Experiencing genuine Afro-Peruvian culture and hospitality.
September 15, 2016
Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 10-11.
Spirited dancing around a bonfire made from cotton plants.
We took a weekend field trip to experience one of the Peruvian cultures, that of Afro-Peruvians, descendants of Africans brought to Peru as slaves. A three-hour ride south of Lima, in the small community of El Carmen, we were warmly hosted by the family of Camilo Ballumbrosio, a famous Peruvian musician and percussionist. When the slave masters took away the slaves’ drums, they invented new musical outlets, including zapateo (like tap dancing) and the “cajon,” a wooden box one sits on while ‘drumming.’ We saw both of these on display in the town’s park, in a show put on for us at the Ballumbrosio home, and, not least of all, from our own students.
Near El Carmen we also visited a former slave plantation that grew sugar cane, and later, cotton, a crop that is still grown in the fields around El Carmen. Dating back to 1688, the plantation and its massive hacienda were also for many years a Jesuit monastery, which continued the slavery practice.
Our visit to El Carmen closed with a tour of its old and new cemeteries.
Lunch at Mamaine, an Afro-Peruvian restaurant.A group picture with Mama Ine.Our visit to El Carmen began at the picturesque, tranquil central park.The boys took turns doing “zapateo” for us.Background rhythm was from the boy playing the “cajon.”Acheing, Katie, Emily and Riley.In the middle of the street in the middle of El Carmen, a group of visitors plays frisbee.The blue house on the left is of Camilo Ballumbrosio and family.Camilo tells his family history with the pictures on his walls.With “cajones” on the way to lessons from a master.Camilo taught the group a simple (for him) rhythm to repeat.Camilo to Brad: “More cow bell.”After the first group mastered the rhythm, the second group took a turn.And the second group found their efforts as hilarious of those of the first group.Then the master did an extended solo that was, well, amazing.Members of the Ballumbrosio family making music in the street …… and dancing.And Goshen students could dance.Dinner in the Ballumbrosio home.The beginning act of The Ballumbrosio Show.The family starts training their talent young.The evening closed with a bonfire and dancing.More spirited dancing around the bonfire, made from cotton plants.YMCAA student remarked that the hacienda’s porch is larger than most homes.The plantation in 1834. In the back, the “hacienda,” the twin domes of a Jesuit chapel, and on the sides the galleries, where plantation goods were sold.The elaborate wood altar of the Jesuit chapel, built in 1688.Since learning who St. Martin de Porres is, we’ve seen his image many places.In this room slaves where shackled and cruelly punished, sometimes to the point of death.Under the hacienda we went through a small part of an elaborate system of narrow tunnels to other mansions and to the ocean.Behind the group is a neighborhood of new homes, traditionally built from straw mats.In the old cemetery Camilo explains how local residents leave offerings around the central cross.The new cemetery. By some tombs we saw gifts left for the deceased by their families.Returning to Lima we stopped in Chincha, where Josh and Riley bought “picarones,” a donut-like pastry bathed in sweet syrup.
