Spotlight on: Palonegro

By: Braulio Castillo '18

Coming from a Latino household on the West Coast, the move to Ithaca in upstate New York was definitely a big change for me. The transition was certainly challenging, but Cornell offers so many opportunities for students to remain in contact with their culture and feel right at home that I was quickly able to adjust.

Two weekends ago, I was invited to a performance by a Latino group, Palonegro, on campus. The audience comprised faculty and local community members, their families and friends. Nostalgic but happy, I could not help but clap my hands and tap my feet to the beat of the music. Sergio R. Ospina, one of the musicians, directed us to dance along and participate with the performers. With such musicians that managed to engage their audience well, I fully appreciated the sense of community I felt. The performance consisted of various bambucos, pasillos, cumbias, porros, danzones, merengue, and Latin jazz. The mix of instrumental, vocal, and even poetic pieces made for a diverse performance – I felt like I had gone back home to Tijuana, Mexico. The group even performed pieces by famous artists like Café Tacvba and Juan Luis Guerra! After the concert I decided to learn more about the group, which consisted of grad students (among them David Miller, the graduate residence fellow at my dorm), and undergrads, though some professors like Alejandro Madrid, James Spinazzola, and Paul Merrill (the faculty in residence of my close friends’ dorm, Balch Hall) jumped in on the fun and helped the group out with their performances!

I got to speak to Sergio, a graduate student in musicology, and his wife Martha as they explained the program to me. A year ago they came to Cornell from Columbia and started this group spanning “traditional South American Andean styles to Afro-Caribbean music and Latin jazz”. Other students were attracted by the Latin beat prevalent in this genre and asked to participate in Palonegro. With a rhythm absent from any other music, people gravitated to it, and Palonegro has had several successful performances at Cornell and in Ithaca so far. I am glad to know that the music that I grew up with has attracted so much attention in the United States and at Cornell (The concert hall, Barnes Hall, was full). This school offers every student many opportunities to be a part of a vibrant community, no matter your interests, background, or aspirations.