Buya is a Chicago-based ensemble that aims to preserve and advance Bomba, Puerto Rico's oldest surviving African-rooted tradition. Candela, a Spanish term that refers to burning flame, is a song performed by the group since 2013. The origin of the song is traced to Samana, Dominican Republic as a response to the hostile police interventions that permeated villages and triggered resistance efforts that survived for decades.
According to Roberto Perez, Co-Director of Buya, the song addressed a particular historical experience, stating “[b]ut in those days they say authorities went to the villages to mess with them and arrest them for no apparent reason. With a piece of thread they lined up men and took them straight to the police station. Upon their return the defeated men would say, ’for the next time!’ "Candela, candela le damos, candela arriba, candela abajo. Si llega la guardia candela le damos." It is believed that the song, originally in both Spanish and French Creole, was played as a part of the Bambula tradition that was brought to Samana, Dominican Republic from New Orleans as part of the multiple exchanges between Louisiana exiles and other Afro-diasporic communities throughout the Caribbean. These exchanges shaped the conceptualization of Pan-African identity, and later efforts lead by Marcus Garvey during the early 20th century.
Our project is deeply informed by both the symbolism and historical context of the song because of its capacity to engender dialogue about institutionalized oppression, resistance, collective mobilization, and self-determination. The socio-historical and political content mobilized and embodied by Buya urgently directs our attention to various contemporary injustices that still permeate across the country. Through video we aim to connect coordinates found between Puerto Rican and African diasporas while mapping entrenched racial and political violence and protest. This explains our site specific work in Chicago and Ponce, Puerto Rico. For example, Ponce is well known for the Massacre of 1937, where over two hundred people were wounded and nineteen unarmed Nationalists were executed by state police. We would like to suggest that the Ponce Massacre of 1937 and the current climate of police brutality and state sanctioned violence across the United States share political and racial dimensions (e.g. Ferguson, Baltimore, and New York City). Therefore, each location will provide an opportunity to engage these issues through performative and discursive means, using Candela as a platform to theorize how African-rooted performance practices such as Bomba might simultaneously operate as technology of diasporic citizenship and vehicle for social activism.
Candela is a video collaboration developed by artist-educator team Brenda Torres-Figueroa, Arif Smith and Roberto Pérez-Pérez in conjunction with the performance ensemble Buya. 2015
Video Production: Arif Smith, Brenda Torres-Figueroa & Roberto Pérez Pérez
Videography and Direction: Samuel Reyes (Puerto Rico) and Samuel Vega (Chicago)
Editing: Samuel Vega
Buya: Angel Fuentes, Arif Smith, Jonathan Pacheco (Drums) Ivelisse Díaz, Lauren Brooks, Teo López (Voices) & Roberto Pérez-Pérez
Special Thanks to:
Comunidad 25 de Enero, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce Plaza Hotel
Ana Archeval
Christian Joel Archeval
José Joel Archeval
Josué Pellot
Edra Soto & Dan Sullivan
Sam Lewis
