by Charles Gladden
ROATÁN, Honduras, Wed. Mar. 19, 2025
Beloved Garifuna musician, Aurelio Martinez lost his life in a plane crash that killed 13 people on Monday night, March 17, in Honduras.
Martinez, 55, was onboard a Lanhsa Airlines flight en route to La Ceiba, Honduras, when it crashed shortly after taking off from the Honduran island of Roatán. Martinez was one of 17 passengers on that flight. There were 4 survivors.
“This one hit home,” said Denmark Flores, the lead drummer of the Garifuna Collective Band. “The entire world, not just the country of Belize, the Garifuna nation world, we have been saddened by the loss of Aurelio Martinez. You don’t have to be blood to be family. We, the members of Garifuna Collective, [and] the Belize community have been around this man for so many years. That’s family,” Flores added.
Flores described Martinez as a perfectionist in his approach to his musical craft.
“Anybody who hit the stage with Aurelio or is in his circle knows he’s like a perfectionist. They always say if you can’t handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen; if you can’t be led by a perfectionist, you have to stay away, because everything is to the tee and all about work. Even at the festivals, when they get postponed because of strikes, we are still rehearsing every day, because that’s how he wants his music,” he said.
While Martinez was a native Honduran and not a Belizean, he considered Belize home like other musicians before him.
“We had great musicians that we lost – Andy, Aurelio, [Eduardo] Guayo [Cedeño], Justo, Ras Chi, Sambo – these guys worked in the Garifuna Collective. They’re part of the Belize community because of the [number] of times they were here. These guys called Belize home. We accept them as a part of us,” Flores expressed.
Martinez’s 18-year-old son, Newani Aurelio Martinez, told a Belizean news outlet that he learned the news of his father’s passing while on the basketball court, but was dismissive of it until he got a call from the US Embassy.
“I got a call from the US Embassy, and that’s when they broke the news to me that it was confirmed that my dad had passed away. I was still in shock because a plane crash, of all ways to go, that was the last [thing] I was thinking about, you know. So, I was all in shock until I came home and embraced my mom. Later in the night, I would say about 11:00 or 12:00, I was in my room, and I just felt a sadness come over my body and I just broke down; and I went to my mom, and she held me in her arms and embraced me until I let it all out,” Martinez said.
He mentioned that he and his father had been planning a trip earlier this month to Honduras so that Newani could spend time with him.
Martinez took a break from music between 2006 and 2010, and during that period he became Honduras’ first black congressman. In 2015, he performed some of his most popular songs on the National Public Radio’s (NPR) Music Tiny Desk Concert in the US.
(AMANDALA Ed. Note: “Oh, Africa!” The only words I know from this Garifuna song by Aurelio are like a welder’s hot rod burning and binding the metals of our black souls with one another and with Mother Africa. Honduran born Aurelio Martinez became a Belizean in our hearts when he helped us all grieve on the passing of his Garifuna brother, our own Andy Palacio some sixteen years ago. Belize mourns with Honduras and the Garifuna Nation now. Our condolences from all of Kremandala to his relatives and many friends and fans everywhere. Rest in peace, Brother Aurelio Martinez! The songs are forever!)