V'zuelan drums pay homage to St John

GREVIC ALVARADO

With drums, dance and food, Venezuelans in Trinidad and Tobago paid homage to St John the Baptist on June 24.

In a celebration in Nelson Mandela Park, Port of Spain, a group of migrants got together to worship the man who baptised Jesus.

The Venezuelan Embassy embassy asked the Port of Spain City Corporation for permission to hold the gathering.

Every June 23 and 24, with a party in which the colour red predominates, Venezuelans celebrate in one of their most-anticipated RC festivals. The songs and music focus on hope, love and life.

Venezuelans used the typical drums from the coast, where most of the musicians come from the Montesano community in the coastal state of La Guaira, Venezuela. They told Newsday as children they were influenced by the drums and the celebrations of John the Baptist.

The drummers vary the rhythms as the celebration progresses with sangueo, turiamo, mayero y san millán. They use the bass, bell, in addition to the Venezuelan instruments, the cumaco – a drum consisting of a long wooden cylinder with leather patches on one end; the charrasca – a percussion musical instrument made of a cylinder full of grooves on its surface which is made to ring by rubbing it with a metal bar or other similar object; and the conga or tumbadora – a membranophone percussion instrument with African roots, which was developed in Cuba.

Songs and dances are added to make the celebration complete.

Eniryes Gomez, one of the most experienced performers, said, “We are organising the group. It's only been a month since we started rehearsing for this celebration, but several people found out about us and have called us for private performances."

Drummer Irvin Mayora said, “In meetings with friends we began to talk about the celebrations of St John the Baptist in our country and how beautiful they are. There we thought, why not show part of those traditions to Trinidadians? And from there, more and more musicians and personalities who also celebrate St John the Baptist joined.”

The group is calling itself Tambor y Song as it looks forward to doing more events. The musicians are Luis Romero, Luis Parica, Yeferson Lugo, Wilder Tirado, Wildemar Tirado, Jimmy Fernández, Elvis Colina and Roangel Orta. Among the women who sing and dance are Cherlys Díaz, Grelibert Hernández, Yoselin Pacheco, Yeimaris Amaya and Joana Silva also stand out.

Most of the men work in construction and the women as kitchen helpers, housekeepers, and some do other jobs.

The big drawback for the group has been getting its own instruments. Gómez said they have been borrowing some drums from the embassy and other Venezuelan music friends in TT.

“We want people to see Venezuelans as good, hard-working and talented people. The people of TT know our culture and traditions,” he said.

Venezuelan ambassador Álvaro Sánchez Cordero said this type of group promotes the true essence of the Venezuelan.

“We are promoting Venezuelan culture in TT. The group of drums appeared during the Latin Night in Nalis, which lasted two weeks with the participation of ten Spanish-speaking countries who showed the public the culture and traditions of each one.

"In TT we have countless musicians and artists who, little by little, are coming to light to show their talent,” he said.

For now, the drum group will continue preparing to give TT and the Latin American public all its energy and music.