CON EL ECO DE LOS BARRILES: RACE, GENDER AND THEBOMBAIMAGINARY IN PUERTO RICO¹

AfroBoriqua Mothering: Teaching/Learning Blackness in a Bay Area AfroPuerto Rican Community of Practice

“…Community bomba events (bombazos) point to the black activist ethic that underlies the practices of bomba. The first known documentation of a bombazo was in 1797 (Alamo-Pastrana, 2009). Bombazos offered Puerto Rico's enslaved peoples' opportunities to build community through song and dance while also using it as a tool to develop and organize rebellions against slavery (Alamo-Pastrana, 2009;Díaz Soler 2000Baralt 1981).…”

“…The first known documentation of a bombazo was in 1797 (Alamo-Pastrana, 2009). Bombazos offered Puerto Rico's enslaved peoples' opportunities to build community through song and dance while also using it as a tool to develop and organize rebellions against slavery (Alamo-Pastrana, 2009;Díaz Soler 2000Baralt 1981). While the exact frequency of bomba-masked rebellions is unknown, their impact on the fabric of the colony was reflected in the laws of the time -in 1819 the Reglamento de esclavos was enacted in order to maintain order and discipline.…”

“…With its intergenerational membership, these lessons are a wellspring of first-hand accounts of AfroPuerto Rican history and culture. Puerto Rican bomba is a musical tradition that emerged on the island after the arrival of trafficked African peoples through the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sixteenth century (Alamo-Pastrana, 2009). Most generally, bomba is "the spirited interaction between the dancer(s) and the lead bomba drummer" supported through call-and response singing and a percussion ensemble starring barrel drums (Manuel 1994, p. 258).…”