Andy Palacio 1960 - 2008

Punta Rock and Garifuna Culture - Belize and Central America

I first heard Andy Palacio’s punta rock in Belize in the 1980's. I tried to find him but he was away on a music project. Instead I met Mr. Wilfred Peters of Mr. Peters Boom & Chime – the king of Belizean brukdown. I returned again to record Mr. Peters - on FireAnt – and tried finding Andy, this time because of his Project Sunrise project, encouraging local Belizean music and musicians. I finally met Andy and his friend Ivan Duran in, of all places, Marseilles, France – at a WOMEX MusicConference – the only one I ever attended. We caught up with the music we were finding, playing and recording. Ivan apologized for borrowing and re-recording some of our Mr. Peters tunes, but we let it go. Getting the real music out, is the main thing. If anyone gets anything – money, publicity - for their effort, fine; it’s worth it, especially for the music. (Lew Herman/FireAnt/March 2008)

Here's the text from the Guardian on a charismatic performer you should know and remember:

Andy Palacio: Singer/Songwriter and Champion of the Culture of Belize's Garífuna People.

Sue Steward, Wednesday January 23, 2008, The Guardian:

The Belizean singer, songwriter and cultural campaigner Andy Palacio has died at the age of 47 from respiratory failure after a stroke and heart attack. A generous, energetic and committed musician, he had begun to see significant results from his efforts to raise awareness of his Garífuna culture, notably through his album Wátina, released last February.

Descendants of African slaves, the Garífuna were shipwrecked on the island of St Kitts in 1635 and formed inter-racial communities with the indigenous people - until 1797, when the British brutally expelled them to Honduras. From there, they spread out along the coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, and arrived in Belize in 1802.

At Palacio's school, this history, including the forced expulsion, had been censored. The situation is slowly changing, he said, "with so many more Garífuna in influential positions". When I interviewed him about Wátina last summer, I was struck by his warmth and directness, and the urgency of his campaigning through his music.

Palacio was born in the fishing village of Barranco. His father Reuben was a fisherman-farmer who played English folk songs and popular radio hits on harmonica and guitar, and taught his son harmonica. At high school in nearby Punta Gorda, Andy took up the guitar and played soul, reggae and soca music; he wanted to be like Bob Marley, he admitted. A scholarship at 18 to the teachers' training college in Belize City drew him into the capital's buzzing music scene.
Throughout his life, Palacio combined his natural talents for teaching and music with occasional forays into official positions. On graduating, he taught at Barranco's Roman Catholic school, and in 1980 volunteered for Nicaragua's national literacy campaign, working with an English-speaking community. He was disturbed by the ignorance of their ancestral language and culture: "I was looked upon like a rare specimen who spoke Garífuna." He was determined to prevent that happening in Belize, where a new electric dance beat called "punta" was sweeping the country. His own punta singles, Watu and Ereba, spread his name beyond his Garífuna fan base: as he put it, "We had crossed over." In 1981, he presented both musics on Radio Belize, and taught music and songwriting to local Barranco boys.

The 1980s saw Palacio's popularity as a musician and community worker intensify. His 1985 song Bikini Party became a punta classic. Two years later, he came to London to train with the Cultural Partnerships arts organisation in studio production and electronics. On returning to Belize, he was appointed director of Sunrise, a community recording project dedicated to Belizean music. He recorded Come Mek Wi Dance with local musicians, and then made some recordings for Caye Records in California.


In 1995, Palacio met the local producer Ivan Duran, who ran the Stonetree label. The albums Keimuon (1995) and Til da Mawnin (1997) were produced in Belize and Havana, and Paranda (1999), recorded in all four Garífuna countries, wove roots music into the songs and inspired many young punta-rockers to include traditional elements in their work.
In 2000, Palacio succeeded in his request that Unesco should formally acknowledge the need to preserve the Garífuna language, music and dance. He accepted influential posts in the education ministry's literacy campaign, in the ministry of rural development and culture, and at the national institute of culture and history, where he organised activities connected with Garífuna history and the now annual Garífuna festival. In 2006, when Stonetree formed a link with the American label Cumbancha, Palacio and Duran spent four months recording by the sea. The result, Wátina, is a marvellous mix of modern and traditional music, and poetic vignettes from Garífuna life.


Last year Palacio was declared Unesco artist for peace, and in October he and Duran were given the annual Womex award in Seville, where he made a typically modest speech. Wátina appeared on dozens of 2007 "best of" lists in many countries, and in December Palacio was chosen unanimously as a winner in the forthcoming BBC Radio 3 world music awards.
Discussing the album's success, he echoed the pleasure that the widespread appeal of his early punta singles had given him: "It is accomplishing everything I ever dreamed of where our community was concerned. I thought it would appeal to old people because of its mature and sophisticated sound, its exploration of the soul of Garífuna music, and inclusion of ritual beats. But no, it crossed over!"

In the track Amunegu, he pleads for a deliberate transmission of culture to the next generation, "or we'll lose it". But teenage bands were already singing unplugged Garífuna songs. He is survived by his five children and two granddaughters.
· Andy Vivien Palacio, musician, born December 2 1960; died January 19 2008

. Photo: www.elpais.com/.../20070616elpbabart_19/Tes