"Authentic" Parang

AUTHENTIC PARANG

WHAT IS AUTHENTIC PARANG?

PARANG is the Trinidadian interpretation of the Spanish word PARRANDA. Here are three ways the word PARRANDA is used:

1. General meaning: Boisterous merrymaking, especially referring to a group of people who at night time go from place to place with musical instruments and song for sheer enjoyment.
2. In Venezuela a parranda need not necessarily involve the group’s moving from place to place. The activity does not have to be at night time. It is often a spontaneous outburst of song to the accompaniment of traditional and other instruments; and it can take place anywhere.
3. In Venezuela a parranda has the additional special meaning of a group of persons singing and dancing around someone dressed up in a costume representing the theme of the song being sung, For example: La Burriquita, El Pajarito, etc.
In Trinidad a Parranda has had those three meanings.
Examples: 1. A parranda used to be formed at any time to entertain friends and neighbours, but particularly during the Christmas season when there was more time available from work and the participants could go to distant parts of the island visiting friends and relatives.
2. A parang could start after a gayap, that is, after cooperating in the building of a house, and on other celebratory occasions.
3. The third parranda was absorbed into the Trinidad Carnival, La Burriquita being the most popular costume and dance.

PARRANDA is part of Trinidad’s Hispanic heritage: It journeyed from Spain to the Spanish colonies; it travelled to Trinidad and Venezuela and was reinforced in Trinidad by the Venezuelan migrants who settled on the island during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. It might have been first introduced to Trinidad by the Spanish settlers, colonisers, administrators, missionaries and others. However, it must be remembered that during the Spanish colonial era the Spanish population in Trinidad was sparse and that the missionaries were in contact with the native population for just about twenty years. Furthermore, there is no documentation to attest to the music and songs introduced by the Spaniards during the Spanish colonial period. However, we do know that the Venezuelan ancestors of contemporary Trinidadians brought their music, language, customs and knowledge with them to the island.

"It may be presumed that Spanish songs were sung on the island during the Spanish colonial period in much the same way as they were on Tierra Firme (the Mainland). This was to be expected. There was contact between the islanders and the people on the mainland. Therefore there was probably no significant difference between the musical traditions of the Spanish settlers on the island and of those who resided on the other side of the Gulf. However we have no documentation on Spanish music for that era in Trinidad except for reference to a ballad, Romance muy doloroso. This ballad reconted the massacre of the Capuchin missionaries at the mission of San Francisco de Arenales in Trinidad in 1699. Apparently it was well known in the Sanish colonies."
From 'The Cocoa Panyols of Trinidad: An Oral Record' p.67

The Venezuelan immigrants to Trinidad sang aguinaldos. The aguinaldo is a Hispanic Christmas carol. The theme is the story of the birth of Christ and in it we hear about the Annunciation, the Birth of Christ as well as the Visit of the Magi and other episodes linked to Jesus' childhood such as the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight to Egypt. The word aguinaldo itself means 'Christmas gift':

Deme mi aguinaldo
aunque sea poquito
una vaca gorda
con su becerrito

(Give me my aguinaldo
no matter how small
a big cow
together with her calf)

Aguinaldo pido
Aguinaldo doy
y si no me dan
contento me voy

(I ask for an aguinaldo
I give an aguinaldo
and if you give me nothing
I'll leave just as happily

Here are some authentic traditional aguinaldo verses sung in Trinidad:

El Angel Gabriel
Le anunció a María
Que en su vientre santo
Un niño nacía

A la medianoche
Se le apareció
Gabriel a María
En sueños le habló

María concibió
Por obra y virtud
A los quince años
De su juventud

La Santa Familia
En Belén llegaron
Buscando posada
Y se la negaron

A la medianoche
El gallo cantó
Bien clarito dijo
Que Cristo nació


Sylvia Moodie-Kublalsingh