Dancing the Drum

Like many of its Afro-Caribbean counterparts, bomba is a result of the African slave trade, colonialism and the plantation experience. Despite centuries of official denial of its place in Puerto Rico's cultural patrimony, bomba and plena emerged as powerful statement of resistance and a testament to the resilience of its practitioners. Plena developed as an expression of Puerto Rico's working class in turn of the century Ponce, where displaced laborers arrived from the countryside and across the Caribbean in search of work. Early on it came to be called "the sung newspaper" for its function in the community. The Cepedas are one of a handful of families that have kept the tradition of bomba alive through despite decades of neglect and marginalization. Nine members of the Cepeda family -- five of their children, three grandchildren and a great granddaughter -- along with their colleagues and friends, got together in Puerto Rico to create this project. This CD is an inspiration, born of their cultural inheritance and dedicated to the memory of Don Rafael Cepeda y Doña Caridad Brenes Cepeda. May they rest in peace, knowing that their legacy is in safekeeping. The culture prevails in the hearts and spirits of their children and grandchildren.