In colonial Spanish America, there were immensely complex systems of identity and power. One aspect of this is the distinction between the Peninsular Spaniards, that is those who were born in Spain and allowed to travel to the New World only after having proved their purity of blood, and the white Spaniards born in the New World. The latter were known as criollos and as a body were designated as mantuanos. By revealing cultural and religious manifestations, as once public and allegorical, of the partisan conflict between the mantuanos and Peninsular residents in the pre-independence era, the documentation that traces the historical development of the Fiesta de la Naval—a commemoration of the Christian victory over the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto (1571)—affords the source of information of the greatest symbolic significance for the study of the social, religious, and musical repercussions that sustained criollo power between 1687 and 1810. An appendix lists payments made between 1709 and 1812 the three categories of musicians: the gallery musicians of the Caracas cathedral; the military band of the black and mixed-race battalions of the province; the musicians from confraternities of pardo freemen. The nature and employment of each of these groups is described. The list of payments shows that the Fiesta de la Naval involved the whole of urban society and shifted the center of religious power away from the cathedral and toward the space occupied by the manutanos. The Fiesta was thus an example of Venezuelan cultural ownership and social and racial identify that formed part of the legitimization of the mantuanos power as opposed to the power of the Peninsular Spaniards.
The third album by the Clash, London calling captured the zeitgeist of its time with references to various domestic and international news items that had captured the attention of Joe Strummer (née John Mellor) and Mick Jones as they composed the songs. Many seek to represent the state of Britain in the late 1970s, where an inflation rate of 25 percent and high unemployment fueled anger at the government and sparked attacks on minorities who were blamed for taking jobs that might otherwise have employed Britons. The album tackles such issues as racial disharmony, police brutality, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, and the sense of alienation felt by many working-class youths and contextualized these social ills in a broader international frame with references to similar political and social crises in Spain, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
Bilby,Kenneth M. (Author) and Neely,Daniel T. (Author)
Format:
Book, Section
Publication Date:
2009
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Anglophone Caribbean islands are host to a rich and diverse tradition of dances and dance music adopted from European ballroom traditions. These traditions should be seen less as examples of “assimilation” than as products of a shared history of creativity, struggle, and adaptation among the colonized. Thus, for example, the related “tambrin” tradition of the island of Tobago has served as a vehicle for spirit possession in ceremonies with clear African-derived elements.
