Maelo: an Ethnographic Biography of Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera
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Specters of Maelo: An Ethnographic Biography of Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera César Colón-Montijo Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 César Colón-Montijo All rights reserved ABSTRACT Specters of Maelo: An Ethnographic Biography of Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera César Colón-Montijo Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera (1931–1987) is a foundational Afro-Puerto Rican salsa singer. Known among his fans, peers, and contemporary researchers as El Sonero Mayor (loosely, The Greatest Singer-Improviser), Maelo’s voice became inscribed in the aural tapestry of barrios in Latin America and the Caribbean, beginning in the mid-1950s. After his death on May 13, 1987, Maelo has gained a sense of sacredness amongst fans and devotees who identify themselves as maeleros and maelistas in places such as Panama, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. My interlocutors ascribe Maelo’s songs with a particular affective strength that for them differentiates him from other salsa singers. His music has become the medium for the creation of relational bonds that respond to their particular local contexts as well as their personal and collective histories. In both countries, maeleros and maelistas listen to his songs as stories where they find keys to endure the difficulties of day-to-day life in their respective socio-political, cultural, and economic situations. This dissertation studies the friendships and relational affinities maeleros and maelistas articulate through Maelo’s music and biography, examining the creative work they do in order to celebrate his presence in their everyday. I argue that Maelo inspires a sense of secular devotion amongst his fans through the ways in which he mediates the crossing of the sacred and the profane through his repertoire and life by voicing multiple expressions from diverse Black Atlantic religions. I understand the sense of communion maeleros and maelistas share as a devotional sense of kinship in which friendship, and mainly male friendships, are central. I propose that such mediations of the sacred, and the Maelo-centered sense of devotional kinship I study, must be framed in relation to larger histories of the political definition of life in Latin America and the Caribbean. In such histories, the spectrality of the voice has served both as a tool for casting Black and indigenous groups as unworthy of citizenship and as a means for these groups to endure such marginalization. By examining the context-specific ways in which Maelo connoisseurs reinterpret his music and life in Venezuela, Panama, and Puerto Rico in his afterlife, this dissertation proposes that maeleros and maelistas enact a political theology that dramatizes the contemporary stakes of larger bio- political histories in which illness has long-been connected to delinquency as tools of power used to police and discipline modern citizen bodies. This is vital to one of the central theses of this dissertation: that Maelo’s stories of vocal illness, addiction, and imprisonment—what I call his wounded masculinity—are key to the sense of sacredness he has gained during his afterlife as a spectral figure whose songs, images, and myth accompany his fans, peers, and devotees in their everyday. Contents List of Figures ii Acknowledgments v Dedication ix Specters of Maelo: An Introduction 1 El Sonero Mayor: Theorizing Song, Soneo, and Storytelling as Media of Mutuality 46 Un Profundo Ecuajei: Enmeshing Maelo within the Political Theology of Chavismo 90 Cortijo se llevó la llave: Narrating Public Secrecy Through a Story of Illness and Healing 141 El Brujo de Borinquen: Maelo’s Mutuality with El Nazareno, The Black Christ of Portobelo, Panama 185 Conclusion 249 Bibliography 254 i List of Figures Figure 1. Maelista meme 6 Figure 2: Macropanas group picture 8 Figure 3: Luis Gooding and Pedro ‘Sorolo’ Rodríguez, Portobelo, Panama 9 Figure 4: Detail from La esquina de Maelo of Maelo 9 Figure 5: YouTube screenshot of Maelo’s interview with Jimmy Dawson 15 Figure 6. Maelo’s wake through the streets of Santurce 23 Figure 7. Tomasa Rivera and Eugenio Quijano 26 Figure 8: Freddy Quintero’s portrait of Maelo 33 Figure 9: Letter to Maelo and Doña Margot 35 Figure 10: Macropanas in El Gons Sous 65 Figure 11: Luis Gooding in his archive/radio booth 68 Figure 12. Album cover of Bueno y qué by Cortijo y su Combo. 70 Figure 13. Manifestation during the visit of the King of Spain to Puerto Rico in 1987 94 Figure 14: Freddy Quintero standing in front of El Gons Sous 102 Figure 15. Macropana’s collage 105 Figure 16: Program for the 19th edition of macropanas’ tribute to Maelo in 2006 105 Figure 17: Jesús Campos, Jesús Hernández, and Freddy Quintero 109 Figure 18: Professor José Adames 114 Figure 19: Jesús Hernández channeling José Adames during our interview 115 Figure 20: Portraits of Simón Bolívar and Maelo at Reina Tovar’s house 133 Figure 21: Carbonero holds t-shirt with an image of Hugo Chávez and Maelo 133 Figure 22. Maelo kisses Rafael Cortijo before his casket is closed 152 ii Figure 23. Maelo singing at the 8th Bomba and Plena Festival in Río Grande 157 Figure 24: Poster of Maelo and El Nazareno 187 Figure 25: El Nazareno at the Church of San Felipe 188 Figure 26: Maelo’s bust in Portobelo, Panama 188 Figure 27: Sorolo and Gooding at Gooding’s archive/radio booth 191 Figure 28. Album cover of Bueno y qué by Cortijo y su Combo 196 Figure 29: Gooding’s Facebook post relating his father and friends to Cortijo y su Combo 196 Figure 30: Luis Gooding as a young music collector and DJ in Panama, 1970s 200 Figure 31: Maelo with members of the Panamanian government circa 1970 203 Figure 32: 1969 Panamanian carnivals advertisement 204 Figure 33: Detail of 1969 Panamanian carnivals advertisement 205 Figure 34: El Nazareno shrine at the Church of San Felipe in Portobelo, Panama 215 Figure 35: The statue of El Nazareno with Simón Cirineo 218 Figure 36: Pilgrims arrive at the Church of San Felipe in Portobelo 220 Figure 37: Pilgrims stare at El Nazareno as they arrive at the Church of San Felipe 220 Figure 38: El Nazareno procession through the streets of Portobelo, Panama 221 Figure 39: Closer look at El Nazareno during His procession 222 Figure 40: U.S. Navy brochure promoting their participation in the Black Christ Festival 224 Figure 41: Detail of U.S. Navy brochure about the Black Christ Festival 225 Figure 42: Maelo carrying El Nazareno during the procession in the 1970s 232 Figure 43: Sorolo and Gooding at Gooding’s archive/radio booth 240 Figure 44: Sorolo with Maelo’s mother, Doña Margot, in Santurce, Puerto Rico 243 Figure 45: Sorolo in Portobelo, Panama 246 iii Figure 46: Friends wearing Maelo and El Nazareno t-shirts and caps 247 Figure 47: Friends wearing Maelo and El Nazareno t-shirts 247 Figure 48: Maelo’s bust plaque, Portobelo, Panama 248 iv Acknowledgements This is a dissertation about friendship, listening, storytelling, and devotion. Also, it is a dissertation about illness, colonialism, empire, and endurance. But perhaps above all of this, my inquiry in the pages that follow is a means of honoring the life and death of Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera, a beloved Afro-Puerto Rican popular singer. Therefore, I begin by expressing my thankfulness to his spirit for blessing this research since the beginning. As the macropanas (macro-friends), a Maelo-centered collective in Caracas, Venezuela would say: Maelo, un profundo ecuajei para ti. Likewise, I must express my gratitude to Maelo’s family for supporting me throughout these years. Their trust and their belief has been key for me to feel at ease in conducting this inquiry. Thanks to Manguin, Heyda, Idenisse, Lehany, Ismael, Jr., Tomasa, Baby, and Ivelisse. Also, thanks to those family members that I don’t know personally. It is truly an honor. I have been very lucky to meet so many outstanding individuals since I started my study twelve years ago. Throughout, I have cultivated relationships with my so-called “interlocutors” that with time had become true friendships. This project began to take shape during my first trip to Venezuela when I met the macropanas. Mentioning all the member of this collective here is an almost impossible task, but I must voice my gratefulness to Jesús Hernández. Malandro Viejo, thanks truly for sharing your wisdom; thanks for the long and profound conversation we have had throughout the years. Thanks too to Jesús Campos, El Oso, Freddy Quintero, El Gato, and Professor Omar Hurtado. I must praise the spirit of the late Professor José Adames whom I never met in person, but whose essays about the macropanas have been key to my theorization of their devotion for Maelo. In Venezuela, I must distinguish my dear friend Reina Tovar, whose mix of v kindness, wisdom, and political bravado still amazes me even after all these years. Thanks Reina, to you and your family, for all the love and all the food. My work in Panama, and actually my work overall, would not have been possible without the thorough collaboration of Luis Gooding, the utmost connoisseur of Maelo’s music, life, and myth. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, questions, and the intensity of your Maelo devotion. But more importantly, thank you so much for opening the doors of your house, for taking care of me, and for lighting a candle to El Nazareno in my name when I am not able to go praise Him in person during His festival. Likewise, my work in Panama evolved around my friendship with Pedro ‘Sorolo’ Rodríguez, one of Maelo’s dearest friends.