ENCUENTRO DE TAMBORES
Figure 1. Barril drum labeled with the flag of the Delegation of Cangrejos (crab)
Overview
This section offers a general overview of Los Encuentros de Tambores spanning from 2022-2026 and highlights specific moments in greater detail.
Encuentro de Tambores was founded in 2018 by bomba lead singer, folklorist, and cultural organizer Norma Salazar, Encuentro de Tambores has become one of the most significant gatherings of barrileros (bomba drummers) and bomberos in Puerto Rico. The event has grown steadily each year in both participation and visibility, at one point earning recognition through a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of bomba drummers. Unlike many cultural festivals that cater primarily to tourists, the audience at Encuentro de Tambores (EDT) consists largely of bomba practitioners.
EDT is organized into two principal segments. The first features nine 15-minute performances grouped according to regional delegations: Delegación de los Cangrejos, Delegación del Sur, Delegación de Loíza, Delegación del Oeste, Delegación del Este, Delegación del Norte, Delegación de Carolinas More recently, the Delegación of la Diaspora and Delegación de las Montañas was established. The second segment consists of the Gran Batey, a large communal gathering that brings together all participating drummers in a collective performance. During this portion of the event, the distinctions between delegations dissolve. The Gran Batey is open to all who dancers who wish to participate in the batey.
In recent years, Marien Torres, who directs Taller Tambuyé (Río Piedras) has organized it. Originally, the purpose of EDT was intended to showcase regional variations within various bomba scenes and communities. However, as the years have gone on, the regional differences have become less evident. For example, delegations that did not typically perform sica performed a sped-up version of sica in EDT 2026, and some groups introduced new repertoire, songs, and even genre hybridity within the festival. It is always held on the last Sunday of March. The annual festival is also a space where it is common to hear new bomba compositions and witness lyrical innovation from contemporary bomber@s.
The 2026 edition of Encuentro de Tambores (EDT 2026) was held in Barrio Obrero, Santurce, with the Delegación de los Cangrejos, led by Caridad Sánchez-Martínez, serving as the host delegation. The festival was dedicated to the memory and legacy of celebrated Puerto Rican composer and salsero Catalino "Tite" Curet Alonso.
The event is usually funded by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and documented by bomba photographers and videographers such as @enmipatiopr, FJM Video, and others. These influencers and bomba hobbyists upload segmented videos to YouTube and social media, function as commuity documentarians of the tradition.
The festival’s location changes each year, and each new site is accompanied by a tribute to an elder bomba practitioner, symbolized through the gifting of a maraca. Last year, the event was dedicated to the late Afro–Puerto Rican elder Carlos “Tatá” Cirino. In 2026, Encuentro de Tambores was dedicated to salsero Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso
On March 29, 2026, the festival was held in Barrio de los obreros in the neighborhood of Santurce an urban area near San Juan, Puerto Rico. Practitioners begin preparing intensively in February, meeting twice weekly for delegation rehearsals in addition to their regular bomba classes and activities.
Analyzing Cantos de Bomba within Recent EDT Exhibitions
“La Borucana” (performed in EDT 2026) is a humorous song centered on the practice of fishing for crayfish. Its responsorial chorus, “guemba, guemba,” should not be mistaken for the well‑known bomba rhythm term “guembe.” In this context, the expression refers specifically to the act of fishing and was accompanied by a choreographed gesture mimicking the casting of a fishing line, often preceded by a spoken introduction.
“Miserierie” (performed in EDT 2026) is set in a yubá rhythm, and its lyrics are sung in Haitian Creole. Although the song is widely known among bomba practitioners, many are unfamiliar with the Creole text itself. The refrain commonly sung is: “Misereir Congo mi se, donde está mi congo lare, donde está mi congo conguito, donde está mi congo lare.”
"Se me rompió el tambor” is a song built around the symbolic heartbreak of a bombero whose drum has broken. The lyrics follow his search across Puerto Rico for someone capable of repairing it, transforming that search into a tribute to the artisans who build and maintain bomba drums. By naming Wilfredo Morales, Kichi, Jesús Cepeda, Papo del Valle, Emmanuel Martínez, Víctor Vélez, Rafael Trinidad Maurás, and ultimately Alcadio Quiñones—the one who restores the drum—the song memorializes both contemporary and elder builders whose work sustains the tradition. Performed at the 2024 Encuentro de Tambores by the Delegation of the East, the piece expresses the bombero’s sorrow while celebrating the community of makers whose skill and care allow the drum, and the culture it carries, to resonate again. You can read more about these artsanos here: https://nuestrostambores.com/artesanos-y-musicos/
“Mira, mira, mira tú ves,” An original song composed by Jennifer Raul, “Mira, mira, mira tú ves,” performed by the Delegación de Carolina at the 2024 Encuentro de Tambores, offers a compelling example of contemporary musical fusion and the reciprocal exchanges that shape Puerto Rican music-making today. In this performance, the Carolina delegation proudly centers its regional identity while demonstrating how bomba continues to change through intertextuality, mutual inspiration, and the ongoing exchange between popular and traditional musical worlds.
The piece opens with an a cappella invocation of lyrics from Rauw Alejandro’s “De Carolina” before shifting into Raul’s original composition, “Mira, mira, mira tú ves.” This act of musical paraphrasing is significant: it highlights not only how Rauw Alejandro has drawn from bomba communities in songs like “Besito en la frente” and “Carita Linda,” and through his visible engagement with bomba spaces such as El Imán, but also how bomba practitioners, in turn, draw inspiration from his commercial urban sound. By interjecting música urbana and reggaetón into a traditional performance context (specifically the annual encuentros) the Delegación de Carolina expresses regional pride while engaging in a playful, intentional act of musical-cultural dialogue.
The result is a conversation across genres, generations, and communities, reminding us that musical influence in Puerto Rico is profoundly bi-directional..
A further layer of intertextuality deepens this exchange. “De Carolina” itself samples DJ Playero’s 1994 Playero 39 mixtape, the same recording that includes the now-iconic “la gente sabe” lyric. By invoking Rauw Alejandro—and, through him, Playero’s foundational reggaetón archive—the Delegación de Carolina activates a multigenerational chain of citation that links bomba, música urbana, and the early mixtape era. This final loop in the conversation underscores that contemporary Puerto Rican music is built through continual borrowing, homage, and reinvention, where each gesture carries the weight of past innovations while opening space for new creative futures.
Significance
Festivals constitute a critical site of cultural production, performance, and transmission within contemporary bomba communities. While bomba festivals in Puerto Rico may not consistently generate substantial economic returns for performers and cultural organizations, festivals within diasporic communities often provide more significant opportunities for financial support, artistic visibility, and audience engagement. In this sense, festival circuits function not only as venues for performance but also as important mechanisms for sustaining bomba practitioners and institutions beyond the island.
One example is La Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda in Kissimmee, Florida, where I serve as a grant writer. The school is scheduled to perform in Orlando, Florida, on October 29, 2026, as part of its ongoing efforts to promote and preserve Afro-Puerto Rican expressive culture. Additional significant festivals include Festival Claridad, Magia de los Niños, Magia de los Tambores, the IMMERSE Festival, and La SanSe, all of which regularly feature performances by the Familia Cepeda and other prominent bomba practitioners.
These events exemplify bomba en tarima (staged bomba), a mode of performance that adapts bomba for public presentation while simultaneously serving broader cultural and political functions. Although some festival performances are designed to appeal to tourists and multicultural audiences, many are primarily oriented toward Puerto Rican diasporic communities. As such, they operate as important spaces for community formation, cultural affirmation, and the public expression of diasporic identity. Beyond entertainment, these festivals facilitate intergenerational knowledge transmission, strengthen transnational connections between Puerto Rico and its diaspora, and contribute to the ongoing visibility and vitality of bomba as a living archive of Afro-Puerto Rican cultural production.
Project Introduction
"Beyond the Batey," is an AVAnnotate Project, created by Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin, Alexis R. Velazquez. It is a digital collection of audiovisual materials documenting bomba, an Afro–Puerto Rican music-dance practice, across community festivals, independent films, and commercial music videos. Compiled between September 2025 and January 2026, the site brings together YouTube recordings from community-based performances such as the Encuentro de Tambores, Encuentro de Cantaoras, and Magia de los Tambores, from 2018–2025 and also includes contemporary artists such as Rauw Alejandro, Residente, Puya, and Esoterica Tropical who have incorporated bomba into recent commercial releases.
The platform offers time-stamped annotations that include cantos de bomba, dance sequences, and interviews, as well as films such as Zafra Fusion Cepeda (1983), Raíces (2001), and Resistimos (2021). Through bilingual transcription and detailed labeling of subgenres, song titles, performers, and sociocultural themes (including cultural memory, Blackness, feminism, and labor) the project makes bomba materials more accessible and searchable for researchers and for community practitioners seeking deeper engagement source materials.
This project is significant in that it is the first audiovisual resource annotating fesitval performances publicly in English and Spanish. Also, because most letras de bomba (bomba lyrics) are not available in published form, each transcription required extensive listening and close analysis, offering greater insight into recurring lyrical themes within the tradition. By centralizing and annotating these materials, the project supports future scholarship and practice while sustaining elements of bomba’s cultural and musical history.
About the Annotator
Introduction
"Beyond the Batey," is an AVAnnotate Project, created by Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin, Alexis R. Velazquez. It is a digital collection of audiovisual materials documenting bomba, an Afro–Puerto Rican music-dance practice, across community festivals, independent films, and commercial music videos. Compiled between September 2025 and January 2026, the site brings together YouTube recordings from community-based performances such as the Encuentro de Tambores, Encuentro de Cantaoras, and Magia de los Tambores, from 2018–2025 and also includes contemporary artists such as Rauw Alejandro, Residente, Puya, and Esoterica Tropical who have incorporated bomba into recent commercial releases.
The platform offers time-stamped annotations that include cantos de bomba, dance sequences, and interviews, as well as films such as Zafra Fusion Cepeda (1983), Raíces (2001), and Resistimos (2021). Through bilingual transcription and detailed labeling of subgenres, song titles, performers, and sociocultural themes (including cultural memory, Blackness, feminism, and labor) the project makes bomba materials more accessible and searchable for researchers and for community practitioners seeking deeper engagement source materials.
This project is significant in that it is the first audiovisual resource annotating fesitval performances publicly in English and Spanish. Also, because most letras de bomba (bomba lyrics) are not available in published form, each transcription required extensive listening and close analysis, offering greater insight into recurring lyrical themes within the tradition. By centralizing and annotating these materials, the project supports future scholarship and practice while sustaining elements of bomba’s cultural and musical history.
About the Annotator
Before attending the University of Texas at Austin I received a Bachelor of Arts in Music (Voice) and a minor in Spanish from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico) in 2020. My research interests include the Afro-Puerto Rican traditional music-dance genre known as bomba, music sustainability, cultural economics, Participatory Action Research, and Digital Community Archives.
During my doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin, I developed two Beyond the Batey Initiatives, the first being a community‑centered digital archive for bomba (supported by the 2026 Digital Scholars Lab Fellowship) and an audiovisual research and teaching resource created during my AVannotate Fellowship and mentorship period. Additional research funding from the UT College of Fine Arts and the UT Digital Humanities Institute enabled extended fieldwork in Puerto Rico, where I conducted a residency in Puerto Rico in Spring-Summer 2026.
In terms of my relationship to the bomba community, I first became involved with La Familia Cepeda (the most well-known practitioners of the bomba tradition) primarily through my relationship with Barbara and Tata Cepeda and their corresponding non-profit network. From 2021 to present, my role with EBPTC and EBPCBC is primarily as a grant writer, event organizer, and Instagram content creator. Since the establishment of their third school in Austin, Texas in 2024, I have worked to secure both external and university-specific funding to support their nonprofit initiatives. This includes coordinating access to University of Texas venues and performance spaces to host free bomba workshops (efforts that have met with varying degrees of success). I consider this engagement to be an essential component of both my methodology and my ethical framework. In order to avoid the pitfalls of extractive ethnography, I work to ensure that my collaborators receive sufficient grant support so that their central role in my research, as well as the time devoted to extended communications and interviews, does not become an undue burden.
I consider it an indispensable ethical imperative that all researchers recognize that traditional performers often wish to participate more in research and to be included in academic discourse, yet such participation adds another responsibility to an already demanding schedule. For this reason, my approach as a researcher-activist requires reciprocity. This reciprocity is expressed through my commitment to service and through the application of my skills as both an academic and a grant writer to advocate for the best interests of my collaborators.
Developments
Since the conclusion of the AVAnnotate Fellowship, my fieldwork has continued to develop in ways that have substantially enriched this project. Most notably, I participated in the 2026 Encuentro de Tambores, held in Puerto Rico on March 29, 2026. While I initially approached the event with the intention of conducting interviews and participant observation, practitioners consistently emphasized participation as a preferred mode of engagement. Consequently, I became an active participant in the festival itself, an experience that provided a more embodied understanding of the event than observation alone could have afforded. This participation offered valuable insights into repertoire selection, performance conventions, interpersonal dynamics, and the organizational structure of the festival. It also led to my obtaining internal documentation, including the event's rulebook and organizational materials, which illuminated many of the technical and logistical considerations underlying the production of Encuentro de Tambores. These experiences have allowed me to refine and expand several aspects of my analysis. Additionally, during the spring of 2026 I documented Escuela Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda's participation in Festival Claridad, generating further ethnographic material that complements the observations presented throughout this project. Where appropriate, these subsequent research experiences may be referenced within the analytical sections of the AVAnnotate site.
Critiques of Encuentro de Tambores
Despite EDT’s continued growth and success, the 2026 event generated considerable discussion among practitioners regarding its direction and organization. One recurring concern involved the perceived erosion of regional distinctions that the festival was originally intended to sustain. Several practitioners, including members of Estudio 353, argued that while bomba fusion and experimentation have an important place within the broader bomba movement, EDT should more strictly enforce its existing regulations. These include expectations that delegations represent the rhythms traditionally associated with their respective regions and that participation remains limited to practitioners with demonstrated ties to those local traditions.
Critics also expressed concerns about the structure of the Gran Batey, the festival's culminating performance in which barrileros from all delegations perform together. Some practitioners argued that its current format diminishes professionalization. Related critiques focused on the delineation of delegation boundaries. Some participants contended that organizing performers from geographically broad areas under a single delegation category obscures important local differences in musicianship, pedagogy, stylistic interpretation, and performance practice. For example, practitioners associated with western Puerto Rico noted that communities such as Mayagüez, Isabela, Arecibo, and Cabo Rojo possess distinct bomba histories and aesthetic approaches that are not always easily reconciled within a single regional delegation.
At the same time, interviewees generally praised the festival's administrative team for successfully managing an event of considerable scale and complexity. Nevertheless, I myself have raised concerns regarding the financial resources available to organizers and delegation leaders. According to participants, delegation leaders received a mere $1,000 in compensation, a figure that is insufficient given the extensive organizational responsibilities required to coordinate performers, rehearsals, transportation, and festival logistics.
I am also highly concerned with the lack of financial transparency and oversight in relation to public funding and how funds provided by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) were allocated and whether additional resources could been pursued to accommodate the festival's continued growth in both audience size and participant numbers. While my concerns did not necessarily imply mismanagement, they reflect broader anxieties regarding the long-term sustainability of large-scale cultural events that rely heavily on public support and volunteer labor.
Beyond financial considerations, practitioners identified several logistical challenges associated with the festival's format. Because EDT is typically held outdoors in public plazas rather than in stadiums or purpose-designed performance venues, visibility is significantly limited for audience members and very inaccessible for people with disabilities (like myself) who are unable to stand for extensive lengths of time. Many attendees are able to hear the performances clearly but struggle to see performances from their vantage points. As a result, participants frequently rely on videos and recordings produced by community documentarians, social media content creators, and bomba influencers to review their own performances and observe those of other delegations after the event has concluded.
“It doesn’t portray the best possible quality of the music. They need to change [some of the regulations] — that you have to have all these drums on stage. Everybody’s in the coro, everybody’s dancing. You only need two or three good drummers. People should be allowed to play like that anywhere; to give them that kind of forum is very problematic. That’s not music. To be honest, I find it very distorting because it creates a sense that that’s bomba — and that’s not bomba. Of course, bomba is what people decide bomba is. But if you go to the root, then you have to talk to me about something that’s rooted in community and relevant to the community — and none of that is relevant. So, it’s a sham, it’s a trend. Hopefully, it’ll end soon.
BOMBA-FUSION
This section focuses on commercial partnerships with bomba practitioners and their related power dynamics vis sustainability. It uses several case studies: the music of Rauw Alejandro, Puya, Labetinto del Coco, and Atabal. It also will include a section of the music video “Carita Linda,” by Rauw Alejandro and what is being termed “neo-bomba” fusion works. These music videos often yielded short-term increases in visibility, that did not greatly impact the community. Also, sometimes these partnerships reinforced unfair power dynamics, rather than a more horizontal pattern of reciprocity and autonomy.
Bomba & Musica Urbana
Rauw Alejando’s "Carita Linda" is a recent exemplar of bomba fusion work, released in 2025, produced with bomba practitioners from La Familia Cepeda such as Exan Cepeda (Ortiz), "Chino" Rafael Cepeda, and Roberto Cepeda. The video itself, in contrast to "Besito en la Frente," specifically highlights locality by displaying famous areas of Loíza such as the kiosks where people cook and consume alcapurria or traditional Afro-Puerto Rican food made with fried codfish. It also features the Loíza Aldea Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, vejigantes, and community bombazos in Loíza.
The video also constitutes some confusion in displaying persons playing soccer instead of béisbol, which is considered more of Puerto Rico’s national sport, albeit soccer has been becoming more popular across pan-Latino communities at large. Additionally, the scenes involving horses—specifically paso fino, a breed imported to Puerto Rico from Spain—are notable. These horses are commonly seen roaming freely across the northeastern adjacent islands off the coast of Puerto Rico, such as Vieques and Culebra. The elements that did not appear visibly nationalist were Rauw Alejandro’s outfits and the choreography chosen, whose footwork appears more akin to flamenco than bomba, though visually aligned with the scene of the paso fino horses Rauw rode in the film while performing. Scenes of typical quotidian or vernacular life are common in Puerto Rico, and bomba scenes are constantly interjected throughout.
This video is also significant in that it was the first to be termed "neo-bomba" by a periodical known as MSN, in an article titled “Carita Linda: A Love Letter to Puerto Rico”. Bomba practitioners whom I spoke with during my fieldwork expressed almost universal dislike for the term "neo-bomba," believing it was too confusing for the public, not clear enough, and detracted from the history of bomba as a tradition. They argued that it did not make sense because these commercial collaborations had precedents. For example, Ismael Rivera and El Gran Combo had done salsa-bomba fusions in the [70s]. Practitioners saw no need to hyphenate it the genre of bomba.
"Besito en la Frente" - Rauw Alejandro (2025) In November 2025, Margarita Caridad Martinez-Sanchez, Karina Salcrup, Exan Cepeda, and Ramon Lopez performed alongside Rauw Alejandro for "Besito en la frente" in its official extended video form. It is significant that over half of the video defines bomba as a genre and its cultural significance in a poetic manner. See narration below:
La bomba no es solo música, es la tierra hecha sonido, un latido que llegó de África y floreció en Puerto Rico. Un diálogo entre tambor, cuerpo y la voz colectiva, cada paso y cada golpe en el tambor nos recuerda que estamos conectados con el pasado y con el futuro. Una tradición nacida de la resistencia, que hoy sigue siendo una celebración de la libertad. Cada pueblo de Puerto Rico expresa la bomba a su manera. Los ritmos laten en la arena, un diálogo improvisado donde el cuerpo ordena y la música obedece. Los ritmos se mezclan con el carnaval y la energía del pueblo. Los vejigantes, mitad enigmáticos, tallados por artesanos y pintados con colores vibrantes, no son disfraces, son espíritus del Caribe. Despiertan la memoria ancestral de nuestro pueblo, son guardianes de la cultura, símbolos de resistencia que encarnan la eterna batalla contra lo oscuro. En cada máscara arde la fuerza de un pueblo que transforma el miedo en poder y la lucha en celebración. El baile de bomba es fuerza, tensión y libertad. La bomba es unión: une a pueblos y a generaciones, orgullo cultural Afro-Boricua. Cuando el ritmo llama, toda la comunidad responde.
This introduction to the song is especially significant because it reveals difference in artistic strategies of authenticity. As one interviewee has stated, "Rauw put in the work" to know bomba in a way closer to the community than others. He attended local bomba hubs such as Terraza de Bonanza, a chinchorro in San Juan known for hosting bailes de bomba, along with rumba, salsa, and plena.
Contrasting Case Studies and Practitioners’ Assessments of Bomba Fusion Collaborations
Rauw Alejandro studied bomba directly with Chino Cepeda. For some practitioners, this sustained engagement with the tradition made his participation appear more authentic and meaningful than other mainstream collaborations, even though Bad Bunny's involvement arguably had a greater impact on the international visibility of bomba and generated greater economic benefits for practitioners.
Others, however, challenged this assessment. Several interlocutors noted that although Rauw Alejandro took bomba lessons with members of the Cepeda family, he did not appear to demonstrate a substantial command of bomba dance techniques in the music video for "Besito en la Frente." In contrast, they argued that Bad Bunny showed greater respect for the tradition by refraining from performing bomba dance movements that he had not formally learned. From this perspective, his decision not to imitate bomba choreography was viewed as an acknowledgment of the expertise required to perform the genre properly.
Consequently, among the practitioners with whom I discussed these performances, Bad Bunny was generally regarded more favorably than Rauw Alejandro. Their evaluations were based less on formal training and more on perceptions of cultural respect, humility, and adherence to bomba performance practices.
"Cultura" is a bomba-metal fusion piece that was released in 2024. For this project, Puya recruited members of El Tribu, that also included José Emmanueli of the distinguished Emmanueli brothers (Vitito, José, and Julio). The video also incorporated vejigantes, though in a morbid and unconventional manner that has been analyzed by heavy metal scholars [add citation here]. Despite the innovative blending of genres, the work did not achieve significant impact. While Puya has enjoyed popularity both in Puerto Rico and internationally and is recognized for its experimentation with local Puerto Rican genres, narratives, and lyrics within the framework of metal and rock, the "Cultura" itself was not widely disseminated within the bomba community. In fact, I personally publicized its release through my academic social media account @ethnmusicologypr to raise awareness of its existence.Nevertheless, it represents another example of bomba circulating in new contexts and contributing to the discourse surrounding neo-bomba. Members of the bomba community responded positively to the effort, yet ultimately emphasized the cultural and economic influence of Rauw Alejandro and Bad Bunny, whose collaborations have had far greater resonance in shaping both the reception and the transnational visibility of bomba.
“De Carolina” - Rauw Alejandro (2022) “De Carolina” [5] was created by Reggaetonero Rauw Alejandro and DJ Playero, and it celebrates both urbanity and street culture in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Its significance lies in the fact that, in 2024, the Delegación del Carolina [6] employed the introduction of the song at the Encuentro de Tambores before transitioning into a more traditional bomba style. This moment of paraphrase, or splicing, resembles practices in hip-hop and rap, where short melodic segments or lyrics are interjected into a new song to allude to a shared musical legacy. It is also important because it highlights how commercial collaborations are giving rise to a new subset of the genre, often referred to as neo-bomba, which fuses traditional bomba with commercial music. The bomba interpretation of “De Carolina” differs by shifting into a distinct chorus, yet it demonstrates how the younger generation is innovating within the genre. While this innovation risks losing sight of bomba’s “fundamentals,” it enriches the tradition by infusing youthful creativity. In doing so, it continues to celebrate places and acknowledge humble roots. This moment of musical overlap also shows that bomba practitioners not only collaborate with commercial music partners but also allow these shared spaces and collaborations to shape their own sense of musical experimentation and identity in profound new ways. Beyond this, this song also shows that Rauw Alejandro occupies a more 'authentic' place within the bomba community, than Bad Bunny. Rauw, unlike Bad Bunny, can be found dancing bomba in local spaces, such as [Terranza Bonanza and El Iman]. It's one thing to perform with
Atabal, Bomba pa’ Pueblo, Laberinto del Coco, Misrael Gonzalez also fall under the classification of “bomba-fusion.” Atabal (Caymeii Rodriguez) has fused bomba with jazz and [even rock] in the past. Christian Tonos, founder of Tonos’ Entertainment and long-term member of Bomba pa’ Pueblo, has navigated bomba fusion by altering the traditional format of bomba (call-and-response, improvised reactions to the primary dancer) into arrangements later published on Spotify. Bomba pa’ Pueblo has independently produced and published the following albums through Tonos Entertainment; they include Cuentos y Memorias (2023), available on Spotify. He spoke to me about the single “El Mapa,” in addition to “El Tren” and “Llegale,” and about his inspiration in composing these two songs, in an [interview on July 28, 2026] at his home.
Caymeii Rodriguez and Wildreis, percussionist and lead singer in Atabal, have navigated balancing fusion and innovation within bomba as well. It seems that most bomba musicians fall into two camps [interview with Jonas Martinez]: purists and fusionists, even though nearly every group of bomba has completed a fusion work. Laberinto del Coco, on the other hand, has fused music with synths, such as a drum pad, which Christian Tonos has assisted on. Caymeii and Rodriguez both pointed to Laberinto del Coco as an exemplar of bomba-fusion. Although it must be stressed that neither bomba-fusion nor neo-bomba—if we are to popularize that contested term for this new age of bomba—is actually new. Bomba and salsa have been conjoined since at least the 1970s in fusion works by Rafael Cortijo y su Combo and Ismael Rivera. So most practitioners do understand the term neo-bomba to refer to the new age of bomba of the late 2000s as it merges with jazz, música urbana, and reggae, but also to be a misleading term that somewhat discredits the innovations of those who came before them.
