CALENDA: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF A CULTURAL IMAGE 5b

word calenda was most likely a European word. Further evidence to support
the argument that Labat projected the word onto the Caribbean is that there
was a well-known twelfth-century French troubadour, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras,
who composed a song called kalenda maya which became very famous at
the time. It is quite likely that the word calenda came to Labat from this
French source as well as the older Roman sources. As stated previously,
Labat associated the calenda with Ardra/Dahomey because that is where
the slaves on his plantation were from.
 Moreau de Saint M6ry was born in Martinique but spent much of his life
in St. Domingue and wrote very detailed accounts of both sides of the island
of Hispaniola before the revolution. Yet, there is some ambiguity or overlap
in the way that he used the term kalenda over the years. In the [ 1789] article
Danse it is as if he divided Labat' s calenda into two different dances: the
Kalenda and the Chica. In his later [1797] book on Saint Domingue Moreau
de Saint M&ry gave them as varying geographical names for the same dance:
"Another Negro dance in Saint Domingue which is also of African origin is
the Chica, simply called Calenda in the Windward Islands, Congo in Cayenne,
Fandango in Spain, etc." (1, 45).
 Here he indicates that the dance was called Calenda in the Windward
Islands, but in the earlier work he claims it was called Chica in the Windward
Islands. Again it must be assumed that he knew first hand what he described
in the article and later in the book. Yet, one would have to treat his later
statement on the calenda as more mature knowledge.
 Another source of information which one can use to show links between
African, European, and Caribbean dances is Spanish Golden Age literature. It is
a source which would have been accessible to Labat and other European writers.
In his detailed study of the Negro in Spanish literature, Manrique Cabrera came
to the following conclusion about African dances in Spanish literature:

 Examinando various autores hemos Ilegado a comprobar que hubo
 efectivemante various bailes introducidos en Espafna por los negros. Algunos
 de estos son el zarambeque, el guineo, el ye-ye, el cumb6, etc. No hemos
 podido determinar, sin embargo, si algunos de estos bailes son uno mismo.
 Alguno, como el zarambeque, lleg6 a tener una gran popularidad a juzgar
 por las veces que aparece citado en las obras examinadas. Que trascendieron
 estos bailes a la poblaci6n blanca lo demuestra el hecho de que la escena a
 veces aparecen interpretados por personajes blancos. (1992:146)

 In addition to the zarambeque, the guineo, the ye-ye and the cumbe,
Manrique Cabrera looked at the zarabanda and voiced his suspicions of a
link with Africa thus:

 En el entremes Los negros de Sim6n Aguado encontramos unos negros
 bailando la zarabanda. Sobre este baile hemos hallado alguna informaci6n
 tanto en Cotarelo como en Antonio Cair6n. Ninguno, sin embargo, nos da