Smithsonian - Perishable Pundit

to build a coherent, positive sense of communityamong people ot specific cultural backgroundsand among the Latino population as a whole.Why ismusic important to the well-beingof Latino culture? How do Latinos use musicto build community? We can find part ot theanswer in the success story of how centuriesoldPuerto Rican musical traditions were putto use to strengthen contemporary PuertoRican identity and community cohesion.When Puerto Rican jíbaro people from therural island hinterlands flocked to the materialmecca of New York City in the middledecades of the 20th century seeking a brightereconomic future, they abandoned more thantheir bohíos (traditional country houses). Theyleft their music to languish at the margins otmodernity. Their sung poetry and home-grownstringed instruments were at the core ot theirSpanish heritage, introduced to the island beginningm the first decades of the [6th century.These centuries-old traditions were thoughtto be music of yesterday, not of tomorrow.Countercurrents to this trend, however,gathered momentum to form a riptide thatwould pull Puerto Ricans back to their musicalroots. The empty materialism and social alienationof city life left a cultural vacuum mwhich music that connected people to thefamiliar sounds of their past was welcome. Intothis vacuum strode "innovative traditionalists"such as Estanislao Martínez, known as "Ladi,"who helped set the standard tor the modernconjunto jíbaro "jíbaro ensemble," creating thesound ot two cuatros playing in harmony,six-stringed guitar, güiro (a gourd rasp), andbongos. Ladi's upscale jíbaro sound playedwell to Puerto Ricans both in the UnitedStates and at home on the island, and otherjíbaro groups such as Ecos de Borinquen, ledby Miguel Santiago Diaz, have continued thejíbaro legacy of creating music that speaks tograssroots tradition and community solidarity.When fellow Puerto Rican musician JuanGutiérrez relocated from the island to New YorkCity to work as a percussionist in Broadwaytheater orchestras, he found the antidote forhis feelings ot urban alienation 111 the music otAfro-Puerto Rican musicians in the New Yorkbarrio. He brought together some ot the best"street corner" percussionists and founded thegroup Los Pleneros de la 21, creating a soundthat interwove traditional African-derived bombaand plena music with contemporary soundsthat appealed to New Yoricans. Los Pleneros dela 21 became one of the most influential andcelebrated touchstones of Puerto Rican identityand sparked an explosion ot similar bomba and491Juan "Juango" Gutiérrez listens attentivelyto his fellow musicians as he lays downthe beat on his barriles drum for LosPleneros de la 2 1 's Smithsonian Folkwaysrecording, Para Todos Ustedes.NUESTRA MÚSICA MUSIC IN LATINO CULTURE