Cimarrón Batucada

Cimarrón Batucada began through a fellowship awarded to John Salgado Maldonado by the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation. The project was made possible through New London Little Theatre and was also supported by Purpose Artisans.

Cimarrón, often translated as Maroon, refers to Africans and Indigenous people who escaped colonial enslavement and created independent communities throughout the Americas. The name carries a legacy of freedom, resistance, cultural survival, and collective strength.

Batucada is an Afro-Brazilian tradition of collective drumming connected to samba, carnival, cultural celebrations, public gatherings, and movements for social change. Its power comes from people playing together: different instruments and rhythms become part of one shared sound. Music, movement, and celebration are inseparable. The experience of batucada does not depend on where you are, but on your openness to other kinds of sensibility, to the awareness of the transformative force it has as a potent collective and communal cultural manifestation. In this sense, batucada is an important kind of practice, somehow revolutionary, especially in those days of social tensions, religious and political intolerance.

For us, Cimarrón Batucada is more than a performance group. It is a sanctuary where people can release everyday burdens and freely express their bodies and spirits through rhythm. Whether you are playing or simply feeling the music, Cimarrón is about joy, liberation, connection, and building community, a lot of beats at a time!!

Check this out!! from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation https://spmcf.org/blog/art-in-this-moment-john-salgado-maldonado