IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 5 ENGLISH | Page 116

Unlike the Cofradía, this style of devotion is still practiced in chapels and at
family alters among criollos (white Argentines). This ethnic change is more
apparent than real, since negritude is
still at the practice’s core. What it has in
common with the Cofradía is the figure
of the saint, itself, and the way faith is
expressed through music and dance.
According to the devotees of this saint,
who is black, he loves Candombe and is
the patron saint of joy and fun.

reography has independent, intertwined
couples (a man and woman) that position themselves next to each, holding
each other’s waists, and then make fourstep circles in a way that they trace their
steps and return to their original positions. They execute small straight steps;
it is almost impossible for the couple
not to knock into each other, since there
is no overarching choreography. Sometimes trios dance (one man in center and
two women, one on each side) or as a
group (men and women interspersed in
a frontal row), always executing the
same steps.

Negritude manifests itself in the native
knowledge about the genesis of this
form of worship in the Afro-Argentine
context, in the reactions that this saint’s
African phenotype inspires, and in the
most popular way to celebrate his day:
with music and dancing, if one considers that either activity has African roots
and are the epitome of negritude.

When the dance is to express gratitude
or request a favor involving a dancer’s
young child, the child is carried during
the dance. The music is played on instruments and sung. The vocal part involves a cycle of seven songs; they are
sung semi-independently from one another at random: Mango-Mango, No
quiero caricias, Gallo cantor, La
charanda, Carpincho no tiene gente,
Yacaré marimbote and Cambá San Lorenzo (the ones in bold type are the ones
currently remaining).

Even if the worship modes par excellence are music and dancing, each
chapel has the ability to choose exactly
which of these activities it practices.
This results in a broad spectrum of performances. Musical activities only take
place during the saint’s festive cycle
(December 25-January 6). Since I cannot discuss them all, I will comment
upon the charanda or zemba, the cambara’angá and the toque de la tambora
[playing of the drums], all of them having an African style to them.5

The lyrics are short, in Spanish, and
contain some words in Guaraní or of
some other doubtful or unknown origin
or meaning. They have no fixed meter
or rhyme. Devotees maintain that the
saint composed all of them, all except
for Gallo cantor, by charandero Rufino
Pérez. They also maintain that the saint
taught these to their ancestors. The instrumentation includes one or two guitars, a triangle and a “ambipercussive”
(two headed) bombo (Andean drum),
which invariably and uninterruptedly

The Charanda or Zemba is done only in
Empredado (Corrientes). It is a religious
dance done to express gratitude and/or
ask favors of a saint, so his spirit can
“come down” to his image, and to influence natural phenomena like stopping or starting a storm (just music suffices for this end result). Current cho-

accompany the song with the

116