We have a band:
One of the blessings which came from the Spanish way of colonizing is the love of music and municipal bands. So on a Sunday evening it comes as no surprise to hear the band playing classical music. The director, pictured above, plays the saxophone.
Music for culture:
Just as the mountains need trees to anchor the soil, a culture needs simple pleasures to anchor its core values and approach to life. The Dominican Republic suffers from intense storms of cultural erosion, as cable TV, video games, and a host of imported feasts, foods and beverages. You might be surprised to find children of wealthy families who know more about Disney world than they know about the rivers and mountains of their own country.
The band plays:
Listening to the band and observing who is playing, one gets a sense that the love of music transcends the barriers of age and place of birth. The youth move into music that required real artistry to create. They learn to distinguish between well crafted music and stuff that is simply thrown together for rapid consumption.
El Factor compared to Paraíso:
The two municipalities of El Factor and Paraíso share much in common: they both have municipal bands and generate local musicians. The Church in El Factor lives in a golden moment when choirs vie with each other to create Church music and play in the liturgies. Each Advent they get together to hear one an other's music and choose which new hymns they will learn for Christmas. But the Church in Paraíso has hidden musicians... Haitian immigrants who develop their skills in the mountains, serving remote communities that have few contacts with the townsfolk.
A new music:
During the 1980's the "new music" sang about injustice, oppression and the evil of government sponsored torture. The youth groups in Church also found their voices to sing for structural changes and more freedom. Today the Dominican Republic lives a transition moment, when the old protest songs are no longer sung, and a new kind of awareness has yet to develop. Father Jerry Hernandez, when he served here in Paraíso, struck a discordant note when he observed during a Sunday homily that "nobody feels pain for their town". The comment upset many churchgoers, but it struck a nerve. Can a new music awaken the sensibilities that lie dormant? Thomas Berry thinks we need to sing the song of the Universe and how it unfolds to this day. He believes we need a new cosmology to develop our capacity for awe and reverence.
Coming to attention: As the band swings into the national anthem, the children in the park stop what they are doing and come to attention. Some of them hold their right hands over their hearts. They know how to respect the hymn that represents their country. Do we have a hymn for the Earth; for the rivers; for the soil and the trees? Can we live in attention?
