Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum

2. Learning My Trade

36 * Umi * The important Lucumí institution of the sacred batá drums, with its specialized bodies of technical, herbal, and musical knowledge, and its guilds of drummers “sworn” (jurado) to the drum spirit, Añá, did not arrive in Cuba as an intact “tradition.” On the contrary, the batá complex was recreated, disseminated through the urban cabildo networks of Havana, Regla, and Matanzas, and transmitted intergenerationally through descending ritual lineages of drummers. Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz writes that, although the drums were known before this, the first set of “orthodox” drums, constructed and prepared according to ritual protocol from Nigeria, was made in 1830 in the town of Regla (across the bay from Havana) by two slaves, Atandá (No Juan el Cojo)andAñabí(NoFilomenoGarcía),nowfamousasfoundingfathers among devotees of the batá.1 According to this history, these men were the first to establish batá de fundamento in Cuba. As Santería and the batá developed and took root, important individuals emerged to shape and codify the tradition.2 Among the drummers mentioned as central architectsoftheHavanalineagewefindAndrésRocheandhissonPablo Roche, who represented the second and third generations of sacred batá drummers in Cuba. Andrés Roche played African drums so beautifully in Cuba in the nineteenth century that he was called Andrés “Sublime.” Pablo Roche was born at the end of the nineteenth century and died in 1944 (1957, according to Carlos Aldama).3 Pablo Roche is discussed in detail in this Learning My Trade 2 Learning My Trade Umi 37 book in the context of personal reminiscences, as is his most famous student, Jesús Pérez. Pérez was born in Havana in 1915 and died there in 1985. The transmission of batá knowledge from Andrés Roche to his son Pablo followed the tradition of father/son apprenticeship used by Añá family lineages in Yorubaland. However, the transmission from Pablo Roche to his student Jesús Pérez helped to establish a new pattern in which a master-patriarch ran “families” of batá drummers as a fictive “father.” Carlos Aldama refers to Pablo as “the father of it all” as he maps outhisowndrumlineage.HenoteshowPablowasknownasatoughguy who would even “hit drummers [his students] who were grown men.” Through his pedigree as the son of Andrés Sublime, his own skill as a performer, and his stern persona, Pablo Roche commanded the status of master drummer and teacher (called kpuatakí) as well as father figure within his cadre of drummers and within the wider Santería and batá community.CarlosgoesontotellstoriesaboutPabloRoche,JesúsPérez, Nicolás Angarica, Papo Angarica, Regino Jiménez, and other elders, contemporaries, and rivals that illuminate the inner workings of the Añá batteries that served the Havana Santería community in the 1950s. Carlos emphasizes that, for him, learning the drum was never a question of money, but rather one of dedication. He never paid cash for instruction. His lessons were “in the street.” He paid by carrying coconuts, skipping dates with beautiful young women to re-tune drums with his teacher, missing dances at La Tropical in order to be at toques. Hepointstothegoodfortuneofhavingmanyopportunitiestolearnand perform and to his own tenacity as the main reasons that allowed him to achieve high skill and status as a batá drummer. Carlos sees himself as a dedicated artisan, more than as a virtuoso artist. Carlos explains how drum batteries in Havana had old-guard players and newer apprentices, and each group had its time to drum during the ceremony. The oro at the start requires precision. The drums recite ancient musical language in the altar room directly to the oricha, so the oldest, most seasoned drummers must play then. The second part, saluting the oricha priests, is lighter and newer players often perform. The pieces are short and the rhythms less intricate. The third part, calling the oricha to mount priests, needs power and stamina. Drummers must summon the energy/violence to break people open so that oricha can Carlos Aldama’s Life in Batá Umi 38 enter and ride them. This is the time for the young bucks, the thoroughbreds ,toplay–thosethatareexperiencedenoughtomakeimportantdecisions during the ceremony, but young enough to set the drums on fire. The presentation of new initiates to Añá requires drummers with oricha crowned to play. This is a major concept within La Regla de Ocha: One must have “it” in order to pass “it” on. The last section of the ceremony, the closing, calls for the same drummers...