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Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956: Mayimbi. Toque de Palo. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.

Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956
Mayimbi. Toque de Palo. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
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table of contents
  1. Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956
  2. An Introduction to the Collection
  3. Música de los cultos africanos en Cuba (Music of the African Cults in Cuba): The Liner Notes
    1. Oro. Marcos Portillo Domínguez [Até Borá] and ensemble.
    2. Rezos. Fernando Hernández, Inés Sotomayor, and Domingo Hernández.
    3. “Guarachitas” para los Orishas (Instrumental Batá Drumming). Miguel Santa Cruz, Gustavo Díaz, and Juan González.
    4. Songs for Osain. Cándido Martínez, Baba orisha from Havana.
    5. Oro. Inés Sotomayor and Ensemble.
    6. Oro de Tambores (Batá Drum Instrumental Oro). Miguel Santa Cruz, Gustavo Díaz, and Juan González.
    7. Oro (Batá Drums with Chorus). Cándido Martínez, Antonio Alberiche, chorus, and the Batá drums of Miguel Santa Cruz and Juan González.
    8. Moforibale. Palo Gangá Ñongobá. Cantos de Palo. Congo Musunde and Gangá. Florinda Pastor, Agustín Diago, and ensemble.
    9. Oro. Silvino Baró, M. Catalá, S. Rodríguez, R. Viart.
    10. Mayimbi. Toque de Palo. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    11. Canto Lucumí. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    12. Cantos Arará. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    13. Rezos. Petronila Hernández.
    14. Babaluayé. A. Alberiche.
    15. Bembé & Tambores (Instrumental Drumming). Domingo Hernández, Marcelo Carreras, Ángel Rolando, and Domingo Hernández, hijo. Tambores and guataca.
    16. Oro. Alberto Yenkins (Yin) and ensemble.
    17. Itutu. Fernando Hernández and ensemble.
    18. Oro. Cándido Mártinez and ensemble.
    19. Congo and Gangá Songs. Florinda Diago and family.
    20. About This Site.

Disc 7 Side B (31’25”)

Mayimbi. Toque de Palo. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.

(Mayimbi: el aura tiñosa — the turkey vulture, Cathartes aura, Lin. — is a diurnal bird of prey which feeds exclusively on carrion and has a close relationship to spirits in the afterlife. It is a sacred bird which is truly disgusting, but also full of mystery, and it “works” spiritually on the orders of the Taita Nganga or Padre Nkisi.)

With these “mambos,” the Nganga invokes and orders the spirit and other forces who act in their “Prendas” — cauldrons or clay pots containing all of the necessary magical substances, such as earth from graves and crossroads, human bones, certain animals, creepy crawlies, pieces of trees (palos), etc. These receptacles are living quarters for the occult forces which serve the Ngángula or sorcerer.

The spirits — yimbis, fumbis, ngüeye, etc. etc. — are given Castillian Spanish names like Mundo Camposanto, Fortuna Mundo, Acabamundo, etc. The following mambos refer to them:

Yimbi ri wa Cobayende.

(Pidiendo licencia a los Padres Nganga muertos.)

Tango yalengue lu wisi kangalá.

Ndudu dale vuelta al ingenio.

(Ndundu, spirit.)

Vola volando saura, vola volando Mayimbi.

(Vultures, like bats, are vehicles for the dead.)

Garabata gaina guiné.

Ande quiera yo va; lo vá lo va Ogún Onile.

Ogún siempre son guerrero.

(“Ogún cruzado”: the Reglas or Sects known as Palo Monte or Mayombe invoke the Orisha Ogún, who then becomes Sarabanda. “Cruzar” — crossing or mixing — refers to making an Orisa act by way of the spirits known as Mayombe.)[1]

  1. DF-N: [... cf. Cabrera (1986), et al.] ↑

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