Many African slaves imported to Cuba and Puerto Rico spoke "Bozal" Spanish, a Creole language that was Spanish-based, with Congolese and Portuguese influence. Although Bozal Spanish became extinct in the nineteenth century, the African influence in the Spanish spoken in the island is still evident in the many Kongo words that have become a permanent part of Puerto Rican Spanish.
Puerto Rican musical instruments such as barriles, drums with stretched animal skin, and Puerto Rican music-dance forms such as Bomba or Plena are likewise rooted in Africa. Bomba represents the strong African influence in Puerto Rico. Bomba is a music, rhythm and dance that was brought by West African slaves to the island.
Plena is another form of folkloric music of African origin. Plena was brought to Ponce by Africans who immigrated north from the English-speaking islands south of Puerto Rico. Plena is a rhythm that is clearly African and very similar to Calypso, Soca and Dance hall music from Trinidad and Jamaica.
Bomba and Plena were played during the festival of Santiago (St. James), since slaves were not allowed to worship their own gods. Bomba and Plena evolved into countless styles based on the kind of dance intended to be used. These included leró, yubá, cunyá, babú and belén. The slaves celebrated baptisms, weddings, and births with the "bailes de bomba".
Slaveowners, for fear of a rebellion, allowed the dances on Sundays. The women dancers would mimic and poke fun at the slave owners. Masks were and still are worn to ward off evil spirits and pirates. One of the most popular masked characters is the Vejigante (vey-hee-GANT-eh). The Vejigante is a mischievous character and the main character in the Carnivals of Puerto Rico.
Until 1953, Bomba and Plena were virtually unknown outside Puerto Rico. Island musicians Rafael Cortijo (1928–1982), Ismael Rivera (1931–1987) and the El Conjunto Monterrey orchestra introduced Bomba and Plena to the rest of the world. What Rafael Cortijo did with his orchestra was to modernize the Puerto Rican folkloric rhythms with the use of piano, bass, saxophones, trumpets, and other percussion instruments such as timbales, bongos, and replace the typical barriles (skin covered barrels) with congas.[60]
as performed at the Nuyorican Cafe in Puerto Rico
interpreted by Rene Ramos
Rafael Cepeda (1910–1996), also known as "The Patriarch of Bomba and Plena", was the patriarch of the Cepeda family. The family is one of the most famous exponents of Puerto Rican folk music, with generations of musicians working to preserve the African heritage in Puerto Rican music. The family is well known for their performances of the bomba and plena folkloric music and are considered by many to be the keepers of those traditional genres.
Sylvia del Villard (1928–1990) was a member of the Afro-Boricua Ballet. She participated in the following Afro–Puerto Rican productions, Palesiana y Aquelarre and Palesianisima. In 1968, she founded the Afro-Boricua El Coqui Theater, which was recognized by the Panamerican Association of the New World Festival as the most important authority of African Puerto Rican culture. The Theater group were given a contract which permitted them to present their act in other countries and in various universities in the United States. In 1981, del Villard became the first and only director of the Office of Afro–Puerto Rican Affairs of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. She was known as an outspoken activist who fought for the equal rights of the African Puerto Rican artist.
