by Helena Handbasket

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: February 12, 2009

Cultural output in the Caribbean today seamlessly merges two historical strands that could both be called "high": the native pre-Columbian cultures and the colonizing European culture.

Natives placed overarching significance upon a body of folklore to be carried on generationally. The local lore informed literature and oral traditions, as epitomized by the Guatemalan Mayans, who left tremendous codices in the K'iche' language. It also was the prime driver of native music, which dramatically narrated the parables, poetry, and legends of the Carib, Taino, and Arawak. It also ensured a healthy theater ritual: explorers found the natives well-versed in dance, acrobatics, skits, mime, and illusion. Local lore was enriched, but not lost, with the arrival of African tribes such as Efik and Ibo; their contributions were most notable in strengthening music, such as with percussion instrumentation.

Meanwhile, the familiar body of work often satirized as "dead white European male" culture was imported from Spain, France, and their competitors. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition of evangelism through art found a stable home: the conquerors insisted on patronizing morality plays, and the islanders were happy to accommodate this desire into their rich tradition, albeit synchronizing several elements from their own lore into the productions. The troubadour tradition in France also merged with the native African tradition of social commentary through oral tradition, and eventually emerged as the calypso and soca movements. The detailed accounts (cronicas) of the explorers also informed culture for centuries to come, further bridging European and Caribbean literary tradition.

Over the centuries, this cultural combination led the West Indians to make unique contributions to what are now considered "high arts". In Cuba and Hispaniola, the goal of creating national identity through stately dances built upon the slower African rhythms led to many of today's ballroom dances: chachacha, flamenco, mambo, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, and tango. The famous Renaissance murals saw their analogues early in the syncretistic "Arte Indocristiano"; European trends continued to inform painting in the islands through the nineteenth century, after which independent art became more clearly delineated. The muralismo movement swept Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s and created significant murals in Colombia, Trinidad, Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

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