How Did Candombe Become the Way We Know It Today?

The working-class negros lubolos adopted their traditions from the middle- and upper-class lubolos, and just as those had appropriated from the Afro-Uruguayan comparsas so did the working-class comparsas lubolas. They adopted characters, looks (blackface and costumes), lyrics and of course the musical form of Candombe. Until around the 1890s, the different comparsas, although all part of the sociedades de negros (black societies), remained racially segregated. However by the beginning of the twentieth century the comparsas became racially mixed. Another change that took place at the turn of the century was a lyrical change. Afro-Uruguayans’ lyrics had long talked about the appeal of women, later also taking up the topic of discrimination, though often only indirectly since they did not feel comfortable to openly critique the order and establishment (60). The middle- and upper-class negros lubolos on the other hand had sung openly about the black ‘Other’ and the injustices that had happened to Africans and their descendants, although they practiced segregation themselves by keeping the comparsas exclusively white (54 ff.). It can only be assumed that it was due to arrogance or cockiness that the negros lubolos chose these topics. It was the working-class comparsas then that took up the topic of the “African homeland” (68). As mentioned before, black comparsas had used this topic before to hint indirectly at the race order in the city, but the new comparsas, with a majority of members that had immigrated from Europe and had left their homes and families, used this myth of home freely.

It can be said that by the beginning of the 1900s Candombe had spread throughout the city and had been embraced by Montevideans of all classes (71). While the working-class negros lubolos had adopted largely from the middle- and upper-class comparsas, we could say that what they appropriated from the Afro-Uruguayan comparsas in the conventillos was due to cross-cultural interactions. This could also mean that rather than this being a one-way street as with the first negros lubolos, it was more of an exchange, leading to a greater awareness of the Afro-descendant community in Montevideo.

What had remained of the old Candombe were las llamadas. Different (traditional or the new mixed-race) comparsas would regularly gather in the traditional neighborhoods of Palermo and Barrio Sur and walk through the streets while neighbors listened or sometimes joined in. The impact of these llamadas, as stated above, was so strong that the Montevideo administration confirmed an official night for the Desfile de Llamadas (Parade of the Callings) in 1956. Still today this parade is for the Sociedades de Negros y Lubolos, the black and blackface comparsas, who compete against each other. The first competition had two winners, two groups that were “racially integrated but were directed by members of a rising generation of Afro-Uruguayan carnavaleros...” (116). When it first began, the parade used to have less than ten groups participating, while today more than forty groups participate in the competition (125). They parade through the streets of Palermo and Barrio Sur that used to be traditional Afro-Uruguayan neighborhoods and where the conventillo Medio Mundo used to be.

Today the competition is financed by the government and the Ministry of Tourism (Lewis 71). Critics say that this nationalizing of what once was an African cultural event has been a way to promote tourism through the African past of the country, making it look joyful and colorful, while leaving out the dark parts, commercializing the event itself. On the other hand, it can also be said that through the officialization of the Desfile de Llamadas, an official cultural space for African cultural performance was created.

Candombe has influenced many other Uruguayan cultural art forms throughout the twentieth century. One of those was canto popular (popular chant), a leftist artistic movement that emerged in the 1960s. Musicians did extensive research into many traditional art forms and incorporated urban Afro-Uruguayan music and rural folkloric music. It became a vital political form of dissent against the dictatorship (Chirimini 269).

The comparsas during the carnival were often also understood as a voice against the political silencing that the dictatorial government enforced. For Abril Trigo it was during the time of the dictatorship that Candombe moved to the national stage as a “symbol of resistance to neofascism” (Trigo 1993, 716). On the meaning of Candombe during the dictatorship Andrews writes

“...during the years in which the dictatorship silenced most of Uruguayan society, the thundering drums of candombe were the antithesis of that public silence. And in a society in which it had become forbidden to meet in groups and to discuss collective issues publicly, the concept of the llamada, of calling people into the street to drum, dance, and become part of a public celebration, was a direct denial of the authoritarian project.” (Andrews 123)

While there has been no official evidence that Candombe was used as a mode of resistance, since the comparsas also did not criticize the dictatorship in their lyrics, we can assume that the effect of the sound of the tamboriles and the llamadas could have had this impact on the population. One of those moments can be found in the farewell celebration at the conventillo Medio Mundo before its demolition by the dictatorial government in 1978. For almost a century the conventillo had not only served as living quarters to the working-class, but was also a cultural space for Afro-Uruguayan events. The celebrations were held on December 3, 1978 with a big Candombe gathering lasting throughout the night (Sutton 34).

The carnival comparsas and the Desfile de Llamadas are an integral part of the carnival celebrations in Montevideo. The parade, now lasting two days due to the large participation, is financed by the government, which decides on the participants, chooses the judges, and provides the prize money. In 2009, Candombe, together with Tango, was inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO with the explanation

“Transmitted within families of African descent, the Candombe is recognized as an expression of resistance as well as a Uruguayan musical celebration and collective social practice deeply interwoven in the daily life of these neighbourhoods. It is also a symbol and manifestation of the memory of the community, drawing former residents back on special days to the historical nucleus of Candombe.” (UNESCO, 2009)

Where Is Candombe Today and Where Does It Go From Here?

This provided Uruguay with special financial assistance from the UNESCO to promote specific safeguard plans that have been under way since 2013 (UNESCO, 2012). At this point it is not yet possible for us to determine the effect of those plans on the Afro-Uruguayan community.

Three years earlier, in 2006, a law was passed for the Día Nacional del Candombe, la Cultura Afrouruguaya y la Equidad Racial (National Day of Candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan Culture and Racial Equality), which is celebrated each year on December 3rd in commemoration of the conventillo Medio Mundo. The law and the celebrations on this day aim to promote, recognize, assess and disseminate the Afro-Uruguayan contribution and the construction of a cultural identity through Candombe (Presidencia del Uruguay, 2012). Since 2006 each year is celebrated with a large participation of the population in a Candombe parade and other events in regard to Candombe and the history of Afro-Uruguayans.

While we will discuss the importance of Candombe today in Uruguay’s society and in the Afro-Uruguayan community in particular and the Afro-Uruguayan heritage further down, it can already be said that Candombe has evolved into one of the most important parts of Uruguayan culture, played and enjoyed by most of Montevideo’s population and the rest of the country.