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AfroCubaWeb
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20 años de los
primeros Tambores de Fundamento en Santiago de Cuba, 10/1/09 IBBAE, CHACHÁ, announcement from Los
Muñequitos on the occasion of Chachá's passing, 7/19/07 Muere el tamborero más viejo de la isla, Diario de la Prensa, NY, 7/20 Muere Esteban Vega, el último de los fundadores de Los Muñequitos de
Matanzas,
7/20/07 Esteban Vega Bacallao "chachá" 1925-2007, Sistema Sonoro Macaco Blog, 7/23/07 de J.Ernesto Díaz Brief Video of Chachá interview, Esqina Rumbera, 11/29/06 New Orleans delegation visits for initiations |
Esteban "Chachá" Vega Bacallao
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| Por: Víctor M. Sigué y Liuzmary Cumbá El 17 de Septiembre de 1989, hace hoy 20 años, el maestro de la percusión Mililian Galí Riverí [un ahijado de Chacha] introdujo los primeros tambores de fundamento en Santiago de Cuba, apadrinados y consagrados por el matancero Domingo de la Caridad Esteban Vega Bacallao [Chachá], líder religioso. Los tambores de fundamento se componen de un juego de tres tambores Batá consagrados a la deidad Añá (Deidad consagrada a la música ritual de la santería o Regla de Ocha) y los mismos mantienen las reglas de los toques y ritos que se hacen en torno a dicha deidad en cuanto a la fiesta del wuemilere y del Eggun. Los tambores Batá intervienen en las ceremonias que se realizan en las Casas-Templo de los santeros de la Regla de Ocha y los tocadores son igualmente personas consagradas a Añá y se les conoce como Omó Añá. Actualmente se han consagrado 10 tambores de fundamento en Santiago de Cuba. El maestro Mililián Galí, destacado profesor santiaguero de la percusión, es asesor de la compañía folclórica Kokoyé, lo hizo también con el Folclórico de Oriente y el Grupo Cutumba, la conga alemana Takatún y con jóvenes talento de Pernambuco, en Brasil, y da clases a extranjeros interesados en los ritmos cubanos durante los Festivales del Caribe. -- www.casadelcaribe.cult.cu/default.aspx?page=notice.aspx&id=357 [See also Interview while in Venezuela, where Chachá went with Milian Gali, his ahijado or godson.] |
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At this moment, when we are far from Cuba, we have received word of the death of the last surviving founder of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas: Esteban Vega Bacallao "Chachá”, stevedore, quinto master, possessor of one of the oldest sets of consecrated drums in Cuba, comparsero, maker of folkloric instruments, one of the first maestros of the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, admired by Cubans and people from other lands, respected by everyone as one of the great figures of Matanzas culture. [Los Munñequitos are on tour in
Canada] |
Muere el tamborero más viejo de la isla, Diario de la Prensa, NY, 7/20|
La Habana/EFE — El músico cubano Esteban Vega, conocido popularmente como “Chachá”, considerado el tamborero más viejo de Cuba y uno de los fundadores de la legendaria agrupación “Muñequitos de Matanzas”, falleció ayer a los 82 años, según medios locales. |
Muere Esteban Vega, el último de los fundadores de Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba Encuentro, 7/20/07
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Agencias |
FALLECIÓ ESTEBAN VEGA, FUNDADOR DE LOS MUÑEQUITOS DE MATANZAS, Radio Reloj, 7/20/07
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El
último de los fundadores de los emblemáticos Muñequitos de Matanzas,
Esteban "Chachá" Vega falleció este JUEVES a los ochenta y
dos años, cerrando el capítulo de los ocho músicos que formaron la
popular agrupación rumbera. |
| "We’ve Linked the African Chain" Cuban Master Initiates New Orleans Drummers Into Religious Fraternity By Sallie Hughes And Ted Henken African roots bind Cuba and New Orleans, and now five New Orleans musicians have become the first African American group to join a privileged Yoruban fraternity of ceremonial drummers and own a "family" of sacred drums. "We’ve linked the African chain from Africa to Cuba to the United States," said well-known New Orleans drummer Bill Summers. "To me, as an African American, that is a big deal." The drums were created and consecrated in ceremonies over a period of two years by Cuban Esteban "Cha Chá" Vega, who Summers said is "revered as the man, the high priest of drummers on the island." Cha Chá also officiated at the initiation of the New Orleans musicians into the Yoruba fraternity while Cuban master drummer Pancho Quinto, who visited New Orleans last year, participated in the ceremony. Summers was on his fourth visit to the island, furthering a musical and spiritual relationship spanning 35 years. The innovative drummer of the local Latin jazz group "Los Hombres Calientes" participated in the Havana events of the January cultural trip, but said the trip to the Afro Cuban heartland of Matanzas was his primary motivation in traveling to the island. Summers said he has fought a long time to preserve the strong cultural, musical, and African heritage connections that unite Cuba and the Crescent City, and rejected the notion that communication and cultural ties between the two places suffered after the Cuban Revolution. Many African Americans from New Orleans have defied political obstacles and traveled to the island through third countries, he said. New Orleans’ black residents "refuse to let political issues deter them from discovering their heritage," Summers said. "It is important to me that what we did is understood." Cuba was the second-largest port of call of the colonial slave trade, after Brazil. African influences percolate through Cuban culture, from rhythm to religion, and Afro-Cubans are known for maintaining their African cultural traditions. That’s why Summers took students Kito Johnson, 12, his brother Rashidi Johnson, 15, Southern University law school graduate Gino Thomas, and his brother, UNO student Mashona Thomas, to be initiated into the African Aña fraternity of drummers by the master of Cuban master drummers, Cha chá. The Aña fraternity is an African tradition of the Yoruba people, a privileged caste of musicians who are the only ones able to play the sacred family of Bata drums -- the Iya drum, meaning mother in Yoruba; the middle range drum, the Itotele, representing the father; and the Okonkolo, meaning "little one, which plays a basic pattern which holds the family together," Summers explained. To be initiated, the men had to commit to memory 22 suites of music, featuring about 600 different rhythmic patterns. Two more of Summers’ students, Marcus Guillory and Michawn McKnighten, will travel to Cuba to be initiated in April. The men traveled under the auspices of the Summers Multi-Ethnic Institute of Arts, run by Bill Summers and his musician wife, Yvette Summers. New Orleans master drummers are scheduled to perform publicly for the first time at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this spring, opening for Carlos Santana at Lake Front Arena during the first weekend of the festival and performing a Summers composition at the fair grounds with master African drummers from Senegal, Brazil and Cuba. "We’ve been training people to participate in traditional African ceremonies, things taken away during slavery," Summers said. "Most of the African spiritual practices carried negative connotations that were promoted by those who enslaved Africans. We must evaluate these things ourselves and among our own people. This is really the purpose of my doing this with them." - reprinted by permission of the author, originally published in the February issue of La Prensa (e-mail: laprensa@nopg.com). |
| Publicado el domingo, 21 de febrero de 1999 en El Nuevo Herald, Miami Hacen resonar los lazos yorubas entre Cuba y Nueva Orleans PAULA GONZALEZ / EFE NUEVA ORLEANS Cuatro músicos de Nueva Orleans viajarán a Cuba la próxima semana para incorporarse a la privilegiada fraternidad de Yoruba, formada por percusionistas que mantienen la tradición africana de tipo ceremonial. Los cuatro músicos que ya se iniciaron en la tradición de Yoruba, Thomas y Jeno Mishona, y Kito y Rashidi Johnson, debieron memorizar diversos "ritmos de los profundos bosques", relacionados a la tradición. "La tradición se apoya en el respeto del orden natural del universo y a cada elemento de la naturaleza le corresponde un ritmo", explicó Bill Summers, quien ha estado en La Habana en repetidas ocasiones para preservar los lazos musicales y la herencia africana que unen a Cuba y Nueva Orleans. Summers formó el Instituto Multiétnico de las Artes "para preservar nuestra tradición", aunque advierte que "el principal objetivo del instituto es colaborar por el afianzamiento de una armonía mundial". Cuba fue uno de los más importantes puertos de escala en los tiempos del comercio de esclavos. Y en el ámbito musical y religioso, las influencias africanas son palpables en la cultura cubana. "Hemos estado preparando a gente para que participe en ceremonias africanas tradicionales que fueron prohibidas durante la época de la esclavitud", comentó Summers, conocido percusionista del grupo de jazz latino "Los Hombres Calientes" de Nueva Orleans. "Los afroamericanos, en los tiempos de esclavitud perdieron sus raíces, sus nombres, lengua, música y tradición pero en Cuba todos esos elementos quedaron intactos", agregó. El viaje de los cuatro músicos coincide con el "mes de la historia negra," que en Estados Unidos se celebra todos los años en febrero y en el cual se conmemora, con diversas actividades, la cultura de los descendientes de los africanos. El maestro cubano Esteban "Cha Chá" Vega, uno de los miembros más antiguos de la tradición en la isla, se encargó de dirigir los rituales sagrados para la iniciación de los cuatro músicos en la fraternidad Yoruba. "Vega es considerado en Matanzas (Cuba) como el sacerdote de los instrumentos de percusión'', dijo Summers. ``El maestro posee uno de los grupos de tambores Bata más antiguos de la isla". La intensa disciplina de estos tambores, que carece de improvisaciones, requiere que los músicos memoricen cada ritmo y aprendan las complejas técnicas de mantenimiento de los instrumentos. "Las ceremonias de iniciación son muy intensas y muchos de los rituales son guardados en secreto debido al aspecto religioso. La gente implicada en nuestra tradición tiene un alto sentido protector", advirtió Summers. "Muchos afroamericanos desconocen sus orígenes. Tenemos que aprender sobre nuestro pasado, sea bueno o malo", comenta Summers. La mayoría de las prácticas espirituales africanas "fueron consideradas como negativas por aquellos que esclavizaron a los africanos", pero ahora "está en manos de nuestra propia gente la evaluación de estos asuntos", añadió. |
In August, 1993, Chachá accompanied a group put together by his godson, Milian Gali Rivero, and composed of people from Santiago who specialize in Yoruba material. The following interview is taken from an unknown newspaper, possibly in Venezuela but perhaps in Cuba. The interviewer apparently is directing his questions to the godson, Gali, not understanding the importance of his godfather, the legendary Chachá:
| "We brought with us the first sacred batá with fundamento in
Santiago, which was made in Matanzas. We have to note that there is a difference, there
are other sacred batás with fundamento which were born in Havana," comented Gali
Rivero, who came accompanied by a small delegacion. "This batá," chimes in Chachá, represents a fundamento which is a saint [orisha]. Only we men can work with these drums. Women cannot touch them. But women can dance to it. [Today, women in Cuba are playing these drums, but without the fundamento -- they are playing drums for shows, not for ceremonies.] What is the religious significance of this drum with fundamento? "It is a god who is in the drum. We are dealing with the orishas, that is the saints. The santeros are those who ask that they be played in a fiesta, a celebration," remarks Gali. "The santeros," adds Chachá, pay for the right to have us play the drum and set up the place where this will take place. One can play at an act around a death, to say good by to the dead. You only have to pay the price we ask and offer the animals or food that Ifá [the oracle] marks out. This African heritage has undergone a certain transformation over the years? "There has been a certain transculturation," replies Galli, "and one can talk about the syncretization between christianity and the yoruba religion. But in the ideas and the practices, it has remained pretty pure." What is the significance of dance in Afrocuban cults? Dance represents different elements according to the saint involved. The rhythms are there to follow the religion," comments Chachá. "The dance is based on the drum and its distinct rhythms, which correspond to each orisha," puts in Buenaventura Morales. "The orisha can one or more different rhythms, which the dancer will adopt. The dance is learned to the rhythm of the drum and the chants in turn are based on the drum and the dance. The dancer adjusts to the variacions in chants, which are inherited from Africa and were brought over to Cuba. "The important thing is," adds Chachá, "Santeria has been understood on a world level. Before it was only blacks, now there are more whites than blacks." Don’t you think this religion has been a bit commercialized? Does not the interest you have awakened appeal more to money interest than to convictions? Morales answers "It’s possible, but in Cuba we have a system. But we don’t know how this is being carried into other countries and we are here to see how our religion is being developed. Our objective is to see that everything is maintained within our religious heritage and so arrive at a universal language." |
| Los Muñequitos de Matanzas were featured in an 8-minute segment on the
May 16 broadcast of CBS Sunday Morning, as a cultural segment of an entire program about
Cuba. The Director, Diosdado Ramos Cruz, was interviewed and also shown performing
his role as babalawo or priest in the Yoruba religion. The Musical Director, Jesus
Alfonso, was also interviewed, as was Ned Sublette, a producer and founder of Qbadisc, which has brought so much of the Muñequitos' music to the
US. One of los Muñequitos' founders, "Chachá"
Esteban Vega, a formidable legend, described the origins. Matanzas
was highlighted as the great center of African culture that it is. Check out the full story at: http://www.cbs.com/prd1/now/template.display?p_story=150320 Thanks to Alison Stewart at CBS for linking to AfroCubaWeb. |
Chachá's house:
Vellardes 18
Entre Jovellanos y Matanzas
Matanzas, Cuba
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