We start our week of Garifuna music with the best of the best — Andy Palacio.
This week in class we introduce ourselves to the Garifuna people of Central America, specifically of Belize and Honduras. The Garifuna are a distinct Afro-Caribbean group that originated in 1635 when a boat carrying African slaves shipwrecked off of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The survivors integrated into the Carib population and developed their own West African/Caribbean language and culture. Within two centuries the Garifuna had settled in several locations along the Central American coastline yet, unlike many cultures, maintained their own communities and never fully integrated into the Spanish-influenced mainstream. In this video meet the deeply-missed Andy Palacio of The Garifuna Collective, whose “Watina” helped bring Garifuna music to the international stage.
