Hot cadence, vertiginous rhythm, erotic explosion... is the Palo de Mayo, a dance popularly enrooted in the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as a symbol of fecundity.

Historians contend that its essence is found in a dance performed by British women around a tree, decorated with white bonds during the colonial period. But that gentle rhythm barely marked toe pointing, by those chaste ladies and the lack of color, had

nothing to do with the personality of blacks, mestizos and indigenous population of this region. So they shaped it with a happy touch and more flourished outfits in accordance with their hot blood, a mixture of African and indigenous rebelliousness. It is a dance fundamentally performed in collectivity, though is also performed in pairs to offer this erotic point with the interlinking of legs and swinging which raised so much criticism on the part of the Church. There were many female blievers who attended the fiestas dressed in male outfits. This festivity mainly aimed at rendering cult to life, reached its best moment in the 1980’s when the then Sandinistas’ authorities created the Mayo Ya Festival. A large number of bands has been playing the rhythm of Palo de Mayo, equipped with modern technology, but without losing their roots. They are devote exclusively to the interpretation of these pieces, either for a traditional celebration or for a festivity more in accordance with these times and this practice. They has made possible that this music is disseminated beyond Nicaragua’s borders. Anyway, Palo de Mayo, like reggae, salsa or merengue, preserves this contagious Caribbean mark which is sensual and related to an explosive alloy of cultures so different one from the other.