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Released by earthcds partners.
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LA COMARCA
FIJA DE LIBORIO
(The Real
Comarca of Liborio)
COMARCA:
Disappearing Religious
Popular Music from
the Dominican Republic
DVD + CD
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LA COMARCA FIJA DE LIBORIO
- The Real Comarca of Liborio
Disappearing Religious Popular Music
from the Dominican Republic
2 Disc Set:
DVD 31 minutes / CD - 26 tracks, 74 minutes
English & Spanish versions.
Released by earthcds partners.
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This DVD/CD set is for personal use
only and is not licensed for library
use or public/academic showings.
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$36
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This is the licensed version
for library use and/or
public/academic showings.
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$275
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A 'Fiesta de Palo' is a religious ceremony we find all across the Dominican Republic. During such a ceremony, accompanied by chanting and intense drumming of three 'palos', the supernatural entities of a syncretistic Vudu pantheon called 'Las 21 Divisiones' are summoned to possess their mediums or 'Servidores de Misterios' and they temporarily descend amongst the believers who dance to the ancient rhythms. The 'Fiestas' usually end at midnight, which is when the 'Palos' fall silent and the possessions stop, but the event sometimes continues, especially when it is held in a remote, rural location. After the Palos quiet, the music being performed, inviting the crowd to continue dancing, is called Comarca (or JicuciÛn). An accordion, a tambora, a guiro and a marimba constitute the main ensemble.
Comarca is said to have been the very music Olivorio Mateo (or Liborio, Papa Liborio, Dios Liborio), the most important curandero and messianic leader in Dominican history, used for healing. Comarca is essentially religious dancing music, with a musical structure similar to 'Mangulina', 'Merengue Tipico' and 'Perico Ripiao' but with lyrics exclusively about Liborio and the other Saints of Dominican Vudu. Olivorio Mateo was was born in Maguana Arriba, a section which lies a few kilometers north of the city of San Juan, in the south of the country.
The Olivorismo (or Liborismo) is a social-religious movement that is said to have its origin in the summer of 1908 after a hurricane, which affected the entire south of the island, heavily hitting the area of San Juan de la Maguana for three interminable days. During the hurricane, Olivorio had disappeared from his home. At first, nobody cared because he used to leave for many days without a word. After a while, the family thought he might have fallen victim to the storm, so they organized a 'novena' for him (nine days of prayer by relatives and friends at the home of the deceased). But the last day of the 'novena', Olivorio suddenly appeared, with a knotted cord on the forehead, saying: 'I come from very far', adding that an angel mounted on a magnificent white horse had transported him to heaven during the storm and there, God, after blessing him with his divine seal, entrusted him back to earth, to preach His message and heal the sick. 'I am not crazy. I am coming, sent by God, to a mission that will last 33 years. Everyone who believes in me will be saved,' clarified Olivorio.
After trying to research in many different locations of the Dominican Republic the possible existence of Comarca and receiving dubious answers or no answers at all, I believe it can be said this is a type of music strictly connected with the 'Liborista' movement, it barely still exists and it is only being performed in the geographical area where I was able to record it: the valley of San Juan de la Maguana.
There are very few senior musicians left who still know how to sing and play Comarca the traditional way and they sometimes perform in 'Fiesta de Palos' and 'Hora Santa' gatherings. The younger musicians I recorded, whilst commendably trying to maintain alive the tradition of this musical genre learned from the elderly, tend to easily slide towards more commercial interpretations of Comarca songs and use a musical style leaning considerably towards the secular upbeat of 'Merengue Tipico', albeit attaining to the 'religious' lyrics that characterize Comarca. I met some of the older Comarca musicians and recorded their performances in extremely remote places, extending from San Juan, Maguana Arriba, Jinova, Juan De Herrera and even smaller hamlets closer to the Haitian border.
Some of the live field recordings took place in locations where there is no road, no electricity, no telephone and no television and where I had previously researched the whereabouts of the Comarca musician for a long time as well as the date and place of smaller, family run 'Fiestas' where my work could be carried out. I was eventually able to get there, sometimes on horseback, along with my 16mm film, video, audio recording equipment and plenty of batteries, storing all the audio material on portable hard drives which I later transferred and organized on my laptop, in San Juan, once an electric outlet was again available.
I recorded several songs with titles such as 'Comarca numero uno', 'Espiritu Santo', 'El Indio Rafael', 'Papa Liborio', 'La Virgen de Altagracia' etc. The music flowed from rusty, asthmatic accordions, rudimental drums (whose skins were tensed in front of a fire) and very African looking marimbas, with such ease, such immediacy, with such firm assertiveness, almost like it was being played straight out of the 'record player of the soul' where it had been stored and kept alive for decades, since it had been learned, ready to be pulled out at will. What deeply impressed me was how such a spontaneous and basic musical form was able to unite a secular 'joy de vivre' with the most respectful religious tradition in a whirlwind of fast, syncopated, musical phrases, inviting even some reluctant listeners to move their body and dance.
After all, Liborio Mateo, the spiritual leader of the 'Liborista' movement that appears to be instrumental to this musical genre is described, according to Garrido Puello, an oral historian, as '...man of small stature, dark skin, unkempt hair, a broad face and a long, neglected beard. He had thirteen children with three women with whom he lived as concubine. He liked drinking and spoke in a rude and vulgar manner.'
And the 'Liborista' movement, which still counts many adepts in the area where these recordings were made has been described as '...a religion' of salvation and healing characterized by a Christian-pagan syncretism. From Christianity it took the themes of salvation through a divine emissary, the cult of the Saints, reading the Gospels, prayer, the cross and the scapular. It used a complex ritual of magical-medical healing techniques impregnated with the presence of magical-religious 'agents of worship' (healers, sorcerers, ensalmadores, etc.).
Comarca is indeed part of a disappearing oral folkloric tradition of the Dominican Republic that unites the sacred to the profane, and while Palo drums are played exclusively for the Saints and the possessing spirits, Comarca appears to relax the borderline between the orthodoxy of a Vudu ceremony and a simple night of musical fun and dance. It does just that but without ever letting us forget that we are still enveloped in a sacred and mysterious environment, where the inexplicable is the daily staple and the teachings of Papa Liborio are still alive.
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Note from the producer,
Giovanni Savino:
"La Comarca Fija de Liborio is my new labor of love.
While in the deep south of the Dominican Republic, attending fiestas de Palos, I came across and instantly became fascinated with a musical genre that could be defined a peculiar cousin of Merengue Tipico.
Unlike Merengue, Comarca is born and bread exclusively in the San Juan Valley and it is a consequence, perhaps even an instrument, of the messianic movement led by Liborio Mateo at the beginning of last century.
Unlike (some) Merengue, it lacks conformity, petulance and arrogance. Comarca sings a poetic- melancholic-yet undefeatable song of sacred and profane socio- political concepts.
There is just a bunch of very old men left who still know how to sing Comarca. Some of them have inherited their musical talents from their parents or grandparents who were actual followers and friends of Liborio, before he was murdered by the U.S. interventionist troops in 1908.
I had to research a lot to find the surviving Comarca musicians and I had to travel a lot (mostly on horseback) to meet them and document their music.
The result is a short film, which, aside from giving several musical examples, tries, very succinctly, to look at this musical genre in its social and historical context.
The audio CD is, in my humble opinion, a very precious time-capsule of a music that not many ears have heard before and that perhaps in just a few years could become extinct.
My film production budget had never been so small, my old camera broke on the first shoot and for the remainder of the ten days I spent in the field was attached to the tripod with gaffers tape.
My most precious help was my dear wife, Maribel, who put into practice remarkably well the intensive crash course in cinematography I gave her a few days before the shoot.
Well, here I go again, documenting with my truest passion yet another disappearing fragment of a distant popular culture.
Will it sell millions of copies and become a blockbuster video? Certainly not.
However, It makes me feel good to have done it. Not only I have met many wonderful people in the remote valley of San Juan de la Maguana, but also I had a chance to try and crystallize, through my lens and my microphone a brief moment of poetry, of sadness, of hope and indeed, of musical rebellion.
As the most famous Comarca goes: Dicen que Liborio es muerto - Liborio no es muerto na'
Hoping you'll enjoy watching and listening as much as I enjoyed recording it."
---Giovanni
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