| Nostalgia Corner: Parrandas Navideñas, en Nueva York |
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Written by Kenia Fernandez; Photo Essay by Lizette Santana
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The parranda would begin with a (supposedly) surprise asalto, where a bunch of people would show up at someone's house, with music, lots of people, and all the children in tow. Then those folks would be added to the minstreling masses, and all would move on to the next asalto. I always wondered if people were really surprised about the asaltos, because they were never too busy, or not home, or caught without a bottomless pot of arroz con gandules, bacalaítos, cerveza, coquito, and just about always, pasteles puertorriqueños. But the idea of it being a surprise, and the doing it, were magical. There would not have been such parties without the music, that jíbaro music from the hills of Puerto Rico that I came to love, sometimes very corny and folksy, but in my mind forever connected to a lot of fun. Unlike Anglo-American carols, many of these songs had a racy edge, or a funny story about too much rum, or something to do with a pig's tail. Many of the men could drum at least a little, and it seemed like every other household owned a drum. Anybody could play güiro, or maracas, or claves or bells, stepping in and out of kitchens and juicy gossip sessions to join the singing and dancing going on. And every parranda had a guitar or tres or cuatro player, depending on the player's place of origin. I remember some of the the string players we knew being from Colombia or Mexico. ¡Qué buenos tiempos! We may have been Cuban, Colombian, Dominican, whatever, but during a parranda, we were all Puerto Rican. ¡Feliz navidad! Pasteles Photoessay by Lizette Santana            |
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