bomba

The tradition & historical record

Bomba is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of musical styles and associated dances originating in Puerto Rico. It was developed during the 17th century by enslaved Africans and their descendants on sugar plantations along coastal towns, most notably Loiza, Mayagüez, Ponce, and San Juan. 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 maracas; 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 African musical styles. The music also evolved through contact between enslaved populations from different Caribbean colonies and regions, including the Dutch colonies, Cuba, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), and Saint-Domingue (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 1990s, the bomba and 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.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bomba (Puerto Rico)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

bomba is traditional musical style of Puerto Rico, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 7 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹