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Aurelio Martínez Suazo and Garifuna

Learn about an extraordinary singer-songwriter-musician and politician who was considered a cultural ambassador of the Garifuna people. ✨


Aurelio Martínez Suazo tragically died in a plane crash in March 2025. He was the first Afro-Honduran member of the National Congress of Honduras, and his music reached into the soul of many a person. The song this week is called Landini and it's incredible.


Landini means ‘landing’ in Garifuna. The song is off an album with the same name that was released in 2014. Aurelio says “I consider this album to be the sound of my Garifuna people. On the previous album [Laru Beya] we experimented and collaborated with other artists to reconnect what was lost between Africa and America. This album is purely Garifuna, and the entire spirit of the music reflects the Garifuna experience.”


Aurelio grew up in Plaplaya, a small Caribbean town located in northeastern Honduras described as a remote and almost inaccessible Garifuna village. Music is in his family genes with his father being a known guitarist and singer and his mother a composer and vocalist. Aurelio’s mother played a huge role in his musical journey. She dreamed of being a professional singer and would create songs with Aurelio when he was a child. Aurelio began playing drums and singing at the age of 5, and preforming with musical groups or combos since he was 8. His first toy was a guitar he built for himself from wood taken from a fishing rod.


When he was 14, Aurelio moved for education and music. He joined different orchestras and founded new groups, eventually becoming part of the orchestra Los Gatos Bravos of Don Alfonso Flores "Fonchin". After a few years with this well-known group touring places like Brazil, Mexico, and Canada, Aurelio retired. This led to him make a new orchestra called Aurelio y los Bravos Del Caribe. Their first concert was in 1997 and celebrated the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the first Garifuna to Honduran soil. The next year, Inocencia was released as their first album and is considered one of the most important references of Garifuna music.


Aurelio continued to make music until a career change into politics in 2005. He was elected to Honduras’ National Congress and served from 2006 to 2010. One of his main objectives while in office was to protect and highlight the Garifuna community. A summary of that experience may be found in this quote: “The lessons were that my perception and the people continue to be deceived with false proposals and that politics is played with the hunger and naivety of the people.” At the end of his term, and when the Belizean Garifuna musician, Andy Palacia, passed, Aurelio returned to music. Garifuna is his first language and integrated into his music. His albums, achievements, and firsts are all part of the lasting contribution to his culture and our world.

Aurelio was the first Honduran to preform at a tiny desk concert, check it out here:


The Garifuna are descendants of Indigenous Arawak, Kalinago, and Afro-Caribbean people. The Garifuna language is described as an offshoot of the Arawak language, but with French, English, Dutch, African, and Spanish influences. It is spoken in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Garifuna people also speak Vincentian Creole in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Garifuna is closely related to the Kalinago language, which was spoken by the Island Carib people in the Lesser Antilles, including Guadeloupe and Dominica.


“In 1635, two Spanish ships were wrecked near what is now St. Vincent in the West Indies. The ships held West Africans who were going to be sold as slaves. The West Africans escaped from the Spaniards, and hid themselves among the Indigenous Amerindian group, the Carib people on the island. The Africans adapted to the new environment in hopes of avoiding slavery and remaining under the protection of the Carib community. Likewise, the Caribs protected their new African neighbours because they resisted European encroachment on their lands. Eventually the Caribs and West Africans began intermarrying, and ultimately, created the Garifuna people.”


It seems they resisted and rebelled for another 150 years. A major British military expedition in 1797 suppressed this and sent about 5,000 Garifuna men, women, and children to a barren island with little food and water. Nearly half died before the British came back the following year and transported them to the island of Roatan in Honduras. The Caribs who were not expelled remained behind as a separate Amerindian people who did not survive; the Garifunas are regarded as the last remaining descendants of this group.


There was big news at the start of March, as Baliceaux, the small island where the 1000s of Garifuna people were marooned, was purchased by the Government of St Vincent and Grenadines due to the historic importance. It is considered a Garifuna homeland for the hundreds of thousands of Garifuna today living in the Central American countries of Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.


** Information above was found by searching the internet and sources like Wikipedia.


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Artist Quote:

"I know I must continue the culture of my grandparents, of my ancestors, and find new ways to express it. Few people know about it, but I adore it. And it's something I must share with the world."


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