Music of Belize

The music of Belize has a mix of Creole, Mestizo, Garìfuna, and Mayan influences. After many centuries of Maya habitation, British colonizers arrived in the area in the 17th century. Belize was Britain's only colony in Spanish-dominated Central America until self-government in 1964 and gaining full Independence in 1981. Belize is still part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Far more influential than this presence, however, was the importation of African slaves.

Europeans brought polkas, waltzes, schottisches and quadrilles, while Africans brought numerous instruments and percussion-based musics, including marimba. African culture resulted in the creation of brukdown music in interior logging camps, played using banjo, guitar, drums, dingaling bell, accordion and an ass's jaw bone played by running a stick up and down the teeth.

Mestizo culture in north and west Belize, and also Guatemala, is characterised by marimba, a xylophone-like instrument descended from an African instrument. Marimba bands use drum sets, double bass and sometimes other instruments. Famous performers include Alma Belicena and the Los Angeles Marimba Band. In Benque Viejo Del Carmen, the Los Angeles Marimbas were owned by the Castellanos family, whose patriarch, Ernesto Castellanos was both musician and master marimba maker. They gave scheduled weekend performances at the Los Angeles Club (also owned by the Castellanos Family) on Church Street in Benque Viejo Del Carmen.

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