From Here to There, and From There to Here: The “Pitches” of Migration in Puerto Rican Bomba

Abstract

This article studies how blackness is reformulated in Puerto Rico through the new movement of Puerto Rican Bomba. Focuses on the effects of the constant movement of Puerto Ricans between the archipelago and the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. Bomba is a music genre first developed in Puerto Rico with the arrival of the Africans who were brought during the slave trade in the sixteenth century. Today, the proliferation of Bomba groups and schools has mushroomed. This text seeks to contribute to the understanding of racial dynamics, question and explore the constructions of race in Puerto Rican music. The music contrasts the racial imaginary Afro Puerto vis-à-vis the national discourse on Blackness. The analysis approaches issues of nation, identity, race, music and gender from theories of racialization and the diaspora.