An outstanding performance I will never forget happened when for the first time I saw a group of Garifuna musicians playing in the National Theatre. The afro-caribbean descendant group in Guatemala has been undermined in the configuration of the nation-building project. During the colonial regime, the status of Maya descendant people was over the afro-descendant, which means that they have been the most subordinate group through the history of Guatemala. The current exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology does not even include them.
This performance was organized by the group Jazzimba, an ensemble of a jazz quartet which includes a marimba, the national instrument. They invited a garifuna group to perform in the closing performance of the jazz festival. As part of the Afro-descendant tradition, the audience was completely stunned when the garifuna musicians stood up to dance and play at the same time. Musicians from other ethnic groups would have never dance in this way. Overall, the performance challenged ethnic categorizations: Marimba is usually inserted in traditional melodies, not a jazz experimentation instrument, while including garifuna drums in the creation of new music. It also gives a space to a voice that has always been hidden.
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