12411: Re: 12400: Re: 12381, Don Pedro, from Mambo Racine (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lois E Wilcken <makandal-ny@juno.com>

Moreau does fix 1768 as the date Don Pedre was active in Petit Goave.
Michel Lamartiniere Honorat (Les danses folkloriques haitiennes, 1955)
interprets "un negre...d'origine espangnol" to mean mixed Spanish and
African blood.  I don't really know very much about this--yet--but I
thought of the Portugese possibility as I was going through a brief
history of the Kongo kingdom.  There were seven King Pedros, and the last
died in 1955.  I know that Pedro IV was 18th century, but I don't yet
know exactly when in that century.  I don't mean to suggest that Moreau's
Don Pedro was actually one of the kings.  As I understand it, many of the
Kongos used Portugese names.

Maya Deren lays out her theory of the Amerindian origins of Petwo in an
appendix to Divine Horsemen.  The truth could very well be a mix of
elements.

Lois

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