Monday, December 29, 2014

el Carmen, "hatajo de negritos," and more Peru trip

(diary from day 9 of my trip - Dec. 13, 2014)

Am now in the little town of el Carmen, in the southern coastal area of Peru.  To get here, you take a bus to Chincha and then a taxi from Chincha to el Carmen.  It´s important to take a secure taxi...many of the taxis here are not secure, so you need to get the name of a taxi before you start your trip.

Many of the houses have murals.  This is of a violinist who lead one of the hatajos.

El Carmen is a predominantly Afro-Peruvian town in which they carry on a centuries old tradition called the "hatajo de negritos."  The "hatajos" are groups of dancers - all men except for one which is exclusively women - who perform special dances on the occasion of Christmas, the celebration of the Virgin of Carmen, and 12th Night.

I am staying in a beautiful "hotel" - a big, airy house with 2 acres of grounds planted in avocado trees, fruit, bananas, etc..  The proprietor is Edith Maldonado, a woman instrumental in seeing to the production of the first documentary about the "hatajos." She also co-founded one of the town's cultural organizations.  This was back in 2007.  A newer, excellent, one was filmed in 2012 by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

Veranda at back of the house/hotel, with Edith Maldonado.

Since there are already two documentaries about the "hatajos," I filmed only a tiny portion of one of the rehearsals.  It is really wonderful stuff, and a fascinating story.

People here are loath to sign documents, an important consideration for me since I need release forms signed.  And drama, drama!  One of the places I was to film cancelled their rehearsal in part because, after I set up my camera, I explained I´d need a signature.  But I got plenty enough footage in the other place to use for what I´m working on.

Margarita Cordoba (in whose home we filmed) with her nephew, leader of one of the hatajos.  In the background you see an altar to baby Jesus and the Virgin of Carmen.

Another small drama:  I was told the place where I´m staying could accept payment by debit-credit card.  On arriving, I discovered this is not correct.  El Carmen does not have a bank, so later today, I´ll go in a tiny, overcrowded van into Chincha to search for an ATM machine and hope a) it will give me the money I need and b) it won´t eat my card.

Kids getting ready for practice in the house of the Ballumbrisios.

Tomorrow afternoon, I leave el Carmen to go to San Luis de Cañete (which I just discovered is a different place from Cañete...good that I found out because I was planning to go to Cañete) where I´ll hopefully hook up with Lalo Izquierdo, visit his cultural association, and film him giving children a lesson in cajón.

Then, back to Lima.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Lalo Izquierdo - interview and cajón session

Yesterday (Dec 8, 2014) we filmed an interview and cajón demonstration with Lalo Izquierdo in the patio of the apartment where I'm staying in Lima, Peru. "We" means me and a camera operator/all around assistant. He will remain nameless because the quality of his work was kind of mediocre.

On the whole, things went fine and I think I know how to fix a few of the little problems that cropped up with the image. But life is full of little bumps in the road, right?

Lalo Izquierdo (right) and me.  A bit of a contrast, right?
Our first bump came when Lalo couldn't find the apartment. Lima is a big city, and when I say I'm staying in Lima, I really mean I'm staying in greater Lima, in the Lima metropolitan area.

My particular section is called Miraflores, and the apartment is on a short street named la Libertad. I called Lalo on his cell phone 15 minutes after he was due, and found out he was wandering around, looking for the street. I passed the phone over to the camera operator who explained to Lalo how to get here. Twenty minutes later, I got a call from Lalo...he was still wandering around.  Lost.

The upper half of "my" short street, la Libertad.

In the end I had to send the camera operator out to find him and guide him over here.

Next problem: I was short one camera battery. (We were filming with three of my cameras, using two different formats). That was solved when we found an electrical outlet close enough for one of the cameras to use.


Starting to set up.
After overcoming several other little problems, we obtained a fairly decent image and good sound for two separate interviews (one for each format) and two separate cajón demonstrations, plus shots of Lalo and me walking down the street. 

What we missed, which is important, is a second interview to be conducted in Sucro with an elderly woman (wife of a deceased Afro-Peruvian percussionist great, Ronaldo Campos). With the problems of Lalo getting lost and the time it took to film everything in Miraflores, she had gone out.

Lalo on set with the cajón.

We'll catch her another day.

And the problems with the camera operator? He doesn't know how to zoom, and the only idea he has of filming an interview is to point the camera towards the people to be filmed and punch the "record" button. 

SIGH!

____________________

We are working on making a few revisions in our documentary film, A Zest for Life: Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz, and shooting a trailer for a new, more comprehensive work about Afro-Peruvian music and the Afro-Peruvian community.

P.S.  Thanks to María del Carment López Quispe for help with some of my makeup.