Harold Muñiz (1952 – 2026)

Sacramento Valley Sacramento County African/African-American Latino/a/x Music Afro-Puerto Rican

Harold Muñiz hailed from San Francisco, and was a student of Afro-Cuban music for over 50 years. He performed and recorded with such noted Cuban Folklore masters as Lazaro Ros, Francisco Aguabella, John Santos, Regino Jimenez, Amelia Pedroso, Teresita Dome Perez, Jesus Alfonso, Ana Perez, Sandy Perez, and other members of the world renowned exponents of Afro-Cuban culture, Los Munequitos & Afro-Cuban de Matanzas.

He gave private and group Afro-Cuban percussion lessons for over 40 years in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas. For approximately 18 years, he was on the faculty of CSU Sacramento as an Accompanist/Consultant for the African Caribbean dance class. Harold is the winner of the SAMMIES Critics Choice Award – Drummer/Percussionist and a recipient of the Artist in Residence and the Mentorship grant from the California Arts Council. He was an Omo Aña, or sworn to the drum, within the Santería religion.

He was a mentor twice over in our Apprenticeship Program, teaching students their “chair” or specific drum played in an ensemble, and the fabrication of batá drums using traditional techniques and tools.

ACTA Board Member Josephine S. Talamantez said of Harold:

“Harold was a very compassionate, sweet, humble man that always gave to the community. He was a master musician and was known for his talents throughout the nation. When Los Muñquitos de Matanza came from Cuba (back in the nineties or late eighties) to tour, their conga player either could not make it or was not allowed into the country. So they asked for Harold to join them on their US tour.

He was always so generous with his talent sharing and teaching those around him who wanted to learn or wanted to perfect their skills. He will be missed from his community and from all the musicians, dancers and artists that worked with him. He received awards from the CAC and ACTA validating his traditional art form and his personal skills. I will personally miss him as I considered him a friend con mucho cariño.”

Harold’s legacy lives on in the students he mentored, the traditions he stewarded, and the rhythms he lived by. His most recent apprentice, Dominic Garcia, had been studying under Harold for countless years before his passing. He is survived by his wife, Beatrice Muñiz, who was one of his apprentices in 2011.

Beatrice Muñiz, Harold Muñiz, and Dominic Garcia play on bata.

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Apprenticeship Program

2025

Fabricating Batá drums with apprentice Dominic Garcia

Dominic Garcia will learn the traditional fabrication of Batá drums through a step-by-step apprenticeship under the mentorship of Harold Muñiz. This apprenticeship focuses on carving and assembling a full set of double-headed, hourglass-shaped Batá drums using traditional African tools—many made or collected by the mentor through decades of practice dating back to the early 1980s. The apprentice will be trained in selecting and acquiring the proper materials, including suitable wooden logs, skins, rattan, and rope, and in the specialized process of preparing and mounting the skins on both ends of each drum through traditional stringing methods. Grounded in the Yoruba–Lucumí lineage carried from Nigeria to Cuba, this apprenticeship ensures the transmission of highly specific drum-making techniques and cultural knowledge essential to sustaining Batá’s ceremonial and musical legacy.

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2011

Harold was a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2011, with apprentices Beatriz Muñiz, John Webster, Ken Ritchards and Dominic Garza.  The apprenticeship focused on enhancing the apprentice’s mastery of their “chair,” or the specific drum they play within the ensemble.

A batá ensemble consists of three double-headed, hourglass-shaped drums graduated in size.  The lead drum, largest in size and deepest in sound, is called the Iya, which means mother. The Iya is responsible for calling rhythms, changing rhythms, and initiating “conversations” with the Itotele, or father, the next drum in size. The smallest of the three drums is the Okonkolo, or strong child. Batá drums originated in Yourbaland (Nigera), making their way to Cuba during the Atlantic slave trade. Cuba is the only documented place outside of Africa where batá drums emerged; it was not until the 1950s that they arrived in the United States.