Andy Palacio and the Garifuna collective

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The news of the demise of Andy Palacio, a singer/songwriter from Belize, on January 19, 2008, sent shock waves around the world. At the age of 47, it was an unexpected tragedy for an artist, who had received accolades in 2007, along with his band (the Garifuna Collective), for the album titled Wátina. Palacio was designated as a UNESCO Artist for Peace and said album won a prestigious WOMEX Award. Wátina was also nominated for the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. At home in Belize, the international success of Wátina has sparked a revival of Garifuna music, as young musicians became inspired by Palacio's example. His passing leaves a big void for the global dissemination and appreciation of Garifuna culture.

WHO WAS ANDY?

Andy Palacio was a folk artist from Belize, whose Garifuna Collective crusaded to save the threatened music and culture of a tribal people found along the Atlantic coast of Central America. The Garifuna are a melting pot culture, ethnically descended from a mixture of Native American and African genes that British colonizers referred to as "Black Carib."

Today, there are close to a half million Garifuna in the Caribbean, U.S. and Central America, but their plight has not been easy, and with each passing generation, a bit of their heritage wears away. Now, Creole English is spoken by Garifunas in Belize, where North American pop culture dictates the norms of young Garifunas who migrate in large numbers to the U.S. and other countries for a better economic life.

"A lot has already been lost," said Palacio in an interview last summer from Montreal, Canada, where he had performed. "I think my generation in Belize is the last to be raised where Garifuna was our first language in the home, streets, and playground. But in the classroom, English was the language of instruction."

In 2007, Palacios brought his Garifuna road show to Stern Grove in San Francisco, as he and the collective were enjoying unprecedented success with their critically acclaimed album, Wátina (Cumbancha Records). A stirring collection of traditional and sacred songs, the pieces mirror the varied influences of the Garifuna culture and the importance that music plays in expressing Garifuna struggles and daily occurrences.

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THE GARIFUNA CRUSADE

Legend has it that indigenous Arawak-speaking peoples from northern Brazil first came to the island of St. Vincent, long before the arrival of the Europeans. The Arawaks lived in tranquility until shipwrecked Africans bound for slavery were taken in by the tribe. These native inhabitants coexisted with and aggressively fought off Europeans until the 17th century, when French settlers arrived. The British took over the island in 1793, and a series of wars ensued.

The Brits considered the Black Caribs as their enemies and separated them from the more Indian-looking inhabitants. Five thousand were deported to the tiny Central American island of Roatán, but only two thousand survived. The island was too small to ensure their survival, and the Garifuna petitioned the Spanish colonial authorities to allow them to settle on the Central American mainland. The Spanish complied and hired them as soldiers that they sent to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.

"In its essence, Garifuna is one of the Arawak family of languages," Palacio explained, "with borrowed words from Africans, who intermarried with Arawaks and Caribs. The French also had a significant impact on the Garifuna vocabulary as well, when we were relocated to the Central American republics."

Palacio first became aware of the disintegration of the Garifuna language and culture, when, as a teenager, he traveled to Nicaragua to participate in the literacy campaign launched by the Sandinista government. On his way to the village of Orinco for his first assignment, a storm forced his team to change direction. They stopped at a village and Andy was told a Garifuna man lived there.

The 18-year old went to meet him and greeted him in Garifuna upon his arrival. "Are you telling the truth?," he replied in disbelief to Andy. "Yes, I am Garifuna like you," he responded. The man then embraced him and would not let him go. He could not believe that a young man could speak a language he thought would perish with him.

PALACIO AND PUNTA ROCK

Born in 1960, in Borranco, off Belize's tropical coast, Palacio's introduction to music came in elementary school, where he learned to sing songs in two-and-three part harmony. In high school, he started playing guitar with a local band that covered pop songs. The influences were varied. The Latin influence, of course, was inevitable, being just an hour and a half from Miami. The Voice of America introduced Palacio to U.S. pop music, along with the regional sounds of reggae.

"Politically and culturally, Belize is part of the Anglophone Caribbean and musical cousin of Jamaica and Trinidad. Soca and reggae got considerable amount of airplay on Belize's radio stations. I was exposed to all these things, as I was trying to find my feet in music."