Andy Palacio

on January 19th, Belize lost one of it's national heroes, Andy Palacio. a teacher, musician and cultural ambassador born in the tiny village of Barranco, Andy was known most for his mission to preserve and promote Garifuna culture. if you can find a copy of his latest album, Watina, do it. now. he gathered a variety of Garifuna musicians from Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to form the Garifuna Collective, and the results are mesmerizing. their music is joyful, celebratory, mournful, contemplative and spiritual all at once. and the world was taking notice. in fact, 2007 seemed to be the year of Andy, with the album winning awards worldwide. just a few months before his death he was named a UNESCO Artist For Peace. i was accustomed to hearing his music blasting from windows anytime i visited Dangriga or Hopkins, but after his death, you could hear it even outside those Garifuna strongholds. i walked a few blocks from my house to the center of San Ignacio to do some shopping just a few days after his death to find Watina ringing out of an impromptu sound system rigged up outside the front door of the Indian-owned furniture store. the whole country came together.

i was blessed to be able to attend his funeral. Maya got a ticket on the bus going from Hopkins to Barranco, and i managed to hitch a ride. i was concerned that some might think me an interloper on the journey, but my fears were unfounded. the Garifuna tradition holds that funerals are for celebrating life, not mourning death, and this was borne out by the raucous laughter of the folks on the back of the bus all the way to Barranco. they were going there to celebrate him and his contribution to the preservation of their culture. so... we caught the bus at 5am, and after barreling down the southern highway and breezing past sleepy Maya villages, we arrived to find the party had already started. Barranco is a tiny seaside village of 120 residents in the far south of Belize, not far from Guatemala. they'd prepared as much as they could, but with a crowd in excess of 3,000, i'm sure it had to be an overwhelming experience for them. buses poured in from every corner of the country, from as far north as Corozal, on the Mexican border. as we were waiting by the waterside to catch a glimpse of a helicopter landing (bearing the Prime Minister), we saw celebrants arriving by boat from Livingston. he brought them out of the woodwork. everywhere you went, people from around the country (and from neighboring ones as well) greeted each other in Garifuna. in addition to the thousands of Garinagu greeting each other with smiles, there was a smattering of Mestizos, a handful of Maya quietly observing the proceedings, and even a number of gringos sprinkled among all the brown faces. i noticed several Maya families peeking in at the windows of the church, which was standing room only. the crowd spilled out across the road to a temporary tent set up on a lawn overlooking the sea.









the ceremony lasted over 3 hours, a Catholic mass conducted in English and Garifuna, with a sprinkling of eulogies by a number of friends, many of whom happen to also be major government and cultural figures in Belize. the Prime Minister's son, Yasser Musa, broke down in tears during his eulogy. people talked about the fact that it was OK that he was taken from us, since he had succeeded at fulfilling the mission he'd been given. he had created Watina, and now he could go on to join the ancestors secure in the knowledge that he had done good in the world. as we celebrated, the skies opened and unleashed a deluge. nobody moved except to find the shelter of the tent or a neighbor's umbrella. i didn't hear a single complaint as the hordes slogged through the red mud and climbed, soaked to the bone, back in to their buses to leave Barranco in peace. it was a dramatic send off indeed. and i feel lucky to have been able to be there to witness it.







in Andy's own words (from his WOMEX Award acceptance speech in October): "I see this award not so much as a personal endorsement but in fact as an extraordinary and sincere validation of a concept in which artists such as myself take up the challenge to make music with a higher purpose that goes beyond simple entertainment. I accept this award on behalf of my fellow artists from all over the world with the hope that it will serve to reinforce those sentiments that fuel cultures of resistance and pride in one's own." he was only 47.