si queréis saber quién soy en este baile atended
Y acompañad mi romance al estilo portugués.
From there I got the name for the group: El paracumbé de Angola. It is like a personification, the dance takes shape and it speaks: “Pues qué, no me conocéis?” There are similar terms in other countries in Latin America. In Mexico they use even nowadays the term maracumbé, in Puerto Rico there is reference to el merencumbé. There is also the la cumbia, la cumbancha, and el cumbanchero (as in the song). La cumbancha is an occasion of fiesta, drums and dance. One can assume there is an African root there.
Clave: We understand that the majority of the group comes from the South of Puerto Rico.
Nelly: In the beginning most of the members came from the South of Puerto Rico, but as the group evolved we realized that it was against the group's mission to include only Southerners playing Southern music. Therefore, we decided that being from the South of Puerto Rico should no longer be a requirement for joining Paracumbé. Although its origin is from the South of the island, Paracumbé's music is from all of Puerto Rico.
Clave: Omaira, what do you think is the role of dance is Puerto Rican music?
Omaira: It is very important. Dance offers magic to the music. It is an integral part of our culture, especially in bomba, where dancers have a pivotal role. Bomba has blossomed and I believe that Paracumbé is responsible, at least in part, for this newly found interest in bomba. For example, Paracumbé is currently planning to open a bomba dance school in the town of Carolina, which is in the north coast of the island.
Clave: Why do you think there is a renewed interest in bomba in Puerto Rico?
Omaira: It is the result of twenty years of the education carried out by groups such as Paracumbé, which began to work with children who are now adults still involved with this genre.
Nelly: Also, this interest in bomba is related to the resurgence of a national consciousness in the island which has taken place in the last 5 or 6 years. Things that make us unique and different are now on the mind of all Puerto Ricans. There are recent events that are related to this: for example, one of the less controversial events was the De la Hoya-Trinidad fight, which turned into a national holiday.
Clave: Another example could be the vote on Spanish as the official language.
Nelly: That was the beginning because, when the opposite occurred (when Spanish was discarded as the official language of Puerto Rico), people developed a conscience about what makes them Puerto Rican. People developed an interest in things that define them, that make them different from others, that specifically help to understand the statement "I am Puerto Rican." There is a need for events, things to unite us as a nation, and when events like these take place we need to support them, and be proud of them. Bomba is now danced in discos, in the plazas, it is heard on the radio, young people currently play it, with influences of other types of music such as salsa and reggae, but it is still bomba and plena. It is danced with blue jeans and with nose rings. It is the bomba and plena of the nineties, of the millennium. It is interesting that the events we referred to before take place when our nationality is politically threatened.
Clave: How does this reaffirmation of being Puerto Rican express itself in your artistic life?
Lara Serrano: As young artists, Paracumbé offers us an opportunity to learn about our traditions, our music, bomba, the instruments... It allows us to show others and to reaffirm others and ourselves as Puerto Ricans.
Clave: Why is it important to play the cuatro?
José Aponte: It is one of the Puerto Rican national instruments. The cuatro, not unlike pleneras [handdrums used to play plena] identifies us as a nation.
It is emphasized in the jíbaro [country] music and in Christmas music. However, the barriles, which are used in bomba and plena, are also important.
Clave: Tell us about your personal experience with Paracumbé.
Idalia: Mr. Dufrasne told me he needed a flutist for arrangements for bomba for Paracumbé. I come from a classical music background and had never thought of this style of music as an option for me. I thought this would be a great opportunity. What I knew before was about music that is usually played with brass instruments, such as band music, classical music, and even music such as salsa and merengue.
Clave: So your experience has been eclectic. It is the union of different genres. The bomba should be at the same level of a Mozart symphony and should be studied with the same seriousness...
Idalia: In my opinion, bomba and plena should receive as much attention as classical music, or more. Classical music is usually considered as the choice of course of study. However, our music is left aside for the ideal of classical music. Our music is wonderful; it has its rhythm, techniques, and melodies. It satisfies and offers challenges to a musician just as jazz or classical music does.
Clave: What about parrandas, the Christmas music in Puerto Rico?
Angel: The reason why it is so important is because we are very happy people who enjoy parties, dancing, el bayú. Bayú is an impromptu party. For example, if we are all here together it does not take much to find a guitar and drums and let's party. This occurs during Christmas or as a matter of fact at any time that there is a good reason to party, such as Tito's recent victory. Parrandas begin in November and last until mid-January and that's enough reason for us to be happy and to be in peace and harmony with each other. It's about dancing, partying, singing, and music. Music has an important role in our African, Taíno, and Spanish cultural heritage.
Nelly: During Christmas is when most of what is known as “música típica” [folk music from the mountains] is heard. During the rest of the year it is very unusual to listen to string music or música brava, which is the term used by our ancestors when referring to cuatro and guitar music, "de conjunto típico." Music that is recorded in mid-November usually includes Christmas themes played with national instruments, sung in décimas. Unfortunately, relating the cuatro music with Christmas is a product of the saturation of this type of music [aguinaldos and seises] during the season. People believe that since it is heard at that time of the year it is only for Christmas. However, what defines it as Christmas music is not the instrumentation but the lyrics and theme of the song. It is possible to have music with a cuatro and a guitar and not have lyrics referring to Christmas.
Clave: What are the different kind of parrandas?
Nelly: Venezuelan parrandas are different from those in Puerto Rico. Parranda in Venezuela is a style of music. In Puerto Rico it is an event. We have been in Venezuela during Christmas time. It was interesting that they played parranda and we went out to parrandear with them. Parranda in Puerto Rico refers to an impromptu visit at a very late hour of the night to sing music about the Christmas season. The owner of the home opens the door in his or her pajamas and offers musicians and parranderos drinks and food. At the last home visited there is an expectation that food will be served which usually is hot soup so that parranderos can get home. This is a tradition that only takes place during Christmas. If we arrive during another time of the year at that time of night people may call the cops or send their dog after us.
Emanuel: Christmas music in Puerto Rico refers to villancicos, which are Christmas carols sung during the season, in Mass, during the Misa de Aguinaldo [midnight Mass] and during the Misa del Gallo (at 5am). They are sung in parrandas, and in family gatherings. Another type of
Christmas music is the guarachas navideñas, a rhythmic, festive music, with Christmas themes. The seis, aguinaldo, plena and guaracha are not necessarily Christmas music, what defines them as such is the theme of the lyrics.
Clave: Villancicos are a Spanish tradition. Is there a tradition of Christmas bomba?
Emanuel: In some areas there is a tambor used in parrandas. Parrandas sometimes go to businesses and ask for an aguinaldo or present in the form of a donation. In general, when you visit friends they offer you refreshments, juice, soda, beer, rum, and something to eat like an asopao, fried snacks, sweets.
Clave: Parranda usually refers to a celebration of end of year. Is this correct?
Emanuel: No. Parrandas begin at the end of November, right after Thanksgiving, and extend until after Three Kings' Day on January 6th. In some places they extend even further.
Clave: Is this a religious or secular activity?
Emanuel: It is a combination. At times it is closer to the religious realm and vice versa, although religion is the central theme of parrandas. At other times people only are concerned about a party and not about a Christmas celebration. Towards the end of November you can feel a Christmas air, a cooler softer breeze, as one of the Christmas guarachas says.
Clave: Plans for the future?
Emanuel: There are always plans to make new recordings, to make our music accessible to a larger audience. A recording is always an appropriate way to do so. We also participate in radio and television programs. There is information published about the group in books, my articles on research of this type of music, newspapers, and professional magazines from Puerto Rico and from other parts of the world. I participate in conferences and with the group I can take the music to a larger audience. Not everyone is interested in an academic discussion about the music, and a presentation of Paracumbé lends itself to a discussion with a larger audience. We always have plans to continue to record. "Tambó," our most recent CD, was very well accepted by the public. We also have plans to include innovations and not base our work only on tradition.
Clave: What about collaboration with other groups?
Emanuel: That's a possibility. As part of Paracumbé we have a weekly workshop, Sociedad Dorada [Golden Society]. It is held at the Catholic church of the town of Carolina and it is a way to take the tambor to the church, to Mass. My wife Nelly and I composed in 1986 a piece for drums for Mass with plena and bomba rhythms. We named it Misa Costera. We have also increased our repertoire to include songs composed by others in rhythms such as plena, cumbia, guaracha, seis, aguinaldo, bomba and even Andean music. We cover a lot of ground and always with the presence of the tambor. We collaborate with the group that plays at the church. It is an extension of Paracumbé to religious music, although we do function independently as well. In the past we have collaborated with the Pleneros de Ponce, with Teófilo Díaz, who was the accordionist for Manuel “Canario” Jiménez, the famous plena composer. Once we participated in an event and we united all the members of the different traditional plena groups, forming a great group with many instruments and many people. It was an interesting event. It was organized by Dr. Luis Manuel Alvarez, who was directing the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.
