Balseria and Chicha de Maiz
An average Saturday night, here in the Comarca:
I was visiting with the neighbor kids last Saturday when we heard music playing from far away….it came closer and closer. Someone was playing music in the street, and they were walking towards our house.
The kids and I (all twenty of them-from age 2 on up…) all ran out to the street to get a glimpse of the musicians. When we finally saw them, I was really excited-because although I had heard the traditional Ngobe music before, I had never been able to see it being played.
The music itself doesn´t have name-it´s actually part of another custom here, called Balseria. Balseria is kind of hard to explain, but I will try.
Basically, it´s a fighting event, hosted by different communities in the Comarca. People travel great distances to attend these balserias-sometimes traveling for several days.
Once everyone gets there, the fighting begins-both between women and men! There is a big, lightweight, stick-and this is used by one person to actually hit other people. The hits must be delivered with force. People try to avoid getting hit by running away. The best balseria players are very fast runners who can also withstand a great deal of pain(being hit with the stick over and over again).
While on this fighting is going on, there is alot of drinking going on-of the local brew, chicha de maiz(literally corn juice). I haven´t tried it, but one of the local Peace Corp guys told my it tastses terrible and is very very strong. People drink alot of this, and then walk around hitting one another, or, alternatively, trying to run away.
Music is played during the entire event-usually by different groups of men. The men are dressed rather colorfully, with the most unusual outfit being worn by the leader. The leader of the group of 3 or 4 men wears a colorful dress-like garment, often red, with contrasting trim; a hat with feathers; and, on rather astonishingly, an entire stuffed animal on his back(normally a jaguar). The other two or three men in the band wear normal street clothes, indigenous clothes(brightly decorated Western style shirts and pants), and hats with feathers or beads.
The instruments played are a conch shell; a rattle with maiz inside, played with a stick; and a whistle.
When there is a Balseria in the Comarca, I see lots of these small groups walking down the mountains into the area I live in-usually playing instruments, and having had quite alot of chicha de maiz. They will usually stop along the way and play for people on the street for a few centavos, a meal, or more chicha de maiz.
The night I saw them up close was such a different experience-I could not believe it was a real jaguar on the mans back. The kids were all laughing, everyone was drinking quite alot, and the women in the dorrways of the houses were smiling and calling out-some laughing and shaking their heads at the scene.
The music itself-both the playing of the instruments and the singing-doesn´t sound like any music I know. I have never heard anything like it. It is very repetitive, and to my ear off tune-but to the Ngobe ear it is a beautiful noise.
Once again, another interesting night here in Panama!
gg
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