NY Premiere
Directed by Sebastián Bednarik. 57 min.
Spanish with English subtitles
After the abolition of slavery in Uruguay, people of African descent in Montevideo settled in large tenement houses called conventillos in the Barrio Sur. In 1970, Medio mundo was the last of 470 conventillos in this southern neighborhood of the city. It was destroyed in the 1980s during the military dictatorship, forcing most of the families to move to other neighborhoods.
Waldemar "Cachila" Silva and his family still live in the Barrio Sur. Cachila is the son of Juan Ángel Silva, one of the patriarchs of candombe (the most popular manifestations of Afro-Uruguayan music), and founder of Morenada, the comparsa (candombe group), established in the 1950s. In 1999, Cachila started his own comparsa, Cuareim 1080, named after the street address of Medio mundo where Morenada was conceived and where Cachila was born and grew up.
The recent birth of Cachila's first grandson has compelled Cachila to pass his legacy on to his sons, who are now an integral part of Cuareim 1080, a candombe group that has consistently won high ratings in the annual Carnival competition. Patriarchy, hierarchy and cultural traditions are at the core of this documentary about Cachila's efforts to preserve his cultural roots through the next generations of the family.
New York City, NY; NYC