Bomba (Puerto Rico)

Bomba is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of musical styles and associated dances originating in Puerto Rico. It was developed by enslaved Africans and their descendants in sugar plantations along coastal towns, most notably Loiza, Mayagüez, Ponce, and San Juan, during the 17th century. It is the island's oldest musical tradition.
Bomba reflects a syncretism of Puerto Rico’s many cultural groups. It incorporates Taíno instruments such as the maraca; characteristics from traditional European dances like rigadoons, quadrilles and mazurkas; and drum ensembles and drummer/dancer interactions that bear close resemblance to a number of West African musical styles. The music also evolved through contact between enslaved populations from different Caribbean colonies and regions, including the Dutch colonies, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti, and it has notable roots in Congolose and Afro-French cultural expressions.
After slavery was abolished, Bomba was commercialized in the mid-20th century and incorporated into the island’s folklore. In the 90’s, the Bomba & Plena group Hermanos Emmanueli Náter brought the genre to the streets for public consumption in the form of “Bombazos” that were designed for communal participation.
Bomba was developed in Puerto Rico during the early European colonial period. The first documentation of bomba dates back to 1797: botanist André Pierre Ledru described his impressions of local inhabitants dancing and singing popular bombas in Voyage aux îles de Ténériffe, la Trinité, Saint-Thomas, Sainte-Croix et Porto Ricco.
These dances were developed by West African slaves and their descendants in sugar plantations. Cane workers used them to release feelings of sadness, anger, and resistance; they were also used to communicate and plan rebellions and integrated into baptism and marriage celebrations. The roots of the bomba tradition can be traced back to the Ashanti people of Ghana. The etymology of the word “bomba” comes from the Akan and Bantu languages in Africa.
These slaves came from different regions of Africa so they could not easily communicate with each other, but they found common ground in music. With the migration of these slaves to different regions of the island bomba was practiced in different regions of the island, each giving their personal twist to bomba music, for example in the region of Ponce they play with larger drums than other regions that are played by placing the drum completely horizontal.
Bomba was also significantly shaped by the dissemination of Haitian culture. French, Corsican, and Spanish landowners brought slaves to Puerto Rico while fleeing the Haitian Revolution in 1791. Specifically, this influence contributed to the yubá rhythm of Bomba in Mayagüez.
Up until the 1940s and 1950s, bomba was heavily racialized and associated as premodern and Black. bomba had been a marginalized music genre until musical artists like Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera popularized bomba by taking it to various parts of the Americas and the world. On an international level bomba was fused with various national and regional musical genres creating a hybridization of bomba. On the Island of Puerto Rico however, bomba did not unfold in the same manner, it remained true to its folk tradition and geographically confined to parts of the island where there was a majority of Black Puerto Ricans in towns such as Loíza, Ponce, Mayagüez, and Guayama.
Bomba is described as a secular, recreational style of music, characterized by a challenge/connection between the drummer and the dancer, a call and response. The dancer produces a series of gestures to which the primo o subidor drummer provides a rhythmic pattern, while the buleador (second) maintains the rhythm. Therefore, it is the drummer who attempts to follow the dancer, and not the more traditional form of the dancer following the drummer. When there is nobody dancing, the primo improvises.
Bomba also is composed by three or more singers and a solo singer. The singing has a dynamic similar to the "Son" where the lead singer sings a chorus and the other responds. In between choruses the lead singer will improvise a verse. Most bomba songs are sung in Spanish and deal with topics of immediate community and everyday life. In the case of a certain song called "Palo e Bandera", the lyrics discuss a love triangle between a female dancer, a female singer and the singer's husband, the primo player. The wife realizes her husband is cheating on her with the dancer and decides to teach her a lesson on the dance floor. Older bombas include words and expressions from former colonial African languages and older Caribbean dialects.
In the northern part of the island, the melody can be interpreted by both men and women. In the south, only women sing. To reinforce regional distinctions, bomba is divided into two main rhythms: sones (south) and seises (north). Sub variations are characterized by hand position on the drum and what part of the drum is played.
Bomba dancers and musicians typically appropriate small spaces in popular areas to “make culture” (“hacer cultura”). This phrase is repeated by musicians when they’re asked about their motivation to play bomba.
In the Batey (sugar workers' town) or a Sobera'o (circle or dance area), the Subidor will score sounds for the steps that the dancer makes, and the Buleador or Follower, follows the rhythm that is constantly played until the “Cantador/a” (singer) says so. The dancer enters the Batey to stroll around, showing off, marking their territory. The dancer greets the Primo Barrel and starts doing “Piquetes” (improvised bomba steps).
The dancer challenges the Primo Barrel Player (“Tocador/a”), engaging in a rhythmic dialogue and making it difficult to follow them. When the dancer finishes providing the “Piquetes”, they bow again to the Primo Barrel and the next dancer repeats the process. The “Piquetes” must have "elegance, firmness and shape." Depending on the rhythm, the dancer then has to raise the intensity of the music by increasingly complicating their steps to gradually escalate the challenge directed to the lead drummer. Experienced dancers finish the challenge at the highest peak of intensity they can achieve before getting tired or losing rhythm.
During the dance, sometimes the audience shouts "Speak!" This is because the dancer is having a musical conversation with the bomba drum (Primo) through their “Piquetes” (bomba steps). In this conversation, any dance must be markable by the Primo, and anything the Primo plays must be danceable.
Traditionally, “Bailadores” (male dancers) perform their “Piquetes” with their body and the “Bailadoras” (female dancers) perform with the body and / or skirt with the petticoat. The bomba traditional dress for men is white hat, white shirt and black or white pants. The women wear turbans, white shirt and skirts with petticoats. Petticoats are handmade to show them off in a flirtatious way for men and to create envy among other female dancers. The way skirts are used and held in bomba dancing is unique.
The main instruments of bomba are barriles de bombas (drums), maracas (shaken, single body gourds with handles), and cuás (solid idiophones made of bamboo). Maracas contain internal strikers rather than seeds or small stones. The güiro was, at one time, used in Loiza in place of maracas, but that is no longer common.
The traditional barriles de bombas are built from rum barrels and goatskin. Bomba ensembles must have at least two barriles of slightly different diameters. The smaller, higher, drum will typically be a solo drum, playing the subidor/primo part. The larger, lower, drum(s) will typically support the basic rhythm by playing the accompanying buleador/segundo part.
The drum called "Primo" replicates every single move of the dancer. This is called "Repique."
There are 10 rhythmic styles of bomba, some with their own sub-styles.
Today there are many groups playing bomba both as a traditional style and as a fusion with some other style. The most well-known traditional players are the Cepeda Family who have been playing bomba for generations and the Ayala family, who are a family with a tradition of arts and crafts as well as bomba music. Rafael Cepeda, the Cepeda family’s patriarch, is known for creating an ensemble in the 1940’s to perform Bomba on the radio. He later developed a stage version of bomba and presented it in San Juan’s major hotels.
Los Pleneros de la 21 are bomba / plena musicians who travelled to Hawaii to perform for the Puerto Rican diaspora in Hawaii. Founded in South Bronx, this group of musicians and dancers have produced five albums, and they are also known to provide workshops for all ages in the community of El Barrio in Manhattan.
Willie Colón adds occasional bomba breaks to his songs, most particularly in sections of his biggest solo hit, "El gran varón". Ricky Martin also mixes a bit of authentic bomba rhythm with other Latino influences in his aptly named song La Bomba. In California, it has been popularized by Maestros de Bomba en la Bahía at La Peña Cultural Center.
In 1998, Son del Batey was founded in San Juan, Puerto Rico, by a group of college students at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. 1998 marked the 100-year anniversary of the United States invasion of Puerto Rico, and a time when popular discourse focused around national identity and colonialism throughout the island.
In Puerto Rico, knowledge about bomba is present in the oral cultures of protected family spaces, mainly the Cepedas (Santurce) and the Ayalas (Loiza). These families are largely responsible for bomba’s institutional recognition on a national and international level. Other families include the Alduén (Mayagüez), Negrón and Pizarro (Cataño), Mangual and Nadal (Mayagüez), Archeval (Ponce), and Brothers Emmanuelli Náter (José, Jorge and Victor, students and friends of the Cepeda). They created the center for Cultural Research of Eternal Roots (Centro de Investigación Cultural Raíces Eternas) (CICRE in Spanish) in Puerto Rico during the 90s’ so-called "Bombazos". They were devoted to “get down” the bomba from the high stage, so that the Puerto Ricans and everybody else had more participation and learning in this folklore music. Thanks to this, today there are “Bombazos” in many parts of Puerto Rico and the United States.