Come on, Ligino.
Solo si lo he deseado.
Come on, Ligino.
Brón Bra.
My name is Tito Rodriguez.
I'm the director of AfriKarive and the founder.
AfriKarive is an anthropographic organization that pretty much does that in the community.
Highlighting traditions and the voices of the people as part of cultural survival for me.
I believe Bomba to be a form of communication where a dancer is communicating a storyline
and the drummer is there pretty much to interpret that into sounds.
One, two.
I think Bomba is another way for self-discovery and then another way for self-development for the people who feel it
because sometimes it's about you hearing the music and you know that music belongs to you
and somehow it calls you in, it draws you in and then you start feeling these things.
Before you know it, you are moving with the music or you're learning the steps.
My father was actually my first teacher.
Someone comes in who's never seen Bomba before and they see him and they see how passionate they get
and they're like, I want to be that passionate about something.
And you know, then they go and they start taking classes and he kind of passes on that passion.
Music
Tito is the scholar.
You know, he knows a lot.
He falls into one of the two masters which is Elisabeth Rodriguez and Tito and all the guys, all of us.
We all go to them if we have questions, if we have anything.
You know, they are very well respected in the city.
He just makes the individual realize that Bomba is an individual experience.
That's attractive to people because it's not about conformity
and it's not about everyone fitting into this perfect mold.
And so that in itself is a very liberating experience.
Every time you try to preserve your traditions, there's a constant struggle
between creating identity through those traditions
and giving up to mainstream commercial music.
Music
I think one of the main problems that we have in the community is creating a marketing tool.
We have a lot of competition with reggaeton and all that kind of music that is going around with young people.
They feel like they're not part of that generation because they think this is some music for a specific generation.
Like, oh, that's all people's music.
The word itself of you saying it's something traditional and it's something cultural.
I don't know why, but it seems to be a turn off for the current generation.
But the minute that you take an essence of Bomba and you put it into like a hip hop scene or something,
they usually get into it.
Music
Bomba is very important to keep alive because it keeps us alive as Puerto Ricans.
It keeps our history alive and how we got here
and what happened with our struggles and our ancestors and how far we've gotten to be who we are today.
Music
Bombaso is the word that we use to define a gathering of people by using Bomba as the music and the dance and the singing.
By seeing the kind of people that come over here, which is not only practitioners but also aficionados students,
people from the community, people that are probably just passing by and then they at the end say,
oh my god, this is so great. How long have you people been here listening to that and looking for information?
You know, people think that we're doing this for fun.
We actually have an agenda we want to bring our people together.
Once again, welcome and we're starting with the bombas.
You know the rules of the house. When it comes to dancing, there's no rules.
You change and we play.
Music
Music
We're seeing a lot more younger people coming into it and really wanting to play a dominant role in the Bomba community,
which is always something that's really great because it just means that the tradition is not going to die.
They little by little get engaged in it and then they realize, oh my goodness, this is so much part of me.
But there has to be some kind of experiences going on and that's why we offer the dance classes.
Right now my generation is in charge of handling business, of keeping it alive, of giving the classes and stuff.
Our kids are the next generation in charge of the after-weave, you know, retired and stuff like that.
Don't stop dancing, but retire, you know, one way that you can change that.
Think, think, think.
What's going to help you?
Your hands, right?
So, when you're doing Paseo Básico, you know, keep answering.
Some of the kids come over here forced by their parents or grandparents and in the beginning they say,
ah, I don't want to do this.
And then they start playing the drum.
And by the second class, they're dancing and engaging.
And before you know it, they want to come back again and again.
We have a big, strong community of young bomberas and bomberas and we have a whole bunch of little kids.
It's four, five, six that is learning the trade.
I don't think this is, I mean, the groups will disappear, but the people who will carry the seat forward will still be around.
