April 13, 2025 • 28 mins
On March 17, Honduran recording artist Aurelio Martínez died in a tragic plane crash. Aurelio was the voice of the Garifuna people and a fierce defender of their music in culture. Almost two decades ago producer Marlon Bishop became friends with Aurelio, living and traveling with him for several months. He shares the story of their time together.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Tuesday, March seventeenth of twenty twenty five, a small
jet stream plane was leaving Roatan Island, a popular destination
for divers and beachgoers off the coast of Honduras. It
was headed to the nearby city of La Saba on
the mainland. Almost instantly, the aircraft crashed into the sea
(00:24):
within a minute of taking off. After a few seconds
in the air, the plane began to nose dive into
the sea.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Witnesses say the plane made a sharp turn to the
right of the runway and plunged into the water.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Local fishermen approached, aiming to rescue survivors. For twelve of
the seventeen passengers and crew, it was too late.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
My first thought is that this is fake news, and.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I was like, it's only rumors, it's only rumors, But
then the media confirmed it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Aboard the plane was Aurelio Martinez, a man who dedicated
his life to playing and preserving the music and culture
of the Garifuna people.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Something like this happens and you you really see the
true nature of the impact that his music had.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
From Futuro Media and PRX, It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria
and Josa Today the life and legacy of Aurelio Martinez,
a recording artist and star of the Garifuna people. Living
all along the coast of Central America in tranquil towns
(01:45):
along White Beaches, is a people known as the Garifuna.
They are a unique community with mixed Indigenous and African
roots and a history of resistance against colonialism.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
There are also some of the last.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Remaining speakers of an indigenous Caribbean language, the Garifuna language
Familia nor would Jo me mama Umadu Amio or Amida
Padi Rayoo. But in Central America, the Garifuna people are
(02:22):
probably best known for their unique soulful music, musical styles
like baranda and unda, which combine elements from Africa, the
Indigenous Caribbean, Latin America, and the West Indies. The greatest
exponent of this music was Aurelio Martinez. Not only was
(02:47):
Aurelio a once in a generation talent, he was one
of the loudest defenders of a culture and a people
under threat. Our co ceo here at Dudo Media and
a former producer at Latino USA, Marlon Bishop was a
dear friend of Aurelios. In two thousand and seven when
(03:09):
Marlon was just starting his career. He ended up living
with Aurelio Induras for several months and learning from him
and his music. On today's episode, Marlon shares his story
with Aurelio and pays tribute to his life and his work.
Here's producer Marlon Bishop.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
My story with Aurelio begins with a car battery. It
was two thousand and seven. I was twenty two years old,
just out of college. I wasn't yet a journalist. I
had been a musicology student focused on the music of
Latin America. After graduating, I won this fellowship and involved
studying Getti from the music in Honduras. My project was
to make field recordings and interview getting from the musicians.
(03:53):
Back then, social media barely existed, so it wasn't so
easy to find people. So what was my big plan
for getting sources for my project? Show up and hope
for the best. And so show up I did at
the bus station in Las Eba, a relaxed city of
sea breezes and conk soups hugging the Caribbean coast. When
(04:14):
I arrived there, waiting for me was an uncle, specifically
the uncle of a hunter and American friend. From college.
He agreed to pick me up and help get me settled.
I threw my backpack in the car and we drove
off to explore the town. We passed by the quiet
male con the plaza, the mall with the seemingly out
(04:37):
of place Applebee's in it. Soon the uncle pulled over
next to a two story, whitewashed home. He thought I
might be interested in this particular house. It was our
Ralio Martinez's house. My big dream for this trip was
to meet Aurelio. I had been inspired to come to
Hunters after falling in love with his album Got everon
a Soul. Now Here I was in front of his house,
(05:01):
and by chance, here he was too, sitting in a
black pickup truck in his driveway, repeatedly twisting the key
in his ignition. His car battery, as it happened, was dead. Naturally,
we offered to give him a jump and to thank us,
he invited us in for lunch. He was thirty eight
years old, then, short hair, dressed casually, he frequently broke
(05:22):
out into an enormous smile and belly laughs. Aurelia was
already a well known musician and a member of the
Hunter In congress over a seafood stew I told him
about my project, hoping he might grant me an interview.
He had a better idea, Why don't you move into
my house and then you could do all the interviews
you want if we made jam cool ready and so
(05:47):
Over the next three months, I more or less became
Aurelio's random gringo intern. I found this recording of us
playing some music together in one of those first days.
For a music nerd like me, it was all kind
of a dream. As Aurelio's random gringo intern I lugged
(06:09):
speakers to concerts, recorded his demos and garage band, and
just kind of followed him around. One day, he took
me to a televised benefit concert held in a gymnasium.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Martinez I love.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
The next day we drive out for a cultural event
in a small church in a Garriffin of Beach Town,
the pews filled with women in pastel dresses. When time allowed,
Aurelio would give me lessons on Garriffin of music. He
(06:57):
told me about the rhythm that was danced to make
the Yuca Harbor stronger is from Adanza for about the
different songs for men and.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Women Ahadi hana A.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
She was an absolute encyclopedia of culture, and he also
taught me about Garriffina history. No Dia.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Africa.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The getting Funa story begins not in Honduras, but on
the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, located near Saint Lucia
and Barbados. The European powers largely failed to colonize Saint
Vincent at first, facing fierce resistance from the indigenous carab people,
who managed to hold on to most of the island
themselves by at least the seventeenth century. There are records
(07:40):
of a sizeable number of Africans and their descendants living
among them. How exactly they got there is unknown. Some
historians believe they were survivors of wrecked slave ships on
the way to the New World. Others say the Africans
had escaped plantations on neighboring islands and sought freedom in
Saint Vincent. Yet others believe their presence may predate colonialism.
(08:01):
Aurelio and most Gariffina people are proud of their history
of resisting enslavement.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
La Coomer grif and Nunca acid Clavisa.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
It's all Nico Polo in Kurasungia America.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
This is Jonas PLAVITOI.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Regardless of how they got to Saint Vincent, the Africans
mixed with and occasionally fought with the native people, ultimately
taking on their Arawak and carab language and culture and
becoming the dominant force on the island. When Europeans returned
to try to finally subdue the island, a fierce war
between the English and these so called Black Caribs broke out,
lasting for several years. The English decided that this powerful
(08:40):
nation could never be brought to heal, so in seventeen
ninety seven they exiled them to Central America, hoping they
might become a headache for the Spanish. The Garufina spread
out all along the then sparsely populated Caribbean coast of
Central America and maintained their mixed African and Indigenous culture
and language for centuries, with nobody bothering them very much.
(09:07):
Aurelia was born and raised in the least bothered of
all the Garriffina towns, Plaplaia. It's far off the road
system and beyond electric light in the Moskitia rainforest. I
had the privilege of visiting Plaplaia with just getting there
is totally an adventure. Boats and trucks driving on the
(09:28):
sand and floated down rivers on rafts. The town is
filled with traditional homes built on a whisper of land
between a lagoon and the sea, and indeed the town
is everywhere in as poetry. He has a song called
Lambdini about being a boy waiting at the river bank
for the adults to come back from work and listening
to the loud silence of the rainforest. Monding Aurelia was
(09:59):
the youngest of a family of nine. When he was
a small child, his father left the home to try
to make money in the United States. Later, Aurelio would
sing about that wound of family separation. His father wrote
songs and played guitar and would send home cassettes that
Aurelio would listen to and study. His mom sang and
compose as well. As a boy, Aurelio crafted his own
(10:20):
makeshift guitar out of scrapwood and fishing lines. If you
saw them from a western lens, al told me you
could say that they were poor, but they were rich
in other ways. Is alta forma derikisa. Nature provided what
they needed. For example, in those years, an expensive delegacy
(10:43):
like crab was plentiful and commonplace.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
For them in Una Canasta.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wherever he went in later years, Plaplie remained. His inspiration.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Is in Centron, the yeomen room.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's the center that feeds me, it gives me my words.
It's the closeness to nature, to the mother, to the traditions.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
La la la latration.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But soon young Aurelio would leave Plaplia and go farther
than that boy waiting at the river landing might ever
have imagined.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Coming up on Latino Usa. Aurelio Martinez, the artist is born.
Stay with us, dear listener. Today we're paying tribute to
(11:54):
the legacy of Garifuna leader and recording artist Aurelio Martinez,
who died in a plane crash in Honduras on March seventeenth.
Before the break, we heard how Aurelio Martinez grew up
in a traditional Gharifuna town surrounded by music. Now let's
get into how Aurelio became a Garifuna superstar. Here's Marlon
(12:18):
Bishop once again.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Aurelia was clearly a gifted child, and when the time came,
his mother arranged for him to leave the rainforest and
attend high school in the city of Lasba, and soon
after high school.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
He was already a rising star.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
This is Ivan Duran, Aurelio's longtime producer and the owner
of Stonetree Records, and believe.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
This was early nineties. That time, Punta rock was kind
of like picking up and punto rock is a kind
of like the popular Garifuna genre for the dance floor.
Nine kind of like a modern version of punta, which
(13:04):
is a traditional rhythm of what goes along with a
fertility dance. And he became a popular punto rock artist.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Aurelio sang with several punta bands, pluding Los Gatos Bravos.
But what got him noticed actually was not his singing,
but his dancing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Everybody was crazy every time danced. Nobody could dance like him.
But in between that he formed a group called Lita.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Meaning Rooster's Blood in Garifuna. Aurelia's group, Lita Ridan was
something new, a band of young Garyufuna musicians playing a
stripped down but fresh take on traditional music with acoustic
guitars and drums.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
That's the first recording I heard from him, and I
was amazed.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
From there, Aurelio's music went in two directions. He started
his own pop band Alrelios Bravos cab with local hits
like pumpy Is Compompis.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And then there's the cultural work, that's how he used
to call it, and travajo cultural, which for him was
all about love, tradition and that true expression of the culture,
and that for him was sacred.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That cultural work really took off once Aurelio met Ivan.
Ivan was a young music producer working on a compilation
of garif Paranda music and Paranda. The Garifna guitar music
would become Aurelio's great passion.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's very soulful music, right, It's like the troubadors music.
It's like music that tells stories.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Ivano was recording the elder legends of Paranda, hoping to
preserve the sound of a dying generation, and young Aurelio
was in to participate what.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
He transformed the album.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
The compilation was a huge success, partially thanks to Aurelio,
and in two thousand and four, Yvon produced Aurelio's first
solo album titled Garifuna Soul. This was the album that
in two thousand and seven brought me to Honduras.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
It was a huge success. Everybody immediately learned all the
songs and you could hear them on the radio. Non
stuff ja. It was a masterpiece. I would say that
(15:42):
would be his best album.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Betty's most cultural activist. Pablo Blanco was discovering himself as
a university student in Buffalo when the album came out,
and he remembers playing it on repeat to feel connected
to his Garriffina family back home in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I mean, how Daniel was our jay z. He was
a fianity.
Speaker 8 (16:00):
He was He was the person that really carried the
Garisana people's music to Nancy National Careery, you know, because
he had like elements of rock and funk, jazz and blues.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
And his very unique voice.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
With Garifuna soul, Aurelio became a known international artist, musician
and recording engineer. Victor Arzu was a frequent collaborator.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I really was a good hearted person and very friendly.
He was always laughing, you know, smiling, joking.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Aurelio was incredibly disciplined. He rarely drank or smoked and
just had this incredible font of energy, like he never
stopped moving.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Sometimes we'll be working up to like you know, three am,
and then we'll go to the linias in Sava where
they sell the baliadas, and then we will be there
at three am, four am, five am looking for food,
and then go back to the studio and keep working.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
In two thousand and six, Aurelio was ready for a
new place to direct all that energy, and so he
turned to politics. Only he sail political. He didn't choose
to be a politician, he once told me. His art
and the position that came with it pushed him towards it.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I la il poer camiolarte min politica.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Arelio was elected as the first Garivena representative from the
Atlantida province where he lived, and one of the first
black legislators in the nation's history. He was serving in
Congress while I was staying with him in two thousand
and seven. Every week he'd get in his black pickup
truck and drive half a day to his office into
Gusi Galpa. His presence in politics was a true victory
for Getty everywhere.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Del pais.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Politics. He was able to show that the country's minority
populations could be part of the political process and change
their own destinies. But quickly he became frustrated with politics.
Years later he told me about it is Prieste. Aurelio
(18:28):
had hoped to achieve big things, but he ended up
unable to make progress. He wrote up a bill to
protect indigenous land from being overrun by squatters and business interests, basically,
but he could barely get Congress to discuss a single
paragraph of the law. And then, in the middle of
his final term in government, the Belizian Garufna artist Andy
(18:51):
Palacio passed away. Louba Andy was the voice of the Geifuna. Intuitively,
Aurelio understood that his people needed him as a leader now,
but not in government. On stage, his friend Vaughan remembers
that moment he.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Took that decision to go back into music one hundred percent,
where he wasn't making enough, Like Congress was his salary.
He just didn't care ya.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
In the years to come, Aurelio toward the US, Europe, Japan.
He won a mentorship program with Rolex and was inducted
into the Afropop Hall of Fame. Sometimes he wrote songs
about poetic, everyday things, like the song Natigolu about a
woman navigating two lovers. He also wrote songs about how
Geifuna andngos should represent their people instead of lining their pockets,
(19:52):
or how father should take responsibility for their children.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He always spoke from their heart. He would immediately find
a way how to communicate this struggle.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
As big of an artist as he was, Aurelio was
generous with his time and his music. Once we were
on this road trip through Honduras and we stopped to
stay the night at a small garry Funa town that
hadn't yet been electrified, Aurelio spontaneously decided to fire up
a generator, set up speakers, and perform a concert. As
a news spread, people from all over the countryside arrived
(20:33):
by flashlight. We all danced into the night. In the
last decade, Aurelio spent more time in Brooklyn, where his
mother lived. A few times we got together at their apartment.
(20:54):
He'd greet me with that big Aurelio laugh while his
mom made fresh flower tortillas on the stovetop. I interviewed
him several times as a journalist, and I wrote the
liner notes to his last album. Now I wish I
had made more of an effort to spend time with
him in New York. He always seemed to bit out
of water in the city hemmed In. He was a
long way from pla PLAYA. Listening back now to past
(21:17):
interviews with Aurelio, what stands out to me is the
fire inside of him to fight to preserve his culture,
the guyu from the language, the music, the ways of being.
The last time we spoke, I asked him why it
was so important to him. Culture. He told me is freedom.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Cultura is libertad.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Culture frees us from negativity and from anger.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Stificoventros cultura not to get In the last years, Yvonne
says Aurelio had something of a writing block and they
couldn't find a way to get back into the studio.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I always used to joke with him, like, oh, really,
what do you worry about. We can make another on
the album when you're eighty years old and I'm seventy
eight and even gonna get more gals. And we laughed
about that, and he would go like, oh, man, you're right,
(22:12):
you're right, you're right. And that's my only regret because
I was hoping to grow old with him in the
studio and now we're not.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And then on the evening of March seventeenth, I started
getting the text messages. Did you hear about Aurelio? I hadn't,
But when you get a text like that, you know
what it means. News had come. A small airplane crashed
near Roatan Island seconds after takeoff. Twelve of the seventeen
passengers and crew were dead. Rumors were spreading that Aralio
(22:47):
was among them, and.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
I was like, ah, it's only rumors, It's only rumors.
But then the media confirmed it.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And then two minutes later, bling bling, bling bling, my
phone starts and I I say, oh, man, I just
fucking run out of the parking lot and I started
screaming because I was just a mess.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
And still I woke up, and then I still couldn't
believe it. I still can't believe. You know that he's gone.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
The police called the crash an apparent mechanical failure. Arelio
Martinez Gary Finn, a superstar, was dead at age fifty five.
The burial was held in Las Eba, the city Aralio
called home for most of his life. Ivan Duran traveled
(23:44):
from Belize to be there.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
The first thing we encountered was hundreds of people outside
in the street, drumming and singing all his songs. It
was such a beautiful thing that you always think like, man,
I really must be freaking smiling right now. We all
(24:12):
grieve in different ways, and I wish I could grief
like a gey fun of people, which is almost like
a celebration of life and death.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Wherever Geifuna live. A celebration was held for Aralia from
New York to Houston, New Orleans to belize how is
the community in general feeling right now?
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah? Devastating?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I asked Victor r. Zoo, can anyone fill Auurralio's shoes?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
There is no one to replace Aurelia because Aralia was unique.
He believed on his talent sides, the fact that we're
coming from these small towns from Honduras, that we have
been discriminated against, that we now taken into account. He
(25:11):
strongly believed that he can perform on the biggest stage
all over the world.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And then he made it, you know the where.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I really believe that Garufuna culture had much to teach.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
The world, Okay, how to live in harmony with one
another and with nature, and how to value our ancestors
and our elders.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Culture to us is everything that's Activist Pablo Blanco Blanco
told me about the heart of what the Garruhuna have
to teach the world.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
We only have one senate as a community called Outni,
I for you.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You're for me.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I am for you, and you are for me. That
is how Aurelio lived his life. May we all learn
from his example.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Okay in Fas, Wisconsin. Aurelio Martinez born nineteen sixty nine
and died in twenty twenty five. Our episode was produced
(26:57):
by Marlon Bishop with help from Monica more Lis Garcia.
It was edited by Pennile Ramirez and mixed by Stephanie Lebau.
Fact checking for this episode by Proxana Guire Special thanks
to Ivan Durand and Stone Tree Records, Vito Arsou and
Pablo Blanco. The Latino USA team also includes Julia Caruso,
(27:21):
Felicia Domnuez, Fernando Chari, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estradra, Dominique In,
Estrosa Rinaldo, Leanos, Junior, Andrea Lopez, Gruzsado, Luis Luna Marta Martinez,
j j Carubin, Tasha Sandoval, Nour Saudi and Nancy Trujillo,
Pennilee Ramirez, Marlon Bishop, Maria Garcia, and I are co
(27:41):
executive producers and I'm your host, Maria no Rosa. Join
us again, dear listener, on our next episode. In the meantime,
I'll see you on all of our social media. You
know where to find me, and until then not Teva
yas
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Chao Latino Us is made possible in part by the
Heising Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at Hsfoundation,
dot Org, Skyline Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, working with
(28:17):
visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide.
On Tuesday, March seventeenth of twenty twenty five, a small
jet stream plane was leaving Roatan Island, a popular destination
for divers and beachgoers off the coast of Honduras. It
was headed to the nearby city of La Saba on
the mainland. Almost instantly, the aircraft crashed into the sea
(00:24):
within a minute of taking off. After a few seconds
in the air, the plane began to nose dive into
the sea.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Witnesses say the plane made a sharp turn to the
right of the runway and plunged into the water.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Local fishermen approached, aiming to rescue survivors. For twelve of
the seventeen passengers and crew, it was too late.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
My first thought is that this is fake news, and.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I was like, it's only rumors, it's only rumors, But
then the media confirmed it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Aboard the plane was Aurelio Martinez, a man who dedicated
his life to playing and preserving the music and culture
of the Garifuna people.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Something like this happens and you you really see the
true nature of the impact that his music had.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
From Futuro Media and PRX, It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria
and Josa Today the life and legacy of Aurelio Martinez,
a recording artist and star of the Garifuna people. Living
all along the coast of Central America in tranquil towns
(01:45):
along White Beaches, is a people known as the Garifuna.
They are a unique community with mixed Indigenous and African
roots and a history of resistance against colonialism.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
There are also some of the last.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Remaining speakers of an indigenous Caribbean language, the Garifuna language
Familia nor would Jo me mama Umadu Amio or Amida
Padi Rayoo. But in Central America, the Garifuna people are
(02:22):
probably best known for their unique soulful music, musical styles
like baranda and unda, which combine elements from Africa, the
Indigenous Caribbean, Latin America, and the West Indies. The greatest
exponent of this music was Aurelio Martinez. Not only was
(02:47):
Aurelio a once in a generation talent, he was one
of the loudest defenders of a culture and a people
under threat. Our co ceo here at Dudo Media and
a former producer at Latino USA, Marlon Bishop was a
dear friend of Aurelios. In two thousand and seven when
(03:09):
Marlon was just starting his career. He ended up living
with Aurelio Induras for several months and learning from him
and his music. On today's episode, Marlon shares his story
with Aurelio and pays tribute to his life and his work.
Here's producer Marlon Bishop.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
My story with Aurelio begins with a car battery. It
was two thousand and seven. I was twenty two years old,
just out of college. I wasn't yet a journalist. I
had been a musicology student focused on the music of
Latin America. After graduating, I won this fellowship and involved
studying Getti from the music in Honduras. My project was
to make field recordings and interview getting from the musicians.
(03:53):
Back then, social media barely existed, so it wasn't so
easy to find people. So what was my big plan
for getting sources for my project? Show up and hope
for the best. And so show up I did at
the bus station in Las Eba, a relaxed city of
sea breezes and conk soups hugging the Caribbean coast. When
(04:14):
I arrived there, waiting for me was an uncle, specifically
the uncle of a hunter and American friend. From college.
He agreed to pick me up and help get me settled.
I threw my backpack in the car and we drove
off to explore the town. We passed by the quiet
male con the plaza, the mall with the seemingly out
(04:37):
of place Applebee's in it. Soon the uncle pulled over
next to a two story, whitewashed home. He thought I
might be interested in this particular house. It was our
Ralio Martinez's house. My big dream for this trip was
to meet Aurelio. I had been inspired to come to
Hunters after falling in love with his album Got everon
a Soul. Now Here I was in front of his house,
(05:01):
and by chance, here he was too, sitting in a
black pickup truck in his driveway, repeatedly twisting the key
in his ignition. His car battery, as it happened, was dead. Naturally,
we offered to give him a jump and to thank us,
he invited us in for lunch. He was thirty eight
years old, then, short hair, dressed casually, he frequently broke
(05:22):
out into an enormous smile and belly laughs. Aurelia was
already a well known musician and a member of the
Hunter In congress over a seafood stew I told him
about my project, hoping he might grant me an interview.
He had a better idea, Why don't you move into
my house and then you could do all the interviews
you want if we made jam cool ready and so
(05:47):
Over the next three months, I more or less became
Aurelio's random gringo intern. I found this recording of us
playing some music together in one of those first days.
For a music nerd like me, it was all kind
of a dream. As Aurelio's random gringo intern I lugged
(06:09):
speakers to concerts, recorded his demos and garage band, and
just kind of followed him around. One day, he took
me to a televised benefit concert held in a gymnasium.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Martinez I love.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
The next day we drive out for a cultural event
in a small church in a Garriffin of Beach Town,
the pews filled with women in pastel dresses. When time allowed,
Aurelio would give me lessons on Garriffin of music. He
(06:57):
told me about the rhythm that was danced to make
the Yuca Harbor stronger is from Adanza for about the
different songs for men and.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Women Ahadi hana A.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
She was an absolute encyclopedia of culture, and he also
taught me about Garriffina history. No Dia.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Africa.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The getting Funa story begins not in Honduras, but on
the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, located near Saint Lucia
and Barbados. The European powers largely failed to colonize Saint
Vincent at first, facing fierce resistance from the indigenous carab people,
who managed to hold on to most of the island
themselves by at least the seventeenth century. There are records
(07:40):
of a sizeable number of Africans and their descendants living
among them. How exactly they got there is unknown. Some
historians believe they were survivors of wrecked slave ships on
the way to the New World. Others say the Africans
had escaped plantations on neighboring islands and sought freedom in
Saint Vincent. Yet others believe their presence may predate colonialism.
(08:01):
Aurelio and most Gariffina people are proud of their history
of resisting enslavement.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
La Coomer grif and Nunca acid Clavisa.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
It's all Nico Polo in Kurasungia America.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
This is Jonas PLAVITOI.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Regardless of how they got to Saint Vincent, the Africans
mixed with and occasionally fought with the native people, ultimately
taking on their Arawak and carab language and culture and
becoming the dominant force on the island. When Europeans returned
to try to finally subdue the island, a fierce war
between the English and these so called Black Caribs broke out,
lasting for several years. The English decided that this powerful
(08:40):
nation could never be brought to heal, so in seventeen
ninety seven they exiled them to Central America, hoping they
might become a headache for the Spanish. The Garufina spread
out all along the then sparsely populated Caribbean coast of
Central America and maintained their mixed African and Indigenous culture
and language for centuries, with nobody bothering them very much.
(09:07):
Aurelia was born and raised in the least bothered of
all the Garriffina towns, Plaplaia. It's far off the road
system and beyond electric light in the Moskitia rainforest. I
had the privilege of visiting Plaplaia with just getting there
is totally an adventure. Boats and trucks driving on the
(09:28):
sand and floated down rivers on rafts. The town is
filled with traditional homes built on a whisper of land
between a lagoon and the sea, and indeed the town
is everywhere in as poetry. He has a song called
Lambdini about being a boy waiting at the river bank
for the adults to come back from work and listening
to the loud silence of the rainforest. Monding Aurelia was
(09:59):
the youngest of a family of nine. When he was
a small child, his father left the home to try
to make money in the United States. Later, Aurelio would
sing about that wound of family separation. His father wrote
songs and played guitar and would send home cassettes that
Aurelio would listen to and study. His mom sang and
compose as well. As a boy, Aurelio crafted his own
(10:20):
makeshift guitar out of scrapwood and fishing lines. If you
saw them from a western lens, al told me you
could say that they were poor, but they were rich
in other ways. Is alta forma derikisa. Nature provided what
they needed. For example, in those years, an expensive delegacy
(10:43):
like crab was plentiful and commonplace.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
For them in Una Canasta.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wherever he went in later years, Plaplie remained. His inspiration.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Is in Centron, the yeomen room.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's the center that feeds me, it gives me my words.
It's the closeness to nature, to the mother, to the traditions.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
La la la latration.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But soon young Aurelio would leave Plaplia and go farther
than that boy waiting at the river landing might ever
have imagined.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Coming up on Latino Usa. Aurelio Martinez, the artist is born.
Stay with us, dear listener. Today we're paying tribute to
(11:54):
the legacy of Garifuna leader and recording artist Aurelio Martinez,
who died in a plane crash in Honduras on March seventeenth.
Before the break, we heard how Aurelio Martinez grew up
in a traditional Gharifuna town surrounded by music. Now let's
get into how Aurelio became a Garifuna superstar. Here's Marlon
(12:18):
Bishop once again.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Aurelia was clearly a gifted child, and when the time came,
his mother arranged for him to leave the rainforest and
attend high school in the city of Lasba, and soon
after high school.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
He was already a rising star.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
This is Ivan Duran, Aurelio's longtime producer and the owner
of Stonetree Records, and believe.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
This was early nineties. That time, Punta rock was kind
of like picking up and punto rock is a kind
of like the popular Garifuna genre for the dance floor.
Nine kind of like a modern version of punta, which
(13:04):
is a traditional rhythm of what goes along with a
fertility dance. And he became a popular punto rock artist.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Aurelio sang with several punta bands, pluding Los Gatos Bravos.
But what got him noticed actually was not his singing,
but his dancing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Everybody was crazy every time danced. Nobody could dance like him.
But in between that he formed a group called Lita.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Meaning Rooster's Blood in Garifuna. Aurelia's group, Lita Ridan was
something new, a band of young Garyufuna musicians playing a
stripped down but fresh take on traditional music with acoustic
guitars and drums.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
That's the first recording I heard from him, and I
was amazed.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
From there, Aurelio's music went in two directions. He started
his own pop band Alrelios Bravos cab with local hits
like pumpy Is Compompis.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And then there's the cultural work, that's how he used
to call it, and travajo cultural, which for him was
all about love, tradition and that true expression of the culture,
and that for him was sacred.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That cultural work really took off once Aurelio met Ivan.
Ivan was a young music producer working on a compilation
of garif Paranda music and Paranda. The Garifna guitar music
would become Aurelio's great passion.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's very soulful music, right, It's like the troubadors music.
It's like music that tells stories.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Ivano was recording the elder legends of Paranda, hoping to
preserve the sound of a dying generation, and young Aurelio
was in to participate what.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
He transformed the album.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
The compilation was a huge success, partially thanks to Aurelio,
and in two thousand and four, Yvon produced Aurelio's first
solo album titled Garifuna Soul. This was the album that
in two thousand and seven brought me to Honduras.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
It was a huge success. Everybody immediately learned all the
songs and you could hear them on the radio. Non
stuff ja. It was a masterpiece. I would say that
(15:42):
would be his best album.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Betty's most cultural activist. Pablo Blanco was discovering himself as
a university student in Buffalo when the album came out,
and he remembers playing it on repeat to feel connected
to his Garriffina family back home in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I mean, how Daniel was our jay z. He was
a fianity.
Speaker 8 (16:00):
He was He was the person that really carried the
Garisana people's music to Nancy National Careery, you know, because
he had like elements of rock and funk, jazz and blues.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
And his very unique voice.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
With Garifuna soul, Aurelio became a known international artist, musician
and recording engineer. Victor Arzu was a frequent collaborator.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I really was a good hearted person and very friendly.
He was always laughing, you know, smiling, joking.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Aurelio was incredibly disciplined. He rarely drank or smoked and
just had this incredible font of energy, like he never
stopped moving.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Sometimes we'll be working up to like you know, three am,
and then we'll go to the linias in Sava where
they sell the baliadas, and then we will be there
at three am, four am, five am looking for food,
and then go back to the studio and keep working.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
In two thousand and six, Aurelio was ready for a
new place to direct all that energy, and so he
turned to politics. Only he sail political. He didn't choose
to be a politician, he once told me. His art
and the position that came with it pushed him towards it.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I la il poer camiolarte min politica.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Arelio was elected as the first Garivena representative from the
Atlantida province where he lived, and one of the first
black legislators in the nation's history. He was serving in
Congress while I was staying with him in two thousand
and seven. Every week he'd get in his black pickup
truck and drive half a day to his office into
Gusi Galpa. His presence in politics was a true victory
for Getty everywhere.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Del pais.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Politics. He was able to show that the country's minority
populations could be part of the political process and change
their own destinies. But quickly he became frustrated with politics.
Years later he told me about it is Prieste. Aurelio
(18:28):
had hoped to achieve big things, but he ended up
unable to make progress. He wrote up a bill to
protect indigenous land from being overrun by squatters and business interests, basically,
but he could barely get Congress to discuss a single
paragraph of the law. And then, in the middle of
his final term in government, the Belizian Garufna artist Andy
(18:51):
Palacio passed away. Louba Andy was the voice of the Geifuna. Intuitively,
Aurelio understood that his people needed him as a leader now,
but not in government. On stage, his friend Vaughan remembers
that moment he.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Took that decision to go back into music one hundred percent,
where he wasn't making enough, Like Congress was his salary.
He just didn't care ya.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
In the years to come, Aurelio toward the US, Europe, Japan.
He won a mentorship program with Rolex and was inducted
into the Afropop Hall of Fame. Sometimes he wrote songs
about poetic, everyday things, like the song Natigolu about a
woman navigating two lovers. He also wrote songs about how
Geifuna andngos should represent their people instead of lining their pockets,
(19:52):
or how father should take responsibility for their children.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He always spoke from their heart. He would immediately find
a way how to communicate this struggle.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
As big of an artist as he was, Aurelio was
generous with his time and his music. Once we were
on this road trip through Honduras and we stopped to
stay the night at a small garry Funa town that
hadn't yet been electrified, Aurelio spontaneously decided to fire up
a generator, set up speakers, and perform a concert. As
a news spread, people from all over the countryside arrived
(20:33):
by flashlight. We all danced into the night. In the
last decade, Aurelio spent more time in Brooklyn, where his
mother lived. A few times we got together at their apartment.
(20:54):
He'd greet me with that big Aurelio laugh while his
mom made fresh flower tortillas on the stovetop. I interviewed
him several times as a journalist, and I wrote the
liner notes to his last album. Now I wish I
had made more of an effort to spend time with
him in New York. He always seemed to bit out
of water in the city hemmed In. He was a
long way from pla PLAYA. Listening back now to past
(21:17):
interviews with Aurelio, what stands out to me is the
fire inside of him to fight to preserve his culture,
the guyu from the language, the music, the ways of being.
The last time we spoke, I asked him why it
was so important to him. Culture. He told me is freedom.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Cultura is libertad.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Culture frees us from negativity and from anger.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Stificoventros cultura not to get In the last years, Yvonne
says Aurelio had something of a writing block and they
couldn't find a way to get back into the studio.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I always used to joke with him, like, oh, really,
what do you worry about. We can make another on
the album when you're eighty years old and I'm seventy
eight and even gonna get more gals. And we laughed
about that, and he would go like, oh, man, you're right,
(22:12):
you're right, you're right. And that's my only regret because
I was hoping to grow old with him in the
studio and now we're not.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And then on the evening of March seventeenth, I started
getting the text messages. Did you hear about Aurelio? I hadn't,
But when you get a text like that, you know
what it means. News had come. A small airplane crashed
near Roatan Island seconds after takeoff. Twelve of the seventeen
passengers and crew were dead. Rumors were spreading that Aralio
(22:47):
was among them, and.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
I was like, ah, it's only rumors, It's only rumors.
But then the media confirmed it.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And then two minutes later, bling bling, bling bling, my
phone starts and I I say, oh, man, I just
fucking run out of the parking lot and I started
screaming because I was just a mess.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
And still I woke up, and then I still couldn't
believe it. I still can't believe. You know that he's gone.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
The police called the crash an apparent mechanical failure. Arelio
Martinez Gary Finn, a superstar, was dead at age fifty five.
The burial was held in Las Eba, the city Aralio
called home for most of his life. Ivan Duran traveled
(23:44):
from Belize to be there.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
The first thing we encountered was hundreds of people outside
in the street, drumming and singing all his songs. It
was such a beautiful thing that you always think like, man,
I really must be freaking smiling right now. We all
(24:12):
grieve in different ways, and I wish I could grief
like a gey fun of people, which is almost like
a celebration of life and death.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Wherever Geifuna live. A celebration was held for Aralia from
New York to Houston, New Orleans to belize how is
the community in general feeling right now?
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah? Devastating?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I asked Victor r. Zoo, can anyone fill Auurralio's shoes?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
There is no one to replace Aurelia because Aralia was unique.
He believed on his talent sides, the fact that we're
coming from these small towns from Honduras, that we have
been discriminated against, that we now taken into account. He
(25:11):
strongly believed that he can perform on the biggest stage
all over the world.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And then he made it, you know the where.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I really believe that Garufuna culture had much to teach.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
The world, Okay, how to live in harmony with one
another and with nature, and how to value our ancestors
and our elders.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Culture to us is everything that's Activist Pablo Blanco Blanco
told me about the heart of what the Garruhuna have
to teach the world.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
We only have one senate as a community called Outni,
I for you.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You're for me.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I am for you, and you are for me. That
is how Aurelio lived his life. May we all learn
from his example.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Okay in Fas, Wisconsin. Aurelio Martinez born nineteen sixty nine
and died in twenty twenty five. Our episode was produced
(26:57):
by Marlon Bishop with help from Monica more Lis Garcia.
It was edited by Pennile Ramirez and mixed by Stephanie Lebau.
Fact checking for this episode by Proxana Guire Special thanks
to Ivan Durand and Stone Tree Records, Vito Arsou and
Pablo Blanco. The Latino USA team also includes Julia Caruso,
(27:21):
Felicia Domnuez, Fernando Chari, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estradra, Dominique In,
Estrosa Rinaldo, Leanos, Junior, Andrea Lopez, Gruzsado, Luis Luna Marta Martinez,
j j Carubin, Tasha Sandoval, Nour Saudi and Nancy Trujillo,
Pennilee Ramirez, Marlon Bishop, Maria Garcia, and I are co
(27:41):
executive producers and I'm your host, Maria no Rosa. Join
us again, dear listener, on our next episode. In the meantime,
I'll see you on all of our social media. You
know where to find me, and until then not Teva
yas
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Chao Latino Us is made possible in part by the
Heising Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at Hsfoundation,
dot Org, Skyline Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, working with
(28:17):
visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide.
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