10. Videos by the Comite de Emergencia Garifuna
from Witness.org
Witness.org
also had early Afro-Brazilan protests of their houses being torn down for the
World cup that were ignored.
When the
river Meets the Sea, about Santa Rosa deAguan before and after hurricane Mitch.
Some anthropologists study disaster capitalism and some geographers study about
disasters like floods and washing away of towns due to hurricanes and floods,
so this is an interesting money to see that.
Lucha
Garifuna/Garifunas Holding Ground-About the Illegal highway between Ciriboya
iriona and Sico and the rio Platano biosphere. There are many stories related
to this including this illegal highway eventually became a major route for
illegal cutting of hardwoods and for drugs. This movie won first prize at a
Latin American Environmental Film Festival at Tulane. These two videos are sold together for $20 on
one DVD in either Spanish or English from Witness.org which is based in
Brooklyn, NY. Honduras This Week did a lot of articles related to the
situations shown in these videos, and about the organization which did them
which went on to be semi-finalist for the UNDP Equator Prize, speak at COP-7
and other international forums including the World Bank and UNDP in New York
City and to tsunami victims in India and Sri Lanka for suggestions how to
recover from disasters. They were on the board of GROOTS, an NGO in New York
working with Women especially after disasters, and they were part of Huairou an
organization of female oriented NGO’s and the Comite was recognized as a “Best
practices” organization by them and were featured in the newsletters of their
funders like Cottonwood Foundation and AJWS. Witness.org also have some
exciting videos related to the World Cup in Rio in 2014 at least a year before
the current crisis and the issues of moving out of Afro-Brasilians before
construction and then for control. There are shipping charges. It is better to call them rather than to
email, as they often do not answer the email on the website.
8. Video of the play Louvagabu.
Another
example of including Garifuna language, dance, history and culture in a work by
a non-Garifuna is a play by Rafael Murillo Selva. He is considered Honduras’ most famous
playwright and although he wrote several plays, his masterpiece is a play he
wrote with the Garifuna, Louvagabu or the Other Side Faraway in 1980. The
actors are all Garifuna originally from the village of Guadelupe about 14 km
west of Trujillo. They formed a theater
troupe called “Superación Guadelupe”.
The play shows the story of the formation of the Garifunas on Saint Vincent
with the Indians intermarrying with the Africans and having Black children.
Then it shows how they were forced to leave San Vicente after their defeat by
the English. There is a Garifuna wake
and the women sing and dance punta and the men drum and dance around them. There is an ongoing story about how the
Garifunas of Guadelupe are trying to get a road. They visit Honduran government officials who
are corrupt and want bribes and even their secretaries are corrupt and want
bribes but say “la ley es dura pero es la ley” The law is hard, but it is the
law, when they ask for bribes. This was the motto of FUSEP, the Honduran police.
A son in the States sends a letter to his illiterate mother delivered by a
postman who travels on foot from village to village and so can not stop to read
the mail. The son says in the letter “I
am sending money for the road.” The
mother says, “The road! What about me?”
Over half of the dialog is in Garifuna.
A video was made of the play, the first video in Honduras about the
Garifuna.
For over
18 years this play toured the world being shown primarily at theater or other
festivals. Over 1,000 presentations were done before the playwright decided to
retire the play. The Honduran government
gave new cement block houses to the participants in the play in Guadelupe to
show appreciation for their many years of work.
But people still wanted to see the play after it had been retired. Even though Guadelupe was previously
considered a traditional village, and the actors and actresses had worked for
18 years presenting in Garifuna, when the playwright went back to recruit their
children or grandchildren to be in the play, most of the young people did not
speak enough Garifuna to be able to act in the play. The road had been put in,
Ladinos now lived all along the road and between the Garifuna villages near
Guadelupe and on their agricultural lands and in the hills behind them. Right
now Canadians are investing in the areas around Guadelupe including a $70
million proposed resort and according to rumors the Mexican drug cartel. Finally the director was able to find enough actors and actresses
to put on the play, as the new cast was able to put on the play for the
presentation of Honduran Garifuna Salvador Suazo’s new Garifuna-Garifuna
Garifuna-Spanish dictionary in San Pedro Sula in 2012. But in real life, as in the fictional story
of the movie ”Garifuna in Peril”, the beautiful and famous traditional culture
and language of the Garifunas is indeed threatened and in peril. The person who
could help you get a copy of this video is Antonieta Maximo who is friends with
Rafael Murillo Selva. He has done other Garifuna plays like Danza de las Almas with
a group in Triumfo de la Cruz and a play about AIDS with Miskito and
Garifunastudents at the Normal in Tegucigalpa which included Honduran
anthropologist and University of South Florida doctoral student Geraldina
Tercero’s work on AIDS and the Garifunas influenced,but none of them have
reached the level of fame of Louvagabu.
13. The Garifuna Journey DVD
This is a
video that tells the history of the Garifunas from St.Vincent to Honduras an
spreading across Central America. I think Sabashas been asked to speakprior to
its presentation one. This is a
documentary. The Garifunas give it good reviews. The cost is $150 for colleges and
universities. (less for public libraries, high schools and community
groups). Distributed by new Day Films of
Harriman, New York. You can order online.
http://www.newday.com/films/GarifunaJourney.com.htm
There is
also a new film Yarumein. Yarumein or
Yarumain is the name of the Island of Saint Vincent where the Garifunas came
from.
14. Doris
Stone’s movie of Honduras
This
movie was made in about 1970. It shows Garifuna villages before the houses all
changed due to remesas sent back and before hurricane Fifi in 1974 which is
when most Garifunas switched to cinder block houses if they could. The person
who has a copy of this movie on his computer is Dr. Jorge Alberto Amaya, the
UNAH and UPN history professor. I have
his email.
15. Video
of Wendy Griffin and Adalid Martinez’s presentations in bilingual form on Maya
chorti medicine and the Garifuna midwife project and the Modern public health
issues of Modern Honduran Indians and blacks from the Western Regional
International health Conference at the Unviersity of Washington, Seattle, April
2014. Adalid Martinez spoke at the
SALALM conference in 2013 on the Maya Chorti. Also available is the audio file
available of an interview between Adalid Martinez and Padre Fausto milla about
medicinal plants and the need for pure water and good seeds and good food by Padre
Fausto Milla a retired Honduran priest. Padre Fausto’s medicinal plant clinic
using Western Honduran traditional medicine was able to cure Adalid Martinez of
lung cancer 14 years ago, when the hospital in San Pedro Sula sent him home to
die. His experience of being cured of lung cancer by traditional Western
hondruan medicine is the subject of Adalid Martinez’s book La casa de salud de
Padre Fausto which the librero literature de vientos tropicales has a few
copies. See Wendy Griffin’s blog
Padre
Fausto’s organization IHESCO had troubles with the Honduran government of Juan
Orlando Hernandez as it was on the list of the more than 5,000 NGO’s whose
corporate charter or personaria juridicas are being cancelled by the Honduran
government. See sergiobahr’s blog for the list from the whole Gazeta. Padre
Fausto’s organization has a website. He
said that his personaria juridica was given back by Juan Orlando’s government. Many
of the organizations that work for clean water, safe agriculture, good seeds,
sustainable land use, medicinal plants,such as Red Comal are on the list, as is
NABIPLA the organization of the black Bay islanders, and FUCAGUA the agency
that supposedly takes care of the Trujillo area protected areas where the ZEDE
Puerto Castilla and Trujillo is supposedly going in. In addition to the US
supporting big companies which produce seeds like Monsanto and the companies
that distribute them like Salvadoran former President Cristiani, associated
with right wingdeath squads, Padre Fausto has additional problems as he, like
the Lencas and the Garifunas filed legal suits saying the laws regarding the
Model Cities were unconstitutional and that the former Honduran president Pepe
lobo, the current Honduran president Juan Orlando hernandez, and the 124
members of the Honduran congress were guilty of treason, for approving the laws
changing the constitution to let these Model Cities (now called ZEDE) exist
(the constitution says that these articles of the constitution can only be
changed by constitutional assembly) and for giving away sovereignity for giving
concessions to 56 rivers, mining concesions to one third of the territory of
Honduras and even the wind on top of holy lenca sites (this was under a law
called the unused resources of the state los bienes osivos del Estado) and for
the Model cities. This case was found that in fact the change was
constitutional on the Saturday before Easter, and so things continue on their
process. El Heraldo has photos of both Padre Fausto Milla and the Lencas with
their lawyer presenting their legal case to the courts accompanied by the
lawyer in the Tierra Negra video of Telesur who speaks about Model cities.
Padre Fausto Milla also raised the issues of narcotrafficantes de alto vuelo,
the people with millions from drug trafficking on Xiomara Castro’s presidential
ticket and also asked about campaing finance to Xiomara Castro and Juan Orlando
Hernandez. They chose not to answer him. His assistant has had to seek
political asylym in Spain. See the Food
First campaign on their website about petitioning John Kerry not require that
El Salvador that they allow the import of US seeds, in order to be eligible for
220 million dollars in millennium challenge funds. There are good articles on
the Internet about Padre Fuasto Milla’s work and one of his books is available
through the librero or book distributor Libros Centroamericanos, and two
versions of his book are in US university libraries. There is photo of Padre
Fausto Milla on the cover of Adalid Martinez’s book which is in the press
release about his talk on Maya Chorti traditional medicine at the western
Regional International health Conference at the UW in April 2014, also with
photos of Pech and Garifunas affected by the Model city or ZEDE project on my
blog in English www.healthandhonduranindians.blogspot.com Padre Fausto Milla also headed an alternative
Comision de la Verdad (the Truth Commission) after the 2009 coup. That report had been up on the Vos del
Soberano website, but the website seems to have had that section attacked. This
website also has the photo with President Obama saying I have just two words
for you -- attack drones. On the Southcom website they talk about testing
nanosatellites (drones) with GPS under 3 layers of canopy (very high, high, and
lower trees) and public private ventures, including specifically in Honduras.
See also the ZEDE website for public private ventures, and Danira Miranda’s
book about the Wikileak about developing the Mosquitia through public private
ventures. El Heraldo is also following the issue of a new government agency for
public private ventures. Apparantly the Centroamerica Indigena digital mapping
project is to test the GPS and drones under the canopy in the Rio Platano
Biosphere and the Tawahka biosphere,
with bilingual Indian university students of the UPN holding the GPS’s,
because the University of Kansas has a policy it is too dangerous to take
university students into Honduras even to Copan Ruinas. Radiance Technologies
seems to be the partner for this part of the public private venture.
15. Medios del
Pueblo (audio files and some photos and link to the video that is being done
about the problems of the Bajo Aguan) and RealNews.com and UNAH Videos
Realnews.com
has done a 2012 video on the militarization of the Mosquitia which includes photos
of the Joint Task Force Bravo sign on the Caratasca lagoon, the Miskitos
carrying their things on their backs and a spokeswoman saying, “The people are
leaving almost voluntarily”, information on the Public Private memo to develop
the Mosquitia which WikiLeaks released info on in 2009 and information on oil
in the area,so it is a good complement to Danira Miralda’s book La Guerra de
Baja Intensidad y los Pueblos originarios Parte I. They
also did a report on the Garifuna’s land situation in the Trujillo area in
2013. In the Wikipedia article about Realnews.com it mentions a Canadian film
maker who is finishing a film Resistencia, now called Tierra Fertil about the conflict about the lower Aguan River
(Bajo Aguan). That film has a Facebook page.
MediosdelPueblo
did a series of training workshops to produce videos and radio reports and have
worked in the San Juan Tela area where the Garifunas are struggling with Jaime
Rosenthal, in the Sulaco, Yoro area, in the Rio Blanco area where the Lencas
have been protesting about the dam to be built there for over a year, and worked with the Garifunas and Ladinos in
Trujillo in 2013.. They also worked with the Lencas of Rio Blanco, Intibuca and did some interesting audio interviews like
the Lencas ideas about Intercultural education. There is a mediosdelpueblo.com
website where you can hear the audio files developed during their training
project..
The UNAH
film crews filmed part of the Central American Linguists (ACALING) Conference which was in Tegucigalpa
in August 2013There was a very interesting forum on bilingual intercultural
education as part of the conference, where representatives of each ethnic group
spoke which was very interesting and the Black English speaker teacher Diana
Beneth was particularly upset that no one in the capital had heard of Black
English speakers on the Bay islands since she arrived in the capital. The film
crews videoed the craft display we had, but did not speak to the Pech or the Garifunas or Tawahkas who had
crafts for sale. ACALING has a website
which denounces the current Centroamerica Indigena mapping project by the
Department of Defense.
Garifuna Videos
on the Garifuna Coalition website in New York city including Aurelio Martinez
singing Yarumein, the Garifuna national anthem,
and the Honduran government’s use of Garifuna dances to attract tourists
to Honduras from the official government website Let’s Go Honduras. This is a
theme in Keri Brondo’s book Land Grab on the Garifunas of the Hog keys and
Sambo Creek area. The Sambo Creek area will probably be included in the ZEDE La
Ceiba and there is also a proposed ZEDE
Santos guardiola for all of the Bay Islands, not just the Santos Guardiola
municipio where the Garifunas of Punta
Gorda live..
Luna
films
They have
a new film about the Garifunas of Nicaragua which is unusual. It got good
reviews at the university in Bluefields, Nicaragua. They also have a film on
the Creoles of Nicaragua. I saw the
information about the film on BeingGarifuna.com so maybe he knows how to
contact them or the people at urracan University in Nicaragua might know how to
contact them.
Monico
productions
They have
for sale on their website Garifuna dance videos including Moors and Christians
from Trujillo and Fedu from Santa Fe, very authentic Garifuna traditions. They
also have a new group Balet Folklorico Garifuna Wani from Santa Fe, which is an
interesting project with Garifuna young people in a zone highly affected by
tourism. The Moors and Christians dance is threatened by the fact Garifuna
young people are not learning the brass instruments the Garifunas adopted to
these dances like trumpet or saxophone, including an 1890’s dance tune is one
of the main theme songs. Fedu is threatened because the young people are not
learning the Garifuna language which
will be fatal to Garifuna traditional music and religion. Just the dugu ancestor
ceremony shown in the El Espiritu de Mi Mama video requires three days and two
nights of dancing to songs sung in Garifuna, only accompanied by percussion
instruments. All the melody and the counter rhythms are carried by the women’s
voices.
Presbyterian
church USA (PCUSA) Hunger program’s webinar on Land Grabbing from 2014, which
included the Gran Chaco in South America, the Lenca and Garifuna struggles in
Honduras, and the sruggles in Cameroon with African palms. The latter is
related to REDD which are a serious problem and are denounced by organizations
like the Indigenous Environmental Network (which has a website) and a video done
in Central America by the Friends of the Earth which is on vimeo. The
Presbyterian Church USA ‘s Hunger program has a website. They also did a fact
sheet related to this webinar. Their Honduran partner was Agricultural Missions
International, which also has a website.
The
inauguration of the Mormon temple in Tegucigalpa
David Flores
the author of la Evolucion Historica de la Danza Folklorica Hondureña
choreographed 6,000 Honduran young people to dance Honduran folk dances for the
opening of the Mormon temple in Teguicgalpa in 2013. It was televised worldwide
by BYU TV, and it was televised twice on Honduran TV nationwide. In a country famous for young people killing
each other or other people, it was exciting to see the 6,000 young people doing
something positive and beautiful, which they had spent considerable time,
effort and mony to carry out as every dancer was in full costume. One of the
dances was Mascaro, the John Canoe or Warrior’s dance of the Garifunas also
shown in the Garifuna in peril movie, and discussed in Wendy Griffin’s talks at
SALALM in2013 and 2014 as part of final battle of Chief Satuye. This dance was
done at the Temple inauguration by both Garifunas and ladinos, and was lead by
the Mormom Bishop of Trujillo Juan Arzu a Garifuna, a long time Mascaro dancer
in the community of Guadelupe, and he is co-author of Los Garifunas de Honduras
also, and the Witness .org videos as part of the Garifuna Emergency Committee. David
Flores and BYU TV probably both have copies of this video, which made many
people cry with emotion. David also has videos of other kinds of Honduran
dances and Cd’s of Honduran music to accompany folk dances. The Atlanta African
dance company also does this dance which they say is from the Songhay region of
Africa, north of what is now Ghana. There is a HondurasWeekly.com article about
this presentation and the Mormon church in Honduras.
Youtube.com
Wendy
Griffin will have available shortly the bonus version of the 2000 video
Discover the Rio Platano biosphere: In Search of Ciudad blanca. “Discover the
Rio Platano biosphere in Search of Ciudad Blanca”with Garifuna Roberto Marin
from Plaplaya and Wendy Griffin, Tony Barrado and Ted Danger, there are lots of
good comments about archaeology, looting, forest destruction, lack of protection
of protected areas, Mesoamerican, probably Nahua, archaeology in the area, and
ends with Garifuna music by Garifuna BOYZ and some phrases in Miskito at the
big rock on the Rio Platano that some say is the umbilical cord, that this is
where people came out when they cameupfrom below when the lower world was
destroyed in a judgement (un juicio) .
This video is on Youtube in 4 parts in English and one part in Spanish. Wendy
Griffin is in the process of making a bonus DVD with extra footage of NE
Honduran archaeology in private collections. Available in English or in
Spanish. The website associated with this video is
This
video also gives a lot of context to the recent book Jungleland about looking
for the Ciudad Blanca by Chris Stewart, an editor of the Wall Street journal,
and following Theodore morde’s foot steps in looking for it.Wikipedia in
English has a fairly good article on the Ciudad blanca, which among other
things is supposedly where Ce Acatl Topoltzin Quetzalcoatl the last Toltec king
died and was buried. This video and the book
Los Pech de Honduras and related Honduras This Week and
HondurasWeekly.com articles gave the name of Ruta Kao Kamasa to the route to
and through the Rio Platano Biosphere. The information on Ruta Kao Kamasa has
appeared in tourist brochures in Honduras and in Honduran newspapers, including
in speeched by the current President that maybe some problems are coming up in
implementing this plan fully. This Ruta
Kao Kamasa seems to refer to the plan to also connect Olancho (ZEDE Santa Maria
de Real and or Manto) to the Coast through the Rio Platano Biosphere (ZEDE Sico
Paulaya) and to Trujillo Puerto Castilla area (ZEDE Trujillo Puerto Castilla).
While obstentiously for tourists, and “resorts” are along this route, this
route seems principally to improve moving drugs, and taking out minerals and
wood and illegal archaeological artifacts.
In the descriptions on the Honduran government website about the ZEDE,
they also include the information on criminality, which is high like 79%, which
would be odd if you were trying to recruit legitimate investors. Also the ZEDE
are specifically divided up the rivers, and the rivers, as well as the roads,
and the borders, and the drug airports are all clearly shown, with the
possibility to add information on patrimonio cultural archaeological sites and
minerals. These maps seem to be what the mapping program Centroamerica Indigena
by US Dod Minerva Funding with the University of Kansas seem to be feeding
into.
MASTA,
the Miskito organization, has a website
with its unhappiness over the current ICF and Honduran authority proposals in
the Mosquitia and has anopen letter to the Honduran president about attacks by
Honduran military against Miskitos serious enough to send people to the
Hospital which the military says are on orders of the current Honduran
president and the gringos. .
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