I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. At a young age, my parents were my inspiration. My father is an artist and a musician. He loves to sing, play the piano, and paint things that remind him of Puerto Rico. My mother is also a talented musician who likes to sing music that represents our Puerto Rican culture. She also caters traditional food. My parents taught me everything that I know about our culture. They told me to educate and teach others our traditions to keep our culture alive.
Now I teach young people to dance Bomba y Plena, an important form of traditional Puerto Rican music and dance. I also educate them about the history of this dance. The roots of Bomba y Plena came from West Africa in the 1600s, particularly from Angola and Congo. In La Bomba Puertorriquena two women and a man dance to different rhythms of the drums. Some of the dances are called Sika, Lero, Coembe, Kalinda, Hollandes, and Yuba. The African dance and music traditions behind Bomba y Plena were to have fun, to congregate in religious belief, and to communicate with others. My goals are to teach my students to feel culture through the sound of the drums and let them come into my circle to create harmony and freedom, to keep the music alive.
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