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The Festival de Bomba y Plena de San Antón (English: San Anton's Bomba and Plena Festival), is an annual celebration held in Ponce, Puerto Rico, as an extravaganza celebration of Bomba and Plena music genres and the traditions of Ponce's barrio San Antón. The celebration lasts 10 days and it ends on a Sunday.
Bomba Dance in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. 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.
The plena genre originated in Barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico, [3] [4] around 1900. [5] It was influenced by the bomba style of music. [citation needed] Originally, sung texts were not associated with the plena, which was rendered by guitar, accordion and pandero, but eventually, in 1907, [citation needed] singing was added.
In 1977, Modesto Cepeda, son of Rafael, founded the Rafael Cepeda Atiles School of Bomba and Plena which is located at Calle Union #71, sector Playita de Villa Palmeras in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. [6] The school teaches the youth of Puerto Rico the fundamentals of the traditional dances. Cepeda's wife Caridad died on February 25, 1994.
As a child, Cortijo became interested in Caribbean music and enjoyed the works of some of the era's most successful Bomba y Plena music musicians. Throughout his life, he had a chance to meet and work with some of them, and learned how to make his own congas and pleneras, the handheld drums used in bomba and plena music.
San Antón is one of Ponce's oldest barrios. It is believed that this is where Spanish colonists first settled. It sits on the western bank of Rio Portugues.The name San Antón comes from the small chapel that Don Antonio Abad Rodríguez Berrios ordered to be built towards the end of the 16th century to honor San Antonio Abad. [4]
There has also been a strong commitment towards Bomba Fusion. Groups such as Los Pleneros de la 21, and Viento De Agua have contributed greatly towards fusing Bomba and Plena with Jazz and other Genres. Yerbabuena has brought a popular cross-over appeal. Abrante y La Tribu have made fusions with Hip Hop.
It has been called "a world-class" event that brings together "the best exponents of salsa, bomba, plena and merengue music". [10] It is attended by some 30,000 people. [ 11 ] The festival's purpose is to positively impact the region by creating a cultural space to help preserve traditions. [ 12 ]