Cachi Cachi music

Cachi Cachi music, also spelled Kachi Kachi, Kachi-Kachi and Katchi-Katchi, is a term that was coined to refer to music played by Puerto Ricans in Hawaii, after they migrated to Hawaii in 1901. It is

Etymology#

Cachi cachi music is what the people in Hawaii, who heard the Puerto Ricans playing their own music, called it. It needed a name and the people of Hawaii, specifically the Japanese plantation workers called it cachi cachi according to oral tradition- video recordings by Onetake2012 and research done by Ted Solis, an ethnomusicologist. The Puerto Ricans, who only spoke Spanish and no English, worked alongside immigrants from the Philippines, China, but in one location their “camp” was next to the Japanese camp. and when the Japanese heard their music, they said it sounded “scratchy”. The relationships between the Japanese and Puerto Ricans working on the plantations, didn’t used to be good. They lived near one another and the Puerto Ricans felt disrespected when the Japanese walked around naked or almost naked for their baths. Sometimes fights would break out.

Current status#

In 1989, the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a nonprofit established for recording music by small communities from around the world, made available an album called Puerto Rican music in Hawai’i containing 16 tracks. The Library of Congress included the recording in its 1990 list of “outstanding recordings” of US folk music for meeting specific criteria including that the music emphasizes “root traditions over popular adaptations of traditional materials.” Sonny Morales, a resident of the Big Island of Hawaii, was “famous for making cuatros”. The young Auliʻi Cravalho, the voice of the Disney character, Moana, in the 2016 movie by the same name, talks about growing up with cachi cachi music. She was raised on the Big Island of Hawaii. Willie K., an award-winning, Hawaiian musician from the island of Maui, sings about it with lyrics “Cachi cachi music Makawao …play the conga drum down in Lahaina”.

Artists#

Some of the artists who played or play a variety of Puerto Rican (cach cachi) music in Hawaii: * Eddie Rivera * Ernest Rivera * Eva Lopez The following musicians are featured in the Puerto Rican Music of Hawaii CD by the Smithsonian Folkways. * Leroy Joseph Pinero * Los Caminantes * Los Guepos * Mi Gente * Quique Rosario * The Latin Five * The Latin Gentlemen * Tommy Valentine

External links#

Rodney Pimental on YouTube is the third generation (in Hawaii) playing cachi cachi music
Charles Figueroa on YouTube
One Take Kachi Kachi Documentary trailer

Genre family: American folk music, Latin American styles of music, Puerto Rican styles of music
Region: Hawaii