Born in 1954, in the Garifuna center of Dangriga, in Southern Belize, Pen Cayetano assembled the original Turtle Shell Band in 1981 with a group of friends, creating the Punta Rock style. He is credited with being the first to combine Garifuna song and percussion styles with electric instrumentation and amplification. His goal in creating the genre was to bring the traditional style of music to a younger generation, which was becoming further and further removed from their Garinagu (another word to describe the Garifuna) roots. More Garifuna people were emigrating to Europe or North America each year, and cultural leaders began to worry that the Garifuna, a people who never back down, would start to fade away.

Cayetano was a painter by day, and a guitarist/singer/percussionist by night. According to him, in the late 1970s, "there was no television in Dangriga and no drugs like cocaine and crack. There was time to talk, time to create, time to make music." When the Turtle Shell Band formed in 1981, Pen had the idea to quicken the traditional Punta rhythm, add electric guitar and turtleshells, and coin the term "Punta Rock."

Pen Cayetano bought instruments with money from his paintings, and outfitted the band with an amplifier, an electric guitar, some microphones, and percussion instruments. The lineup was Mohobob (lead Turtle shell), Myme (Garifuna drums), Higgins (small shells), Jeep (chaka), Faltas (cricket snare), and Pen Cayetano on guitar and vocals. The band played in restaurants and small clubs for food, drink, and a little money around Dangriga, before the need to expand sank in. They played nightclubs around Belize and started a new subculture of setting up roadblocks and jamming in the streets.

In 1982, after playing in the middle Belize City's Central Park in the rain to an extremely excited and surprised crowd, the Turtle Shell Band was invited to Radio Belize to record in Belize's only studio at the time. Their recording brought Punta Rock to a much wider audience, and the music spread to the Caribbean, Mexico, and the USA, playing the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1983. This recording was done live, and has since been remastered in Germany, and is available as "The Original Turtle Shell Band: The Beginning."

The band reunites once or twice a year in Dangriga, but for the most part remains inactive. Pen Cayetano continues to record music from his home/studio in Germany, where he moved in 1990, but he continues to carry the Garifuna tradition with him wherever he goes.

See a YouTube clip featuring Pen Cayetano!

Contributed by: Jake Gold