Peru Negro

Last night, Mary and I went to see the Peruvian dance group Peru Negro. We’re blessed in our little town with a first-rate performing arts center that would be the envy of a town twice our size. Maybe even a town ten times our size. Sometimes we get performances worthy of the facility.

Peru Negro was one of the most exciting and enjoyable spectacles I’ve ever seen. I wish it had gone on for hours more, and I’d go back tonight to see it again if they were still playing here. It brings to the stage 22 dances, musicians and singers. Obviously, it celebrates the African slave heritage of Peru. In costumes and sometimes mannerisms of the dance, there’s a striking resemblance to American plantation life. The dances range from primitive to modern, but the music is always the driving, drum-centered rhythms I associate with Afro Cuban music. The singing simply stands your hair on end. In short, it was one of the most exciting performances I've ever seen. I found it very hard to slow down, my excitement was so great long after the performance.


Not the least of it was the costumes, which came alive with color, and color became a central part of the spectacle.

I see by their website at www.perunegro.org/ that they’re in Davis tonight, so I wanted to send a heads-up to Ed and Rhonda to try to make it if you possibly can.

¡Peru Negro!

Barack and Race in America

Barack Obama won my vote last night. In what might become one of the new century’s defining orations, he directly confronted the issue of race in America. Here’s part of what the Washington Post said about his speech:

“Mr. Obama's speech was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling. He coupled it with an appeal that this year's campaign not be dominated by distorted and polarizing debates about whether he or his opponents agree with extreme statements by supporters -- or other attempts to divide the electorate along racial lines. Far better, he argued, that Americans of all races recognize they face common economic, social and security problems. "”

I’ve heard often about his ability to inspire with rhetoric, but as yet I hadn’t seen evidence of it. Yesterday, he chose to rise above merely distancing himself from his pastor’s remarks, he dared to directly challenge the issue of race in America. The speech was all the more impressive because he wrote it himself, staying up until two in the morning the night before to finish it. It was a masterpiece of content and delivery that will reverberate for years, possibly generations. It might well rank with John Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream.”

Will it work to quiet the criticism of guilt by association? Absolutely not. It’s clear that this will be the Obama swiftboat. On the other hand, McCain’s comment that we might be in Iraq for a hundred years, a thousand years, a million years, will become a sound bite we’ll be seeing often in the campaign. In the end, it might all still be about the economy, stupid.

But taken as a eloquent statement of hope for a country that could take a giant leap forward in the seemingly intractable problems of race, Obama’s speech will last long beyond the current presidential campaign. It brought tears to my eyes as it raised the possibility of a new politics of reconciliation.

El Sol de Medianoche

¡Bienvenidos amigos a mi blog en español, El Sol de Medianoche!

Estudio español por cinco meses. Verdad, solo sé unas cuantas palabras, asi qué espero mi español no es demasiado chistoso.

Empecé en un clase a el colegio comunal donde enseño dos clases, pero hablamos español en clase casi nunca. Tuve mucho frustración y deseé gritar. Pero ahora estudio con la tutora al colegio. Ella es de Honduras. Su inglés es perfecto, pero habla español conmigo casi todo. Y ella es muy simpática.

Me gusta mucho estudiar español. Es difícil de aprender, pero muchos personas lo hablan en mi pueblo. Trato estudiar uno o dos horas por día. A veces, estudio más. O menos.

Adiós, amigos. No escribiré mucho en español, yo prometo.