Los Dinamicos performs at SVG parang conference

Leader of the band, Francisca Allard said she and other members took up an invitation from the Charge d’affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in SVG, Daliana Guanipa, to perform. Los Dinamicos, winner of many local awards for their contribution to music, was the featured parang band to perform at the event held in Kingstown and hosted by the embassy.

The conference was in part to honour an event called Royalty to Commander Chavez as well to commemorate SVG’s 100th anniversary of the Nine Mornings Festival.

Nine Mornings is a unique Vincentian festivity associated with the Christmas season. According to the website www.discoversvg.com, nine mornings before Christmas, Vincentians awake in the early hours of the morning and partake in a range of activities, among them sea baths, dances (or in local parlance, fetes), bicycle riding and street concerts. The Nine Mornings Festival traditionally runs from December 16 to 24 (Christmas eve). The website added that although popular opinion has it that this practice started during the period of slavery, it was more likely to have been a post-emancipation practice.

One of the main speakers at the conference was Venezuelan-Trinidadian anthropologist John Sorrillo who, in keeping theme with the event, gave a historical perspective of the evolution of parang.

“Trinidad is the bridge to share this musical expression which has roots in Venezuela. When the music came to Trinidad, they called it parang. The word was parranda. It changed to parran then to paran and now it is parang... It is very difficult for the English-speaking people to pronounce the double r’s (rr),” Sorrillo said.

Speaking to Newsday about the conference, Sorrillo noted that he spoke about the importance of cultural diversity for the region adding that inside the diversity, there is a link. Speaking about the parang experience and referring to SVG’s Nine Mornings Festival, the anthropologist charged that there are similarities with the movement but not in terms with the music. Rather he suggested that there are similarities with activities such as going from house to house and place to place sharing the happiness associated with the Christmas.

“The Nine Mornings (festival) has a cultural manifestation similar to parang such as going from house to house, not with the musical expression – for now. We need to do more research of it in SVG. I had never heard about that event before I attended the conference. Parang too is celebrated during Christmas and it becomes a link,” Sorrillo concluded.