I have been following this 2010 World Cup like millions of other futbol fans from around the globe and I was so proud that my dad’s country of Honduras made it this year! It got me thinking about the cultural treasures unique to Honduras. My father was born on the Caribbean coast in La Ceiba, Honduras. Growing up he spoke Garífuna as well as Spanish with the other children, but later he forgot the Garífuna. In 2001, the language, dance and music of the Garífuna people were proclaimed by the United Nation’s UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The Garífuna people are of mixed African and Native American (Arawak and Carib) ancestry and native to the Caribbean Coast in Central America – specifically Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. They have a very distinct and unique cultural heritage, language, and music and have been…