El Grito loves music from the 70’s. Especially the 1570’s. And we are big fans of Drake.
Around that time Spanish rule in the Caribbean was challenged by the Cimarrones, escaped African slaves forced to live in the most inhospitable parts of the Caribbean to avoid recapture, and to develop advanced guerilla warfare tactics. In Panama they allied with Sir Francis Drake, as he sought to intercept plundered gold en route from Peru to the Atlantic coast. The struck a deal where Drake to ok all the captured gold, and the Cimarrones took the iron. Drake basked in the image of a liberator.
Cuban music is heavily indebted to the rhythms of African slaves which metamorphosed over time into the forms of the 20th century. We can speculate about how this would have sounded but we got some clues in the Palanque De Los Cimarrones in Vinales, a small town in the Eastern province of Pindar Del Rio in Western Cuba. The Palanque is a preserved refuge with a mild tourist trade. As we exited we witnessed a wonderful performance of traditional music replete with knife fetishism and some questionable interactions with burning sticks. As usual, Kamila was on hand to interview.
El Grito 