"Hatajos de negritos" - an Afro-Peruvian celebration of Christmas

The district of Chincha, on the southern coastal plain of Peru, is a center of Afro-Peruvian culture.  The small towns of Guayabo, el Carmen, San José and others are especially famous for this.

The most important Afro-Peruvian celebration that they maintain is part of the Christmas celebration, in which groups called the hatajos de negritos dance, sing, and parade throughout the night in honor of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary.  Starting on the evening of December 24th, the celebration only ends on the morning of Christmas day, itself.  

Little boy in costume for hatajos de negritos

The hatajos are composed of men and boys.  The girls have separate groups, called pallas or pallitas, that do their dancing on January 6th.  Both practice for months in advance.  The hatajos are accompanied by men carrying statues of the Virgin and baby Jesus.  They go from town to town, and stop at the homes of people who have arranged in advance for them to come there.

In these homes, first they dance for baby Jesus in front of images of the nativity scene, then they are invited to eat, and rest a bit before going on to the next home, or the next town.

In the procession, the group dances as a whole.  In front of the nativity scenes, they do individual dances - dances of zapateo fancy footwork.  Many of them are incredibly skillful and it is a real pleasure to watch them.  I have not personally seen the celebration on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, but I have watched them practice and have also seen performances of zapateo in which two dancers enter into friendly competition with each other.  

The two zapateo masters.

My first documentary about Afro-Peruvians shows quite a bit of the hatajos de negritos, while the second one has a great zapateo competition between two masters:  Huevito (Freddy Huevito Lotabón) - three-time winner of the national Peruvian zapateo competition - and Lalo Izquierdo, a master dancer.

Incidentally the first documentary is called A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz while the second is Masters of Rhythm with addendum.  Check them out!

And if these topics interest you, or if world music and dance in general interests you, sign up for my newsletter.  This is one of the things I specialize in.  (You'll also get a free video and some music when you sign up.)
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The author of this article is filmmaker Eve A. Ma.  She makes documentaries, dramas, and experimental shorts;  and is a former history professor and director of a non-profit cultural organization.  She considers herself to some extent an international version of the late documentarian Les Blank.

The best laid plans of mine and men...

I just spent about a month in Spain.  My plan was to spend 10 days working on Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva) and then, since co-director Antonio de la Malena was scheduled to go on tour in Mexico, I'd spend another three weeks, well, having fun:  a bit of editing, a bit of checking out lead mines (lead mines?  Yes, lead mines), a bit of flamenco dance lessons, a few days in Paris and plenty of just hanging out.

Manuel de Malena with guitarist Malena Hijo

However, Antonio's tour to Mexico was cancelled at the last minute and so I got to - WORK.  The whole time I was there.

And I must say, we did get a lot done.  We filmed the very fine (and famous) flamenco guitarist Diego del Morao playing a solo, and also interviewed him on camera.  We filmed the very fine (and also famous) flamenco singer Manuel de Malena singing a solo, and also interviewed him on camera.  We conducted a second interview of the very important figure, former guitarist Manuel Morao.  We interviewed critic Estela Zatania.  We interviewed Mila Méndez, a nice of the great singer, la Paquera (and Mila sang a little for us in the style of her aunt).  We got some editing done.  I filmed some lead mines near Córdoba, in a small city called Linares.

Diego del Morao getting his microphone attached.

Lots of work!  But in fact, it was a trip well spent - and I did get a few days in Paris at the end.

When I say "we," it's because the contributions of every crew member, plus all the talented people we are filming, are essential to the project.  This includes is our new sound tech, Carlos Pérez, who comes down from Sevilla to work with us;  along with camera operators Eve A. Ma (yours truly) and Roberto Aguilar;  lighting tech Sergio Monja;  and of course our fantastic co-directors Eve A. Ma (again) and Antonio de la Malena.  Plus most of the time we also have a boom operator.

Co-directors and part of crew work out a problem.

How the (Afro-Peruvian) cajón entered (Spanish) flamenco - part 2 of 2

When I told this story to some flamenco friends, they said “we heard a different story” and recounted how Paco de Lucías’s percussionist (a palmero - a person who does the hand-clapping that is the usual accompaniment for traditional flamenco) went to Perú where he “discovered” the cajón, bought one, and brought it back to Spain.

Well, I was surfing YouTube one day, and happened across this video in which Paco de Lucía confirms Lalo’s story;  if you don't understand Spanish, you'll just have to take my word for it:

Paco de Lucia explaining how he was introduced to the cajón in Peru.

Again, for those of you who can read Spanish, this interview with Caitro Soto adds more detail LINK. 

Apparently, el Comercio, a newspaper in Lima, arranged for Paco de Lucía to explain how he learned about the cajón by watching Caitro Soto (and others) at an after-party, and then purchased one, which he gave to his percussionist.  LINK.  According to Paco, it was easier for flamenco percussionists to use the cajón than to do the traditional palmas (hand clapping), which is why the cajón caught on so rapidly.

So there you have it.

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Author Eve A. Ma, who dances flamenco, is the producer/director of two documentaries about Afro-Peruvian music and dance.   Lalo Izquierdo appears in both;  here's a LINK to one of them.   

Keep up with Ma's work:  http://PalominoPro-signup.com

NOTE:  this article first appeared in the on-line magazine, www.SomosPrimos.com.  It is reprinted here with permission.

How the (Afro-Peruvian) cajón entered (Spanish) flamenco - part 1 of 2

If you are either a flamenco aficionado or a cajón enthusiast, here's a story that you will enjoy.

I consider myself fortunate to have a friend, Lalo izquierdo, who is a master of the Afro-Peruvian cajón (or, if you will, the Peruvian cajón)., a percussion instruments that you see in almost every Afro-Peruvian performance, in much of Latin jazz, in other styles of jazz and in modern flamenco.

Lalo is a percussionist, a dancer, a choreographer and a folklorist of his Afro-Peruvian community.  He lives in Lima, but has spent many months in the United States.  I have seen – and filmed – him in both places.

Lalo Izquierdo with a quijada de burro

Once, he told me a story about how the Afro-Peruvian cajón became incorporated into flamenco.  He said that he along with others, including Caitro Soto, were enjoying themselves in an after-performance party for Paco de Lucía, a seminal flamenco guitarist then on tour in Peru.  Lao, Caitro Soto and others started playing the cajón and Paco de Lucía came over.

Lao Izquierdo playing the cajón

Paco was very, very interested.  He wanted to know more about the instrument and its capacities.  At some point, Caitro Soto offered him one, and he accepted.  Later, he purchased another one.

And that's how the (Afro-Peruvian) cajón entered (Spanish) flamenco.

(Don't forget to read part 2!)

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Author Eve A. Ma, who dances flamenco, is the producer/director of two documentaries about Afro-Peruvian music and dance.   Lalo Izquierdo appears in both;  here's a LINK to one of them.   

Keep up with Ma's work:  http://PalominoPro-signup.com

NOTE:  this article first appeared in the on-line magazine, www.SomosPrimos.com.  It is reprinted here with permission.

After the drought comes rain, after the silence comes ...

I haven't written any blog posts for quite a while. That's because I've been busy doing things filmmakers have to do that some filmmakers, myself being one of them, really hate to do: writing funding requests, finding distributors, doing publicity for events. First, the announcement of the event:


                

Then, moving right along: I got off a major funding request last week; took me about 10 days to do it with some of the major parts already roughed out. No fun, but done.

I also learned that one of my documentaries, A Zest for Life: Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz (revised 2015), will be listed on the national server maintained by NETA (National Educational Television Assn.) so that educational stations nationwide can pick it up for broadcast.

The fact that it's available does not, of course, guarantee that it will get lots of air time. I will have to do some heavy duty publicity work to actually get station managers to check it out. SIGH.   But it's still an honor.

And by the way, yes, I realize the title is, well, a bit long.

Here I am doing something I like better:  directing.

There are also several distributors that are offering to carry some of my work. Some want exclusive contracts, some are happy with non-exclusive contracts, and some are still reviewing individual titles after having them in hand for more than a month.

Once a distributor does decide to carry your titles, for each title you have to prepare "deliverables:" publicity packets, digital versions of the program (and different distributors want different forms of digitizing), and so forth. It's time-consuming and once they have everything in hand, they will take one to two months to actually get your title(s) up on their system.

Some of these distributors will do publicity for the titles they are taking, others will not. They'll just make it available on their server and the filmmaker gets to do his/her own publicity.

Oh, and I needed to get a publicity packet off to a festival that will be screening one of my shorts;  a small but very nice festival that I enjoy participating in.  It's called the Shortz Film Festival.  They are people with a sense of humor.

Then, there's that event coming up on August 22.

Without boring you any further, I'll just point out that I have been pretty busy. Hasn't everyone?

Listening to criticism, offering streaming versions

A year or so ago, a reviewer opined that my experimental short Two Streets & Adela had missed a great opportunity by not showing hardly any of the lovely and historic city in which the action takes place.  I took that comment to heart, and figured out how to add some beauty shots without sacrificing the story or my intentions.

In an ardent desire to move into the modern world, I've made Two Streets & Adela available on-line for streaming or download HERE

On the set of Two Streets & Adela

Streaming seems like a good idea.  "Everyone" spends so much time each day on-line that it makes sense to have a full, on-line presence.  It's also a lot easier to deal with after you've gotten the initial set-up completed.

With that thought, I have now uploaded Tone Poem with Hang Drum and some time within the next three months, CreateSpace/Amazon.com will make it available.  (They are very slow.)

Liron Mann (Liron Man) with his hang drum.

In the next few weeks, I'll get other of my videos up as well but it's a slow process.  it takes hours to convert a video to a format that CreateSpace/Amazon.com like, and more hours to upload once the conversion is done.

FYI re the final product:  purchasing a streaming version on Amazon/com usually runs less than $2.00;  the download is a little more expensive.
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Eve A. Ma has produced/directed about six experimental shorts, several shot in Spain and a few in the U.S..  She is now editing  a short she and her crew filmed in Peru called Masters of Rhythm.  She hopes to complete it before the end of 2015.

National Educational Television - NETA - at last!

I have been dying to have my work get national exposure.  I went to Peru last December because the director of NETA (National Educational Television Assn.) suggested this was the only way I could make my documentary, A Zest for Life, suitable for them to include for broadcast over national educational television.  Well, the trip paid off and NETA has now officially accepted A Zest for Life. 

WOW!

It will take about two months for the documentary to get set up, but then, well, the sky's the limit.

So what is NETA and how does educational television in the United States work?

Let's start at the bottom, where we find public access stations, really great, locally connected television stations who allow almost anyone that walks through the door to put on a TV show - and in many cases, also teach them how to do it.  I say "almost anyone," because many local public access stations do have a residency requirement and things of that sort.

Similar to the public access stations are the television stations run by educational institutions in which the students learn how to make television programs by - making television programs.

Next up is local broadcast above the public access level.  Here, you have professionals but not the cream of the cream professionals.  This will be your local, commercial stations.  They do a lot of local news and local interest programming.

Sticking with educational television but moving on to quite a higher level, you have PBS.  Each individual PBS station can put on, or select, its own programming so long as it fits the national PBS guidelines.  Above that, you have the national educational distributors who distribute not only to PBS stations but also to other educational television networks.

Some of these national distributors pay for all the programming they accept, some pay for only some of it and take the rest free, and some don't pay for any of the programming they accept.  Why would they get free programming?  Because of people like me, who want national exposure but haven't quite gotten to the level of having programming good enough to get paid real money for it.

So that's where I am - national, but not yet paid.

My next goal, of course, it to make something that will not only air nationally but that I will get paid for.  I'm hoping to reach that goal within the next year.  Let's see what happens.

The cajón - in flamenco, in Afro-Peruvian music

I count myself as a friend of Lalo Izquierdo - dancer, choreographer, percussionist and folklorist of his Afro-Peruvian community. When Lalo told me the group he and three others founded in 1969 called Perú Negro had introduced famous flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía to the cajón (an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument), I believed him.

 When I told this to flamenco friends, they invariably would come back with "I heard a different story." 

Well, I found a video on YouTube in which Paco de Lucia states that he learned of the cajón from Caitro Soto (another of the four founders of Perú Negro) when he was  in Lima, Peru, on a Latin American tour. My friend Lalo Izquierdo was there at the time, as were all the other two members of Perú Negro.

Paco de Lucia  further confirms that this introduction that the Peru Negro group gave him to the cajón is the origin of the cajón in flamenco.  He purchased one from Caitro Soto on the spot, and the rest, as they say, is history.

(Sorry that this video is in Spanish....)

So my friend, and his story, are vindicated. Neither Paco de Lucia nor his entourage accidentally "discovered" the cajón. They were introduced to it by skillful Afro-Peruvian percussionists. Percussionists who I have had the privilege to work with. Olé.

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Eve A. Ma is currently working on a major documentary about flamenco, and finishing up a cool, short documentary (30 minutes) about three Afro-Peruvian percussionists:  Lalo Izquierdo, Cotito (Juan Medrano Cotito) and Huevito (Freddy Huevito Lobaton).  www.PalominoPro.com.

Finding Les Blank

I don't know why I didn't meet Les Blank before he died;  after all, he lived in El Cerrito and made documentaries about music and dance - just like me.  Although for some reason I didn't ever get to know him personally, now, I have "found" him.

Les Blank made all kinds of films about things like cajun music, bluegrass, Lightnin' Hopkins, the polka people, and even topics like garlic.  All that I know of were shot in the United States.

jazz funeral parade in New Orleans

There is no narration.  He doesn't try to explain what you are seeing - which has its good points and its not so good points, but what the hey, they are colorful, the people in them speak for themselves, and there is really a lot of great music in his work.

The Chenier brothers' cajun group.  Clifton (far right) is featured in
one of Les Blank's videos & the group was recorded by El Cerrito's
Armhole Records.

He died in 2013, and his family and supporters have produced a major compendium of his work with five DVDs, a booklet, and in addition to the documentaries, lots of extras like shorts made out of unused footage, and interviews with family and friends (really interesting interviews).

Mardi Gras Indian (in New Orleans)

I am now on the third DVD.  Since I come from the Carolinas and grew up in New Orleans, my favorites are the ones about music from those areas:  the jazz funerals in New Orleans, the Big Bad Indians from Tchoupitoulas Street, Lightin' Hopkins, the moonshine-making blue grass players, things like that.

Bluegrass fiddler:  Fiddlin' Bill Henseley

You'll want to check these out.  The series is called "Always for Pleasure," and you can buy it locally at Down Home Music, etc., or on line at Amazon.com and other places.

One more image of a jazz funeral in New Orleans.  Hey, it's my hometown.

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Eve A. Ma in currently in California where she is editing material about Afro-Peruvians she shot in Peru last December;  looking for funding for a documentary about flamenco;  and getting the word out about three works she recently completed (about Spanish immigrants, about Afro-Peruvians, and a drama about the economic crisis in Spain).  Sign up for the newsletter to learn about her work LINK.

A little more backtracking - Córdoba, beautiful Córdoba (even later April)

On my way to Cannes last April, I spent a couple of days in Córdoba...the first time I've been there.  What a great city!

The roof & domes of the "Great Mosque" as seen from the Roman bridge.

It is home to the "Great Mosque" of Spain...a gigantic and very beautiful edifice.  The city's cathedral is located in the center, which at first I found offensive but then learned that before the Moorish period when the Great Mosque became a great mosque, it had been a small church.

Here is only a small portion of the "Great Mosque" to give you some idea of the size.

The seemingly endless galleries, all white and red, are supported in many cases by Roman columns.  The high, vaulted ceilings and latticed windows around the edges lend a soft, almost secretive light.  There are many alcoves, most with Christian saints and gothic, Roman, or romanesque architecture but in a few cases the alcoves are inlaid with mosaics and verses from the Koran.

ceiling of the cathedral which is inside the Great Mosque

archway leading to a more moslem alcove

detail of some arches

The outside doors are distinctly Moslem and Moorish looking in their shape, their decoration, and the verses of the Koran inlaid around them.

Small side entrance to the "Great Mosque"

But the "Great Mosque" is not all that Córdoba has to offer.

There's also the Roman bridge, an archaeological site with Roman, Visigoth and other ruins that I didn't have time to visit, an Alcázar with stunning gardens (didn't have my camera with me when I went there, though), some interesting museums...and also some great food!

the Roman bridge

a really nice statue of Don Quijote (near the Great Mosque)

It is definitely a good place to visit, and looks like it would be a good place to live, as well.

exterior of the Alcázar.

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Eve A. Ma has recently returned to California from work in Spain on the documentary Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva) and in France, where she presented her documentary A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz, in a festival in Cannes.

Backtracking - the Manuel Morao shoot (mid-April 2015)

We shot a very interesting interview with Manuel Morao in mid-April for Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva).  Who, you may ask, is Manuel Morao?

Manuel Morao

First of all because of his importance as a guitarist.  He is one of the finest flamenco guitarists alive today, except that he no longer plays the guitar,, due to a serious injury.  Although he no longer plays, his recordings from the time when he was playing - he accompanied an incredible number of the finest singers - are among the best.  He is featured on almost every major CD produced in Jerez in the years in which he was able to play.

Manuel Morao (left) with co-director Antonio de la Malena

In addition, he trained many, many younger guitarists including Diego del Morao, a guitarist who is much in demand, as well as the late highly lauded and beloved guitarist, Moraito, who recently succumbed to cancer.  In general, Manuel Morao is considered to have founded his own school, his own style, of flamenco guitar playing.

Camera operators in consultation:  Roberto Aguilar & yours truly

Just as importantly, he is arguably the most influential and successful of the people who brought flamenco out of the community and cafés and onto the world stage.  Major productions he produced played on Broadway.  For years in Jerez, he presented weekly flamenco performances that garnered an audience literally of thousands.  One of his companies produced CDs and DVDs that were among the first flamenco media productions to sell to a world-wide audience.

Crew (camera & sound) with Manuel Morao and
Antonio de a Malena in the antique shop.

Manuel Morao is a very important man in the development of flamenco.

And he is a true believer in traditional flamenco.

We consider him one of the most important consultants to our project.  We videotaped a seven hour interview with him, filming in three separate locations:  the Plaza de Toros (bullfight ring) where he presented weekly flamenco shows, the street in front of his media production company, and inside an antique shop owned by his friend.

Yours truly, as co-director.

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Until very recently, Eve A.Ma was in Spain, working on a documentary about flamenco that she is co-directing with Antonio de la Malena.  We have just completed its trailer, which you can see HERE.  Ma has just returned to California where she is once again immersing herself in work - editing, designing, conceptualizing, writing funding proposals, and working on publicity.

Festival in Cannes, France (late April-early May 2015)

The Festival International du Film PanAfricain, which took place in Cannes, France, from April 29-May 3, presented my documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz. It  was a real pleasure to have my work screened in a festival that I could attend;  I am on my way back to California from Spain, and it was easy to work Cannes into that trip.

Me with my poster.  (I changed into a dress at night.)

The festival also presented a large number of other works:  some shorts, a pretty good number of feature-length documentaries, a couple of animations and various dramas.  Filmmakers came from all over the world.  The various countries of Africa were extremely well represented, but there were plenty from the USA and from Europe.  The films were in French or English or had subtitling in one of those two languages;  and since luckily I can deal with both languages, I was able to enjoy them all.

Promenade by the Mediterranean - festival poster visible in foreground.

My own screening went well, although I realized in retrospect that the interview when the screening ended was conducted entirely in French, while my film is in English.  I hope everyone in the audience understood both the film and my interview!

Festival organizer Basile Ngangue Ebelle (left) with festival attendee.

In a film festival, there are always more interesting films than one person can possibly watch.  Of the more than 19 films that I managed to see most or all of, the one that stands out the most is Poverty, Inc. an American documentary in English directed by Mark Weber.  You should really check it out when it hits the movie theaters.

Of dramas, I'l choose John of God (on the light side) - shot in the Congo by director Selé Mpoko - and Price of Love (for something more serious) - a drama shot in Ethiopia by director Yefkir Wagawe.  As for shorts, well, I'm going to pass on that one for now.

What the hey - me, one more time, with festiva poster.

A comment about prizes:  there were LOTS of films I wanted to see that I missed, including two that won top prizes.  I bet they're good!  But of the three films I mentioned above that I particularly liked, two won prizes.  The Price of Love, in fact, won the prize for Best of Festival.  Good work!

Finally, in case you think going to film festivals is only about networking and hoping for a prize:  sure, I networked (didn't get any prize, though) but I also learned a great deal from watching other peoples films.  I learned not only the things one learns from art well done, but also got some ideas about my own work.

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Until very, very recently, Eve A.Ma was in Spain, working on a documentary about flamenco that she is co-directing with Antonio de la Malena.  She is about to return to California where she will once again immerse herself in work - editing, designing, conceptualizing, writing funding proposals, and working on publicity.

Prostitutes, police, and my very own apartment (very late April 2015)

When I'm in Jerez, I live on a short, quiet (well, kind of quiet) residential street called Benavente Bajo.  It is within sight of a big, shoe-box shaped building that at one time was the olive oil manufacturing center.  Had the olive press and all that.

the former police station

Next, it became the local police station, then it fell into disrepair to be restored as a museum to flamenco - which had no patrons - and is currently the home of a flamenco club, the Peña la Buena Gente.  (Peña la Buena Gente means "the Good Guy's Club.")

Peña la Buena Gente logo on the building

In the days when it was the police station, my street, little Benavente Bajo, was home to whore houses.

This couldn't have been too terribly long ago because when I moved in, my neighbor downstairs on the left was a prostitute (who never paid her bills, by the way) and the woman downstairs on the right, mother of two sons of the same age (but apparently with different fathers) worked for the city government but moonlighted as a prostitute.

My street.  I'd planned to dress up with a
very short mini-skirt, etc., and hang out of
my door for this blog post, but ran out of time.

I, myself, got a couple of knocks on the door the first year I was there from men looking to see if I'd like to turn a trick.

I told them "Gee, thanks, but no thanks."  After all, we must have our standards.

Thought you might like to know this...about my neighborhood (which now is very middle class and has a couple of really church-y families living on it), plus of course, about my standards.
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Until very, very recently, Eve A. Ma was in Spain, working on a documentary about flamenco that she is co-directing with Antonio de la Malena.  She is now in France attending a film festival where one of her documentaries will be presented (on May 2 at 8pm;  drop me a line for details if you'd like to attend).

Saga of the ladies' room in Semana Santa in Spain (end March, begin. April 2015)

I went out one evening to one of my favorite restaurants...yes, a restaurant, an Italian restaurant in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, where I am currently.  I had a (house-made) pizza, a small salad, two glasses of wine and a glass of water.  I expected to use the ladies' room before returning home.

The restaurant is by that (tiny looking) street light on the left.  This photo
was taken the day after the Semana Santa processions came to an end.

This dinner was during Semana Santa (the week preceding Easter).  Everything here in the center of town was packed.  It was packed the evening/night before, and for the next five evenings/nights.

A Virgin Mary Semana Santa paso as night falls.  This gives you
some idea of the size.  Between 30 and 50 guys are underneath,
carrying it on their shoulders.

A Christ paso looming over me.  Notice the fully-grown, live olive
tree on top.  This is also being carried by scores of men hidden below.

The ladies' room in the restaurant was out of order;  not surprising under the circumstances.  You're not going to get a plumber out at that time of night, during Semana Santa.

You're going to try to get through THAT?

I had to walk home to get to my own bathroom.  On the way, I encountered a procession ... thousands of people in these narrow streets, a paso for the Christ (you don't really walk past a paso in these streets...too narrow);  then hundreds of the faithful following the paso (you don't really walk past the hundreds of the faithful in these streets...too narrow);  then a very large band.  

Part of one of the bands.  The processions start in the
afternoon, go on through the night, and some don't end
until mid-morning the next day.

I managed to squeeze past the band after half of it had passed me.  Went to a nearby place where there is a  reasonably public ladies' room.  There was a line.

I forged on home and made it.

Much excitement and drama in southern Spain.

(NOTE:  I took all but the top photo the day after my harrowing experience;  my camera isn't good enough to take decent photos at night.)


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Eve A. Ma is in Spain where, having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she has gotten back to work on a documentary about flamenco that she is co-directing with Antonio de la Malena.