You may remember a previous posting about Batey Libertad. Bateyes are where agricultural workers live, and are among the poorest places in the DR. My friends on Batey Libertad have been asking me for some time for some help in getting money for fixing up their church, which is in sad need of some help. You probably know I am not a religious person, but everyone has a right to their own kind of comfort, and this church/community center certainly provides that to many batey residents. I feel bad I haven't been able to help them out so far, so please help me to remedy this situation!
I've added a "Donate" button to my page over there on the left. Please donate whatever you can to my Batey Libertad fund. This money will go into a Paypal account, and I will then send that money on to them. I'm not a non-profit so I can't offer you tax deductions or anything, but I do promise you that whatever you donate will go straight to the church at Batey Libertad (minus the approx. 6% I pay in fees for sending money to the DR). Even $5 or $10 would make a difference to them - that's already 165 or 330 pesos!
Previously, they had written to me explaining their need for a few fans and some paint, as well. You can take a look at the church in this previous post:
http://accordiongirl.blogspot.com/2007/06/batey-libertad-church.html
Here is the new letter I received from my friend Yanlico from Batey Libertad this morning. In short, the gist of it is that the church already had some problems and then was robbed several times this year. The robbers stole their speakers, microphone, chairs, robes, and decorative items. Besides needing to replace these items, they want to put bars on the windows and secure the door in order to prevent future thefts.
"Reciba un fuerte saludo y muchas bendiciones en el nombre de Dios.
"Le escribo en el nombre de la Iglesia Cristiana en Batey Libertad. Después de este cordial saludo, quiero manifestarle los siguientes.
"Desde el inicio de este año 2008, hemos sido víctimas de robos en el templo, donde han llevado algunos objetos útiles e importantes. La primera vez se robaron cosas decorativas como, manteles, sillas, micrófonos y hasta las flores y otros. Hace dos meses atrás también nos robaron dos bocinas (speaker) y un micrófono de gran valor que hasta ahora no podemos comprarlo, suerte que tuvimos guardados la otra bocina.
"Entonces, por estas razones hemos decidido y planificar la idea de que la única forma de estar seguro es ponerle más seguro a las puertas y ventanas reforzándolas con hierro y así no tendríamos que llevar y traer las cosas en cada momento de los cultos. Por eso estamos pidiendo ayuda y colaboración. Primero comenzamos con los miembros de la iglesia y luego las otras personas amigos y colaboradores de la comunidad como usted y sus amigos. Solo quiero recordarle que no es algo obligatorio.
"Pues, según una cotización que hicieron, el costo de los materiales ascendió a un monto de $10,000.00 sin la mano de obra que costaría $3,000.00. Espero que cooperen con lo que puedan y así no estarían ayudando a la iglesia sino estarían cooperando con la obra de Dios. Muchas gracias.
"Bendición,
"Yanlico"
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Congratulations on what I can only assume is a great dissertation. I am a bit biased having just started getting into some meringue through some LPs I picked up at an estate sale. In fact, I found your blog because one of the albums I have includes Rafael Petiton Guzman and His Merengueros; you mention his name in describing a cabaret poster. This is how it all starts, isn’t it?
I’m actually a historian with the National Park Service here in Atlanta, USA. More important to this topic, I am also a big fan of Latin music in general and collect a lot of LPs that, to me, represent some more “authentic” approaches to the various types of music. I got started on Brazilian music for various reasons, and then moved on to Puerto Rico and Cuba. Then the estate sale with the Merengue records (SEECO Label).
I’ve also had the fortune to travel to Brasil and Old San Juan (the latter for work!) and have heard some good music in its original homeland.
I also have a good friend who is the audio engineer for Dust-to-Digital records here in Atlanta, and through him I’ve learned a lot about and listened to a wide variety of musics. He’s transferred a lot of analog recordings to archival CDs for the Park Service (oral histories, etc).
Anyhow, since you are the new PhD and all, I have a few audservations about merengue, at least that which I heard on my SEECO records:
What’s going on? It sounds a lot like Klezmer music to me, and there is probably a reason why. Now, I know you play the accordion, and a good, wholesomely Jewish friend of mine does too, and he is nuts about Latin music and I think I recall a discussion with him about German influences in South America…blah blah blah beer and accordion…blah blah blah…and you probably have all this in your diss, correct?
Hope I have not spewed too much stuff at you. But, like I said, you mentioned Guzman in your blog, so you can’t really blame me (and in a wholly respectful way I am glad you did a dissertation on Dominican Merengue).
brian.coffey@att.net
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