|
Carnival time
BY RAFAEL LAM—Special for Granma International—
THE Havana carnival is now held
in February and March instead of July and November.
This year, the carnival will coincide with the 485th
anniversary of the founding of the city.
 There
is evidence indicating that a carnival was held
before 1585 in the newly-established town of Havana.
This fiesta included profane elements from the
Corpus Christi procession. There were carts,
tarascas (monstrous dragon figures) and large
puppets.
It is claimed that in 1760,
people from Havana congratulated the general of the
Army in person. After that, Lieutenant General
Emilio Callejea Isasi, governor of the island,
passed a public order law applicable to the entire
island on April 23, 1870. In 1895 the first carnival
was recorded.
Carnival celebrations abound in
almost all Cuban provinces and towns, some being
more traditional than others. For instance, the
Santiago de Cuba carnival is similar to that of
Salvador de Bahía in Brazil, where people dance on
the streets as they follow the parade. In Havana,
there are floats and comparsas (musical
group), but the public does not participate.
In any case, with or without
modifications, carnivals are the most animated
fiestas in Cuba, where people participate in
different ways. Hundreds of people from Havana’s
neighborhoods and organizations join the
comparsas, and rehearse throughout the year with
great enthusiasm. Many of these comparsas and
floats take part in the carnivals staged in villages
and in the provinces.
This is a celebration of national
identity that acts as a shield from meaningless
foreign arts that have little to do with the
country. Carnival has always been a form of
collective resistance against the culture of the
elites.
This is a spontaneous and earthy
fiesta with conga played on home-made instruments,
handcrafted in such way that they do not need
amplification. This is a type of music to be
listened to and felt, ecstatically and in a
collective frenzy. Alejo Carpentier called it
“traveling ballet.”
The most intense expression of
the carnival is the comparsa, as the learned
Fernando Ortiz remarked. The origin of comparsas
has been the subject of widespread debate, just like
almost all popular art forms. But, without a doubt,
the comparsa’s nature has always been linked
to enjoyment.
Carnival is an allegorical parade
of lights and colors, high-pitched and magic sound.
Music itself falls silent before the dancers’ frenzy
and commotion. During carnival time, people dance
deliriously and there is nothing in the world more
important than joy. Everywhere there is an
atmosphere of community, of art of the masses, the
result of popular imagination.
There is no better way to
discover the real essence of a people than when they
are celebrating and dancing, in a perpetual state of
joy. As is well known, Cubans are extremely
fun-loving, and they can’t imagine life without
music, dance and fiestas. Perhaps carnival has been
most influential art in Cuban culture with its broad
range of elements.
Many people celebrate carnivals,
lavish fiestas that show human beings’ will to
express their joy. Cuban carnivals are simpler today
because of current economic restrictions. But fun
relies more on someone’s mood than on luxury and
glamour.
In my opinion, Cuban carnival has
the richest rhythm in America, and it offers an
opportunity to contemplate that percussion arsenal,
so well preserved in Havana’s neighborhoods, which
confers it its great power.
The carnival also offers us an
opportunity to meet old friends and have fun with
them. |
