Mabel Alice "Cissie" Caudeiron (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Boyd; 20 December 1909 – 1968) was a folklorist from

Roseau Roseau (Dominican Creole French, Dominican Creole: ''Wozo'') is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George Parish, Dominica, Saint George Pa ...

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

. Caudeiron became famous as a Creole nationalist, and is credited with leading or inspiring a

roots revival A roots revival (folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly composed songs with socially and politically aware lyr ...

in Dominican music. She founded the Kairi Artistic Troop, and helped to organize the first National Day celebrations of 1965.

Biography

Born Mabel Boyd into what was considered one of Dominica's elite families, she was known as "Cissie" from childhood. She attended the Convent High School, where she was "involved in plays and concerts and later composed many Creole songs highly influenced by the beguines of Martinique." In 1938, she married French engineer Jean-Albert Caudeiron, and they moved to Venezuela, where she raised her family. In 1957, she returned to Dominica, "with renewed energy and determination to continue her earlier work for the greater recognition of Dominican folk heritage and traditional culture", as

Lennox Honychurch Lennox Honychurch ( ; born 27 December 1952) is a Dominican historian and politician. He wrote 1975's '' The Dominica Story: A History of the Island'', the 1980s textbook series ''The Caribbean People'', and the 1991 travel book ''Dominica: Isle o ...

notes: "She opened a small school of her own and was a teacher at the Wesley High School. Supported by the Chief Minister, Edward Le Blanc, she helped to organise the first National Day celebrations of 1965. She founded the Kairi Artistic Troupe, the first group of its kind to be formed in Dominica, which represented the island abroad at the Commonwealth Arts festival in Britain in the summer of 1965. Locally she researched and wrote articles on the heritage of music, dances and traditional dress." She was the mother of Daniel Caudeiron, teacher, artist, writer, and broadcaster.

References

1909 births 1968 deaths Dominica musicians Dominica women writers Dominica music educators Dominica women music educators Dominican Republic folklorists Women folklorists {{cultural-anthropologist-stub