Jeanitza Avilés Calderon English Transcription

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well, today is August 1, 2023. My name is Amanda Ortiz and for my research project titled “Puerto Rican Bomba Fashions: Consumption, Presentation and Meaning Making”, I will be interviewing Jeanitza Avilés Calderón. Thank you for being here, Jeanitza, it’s a pleasure to have you.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

It’s a pleasure.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

The purpose of this study is to collect and document information from Puerto Rican Bomba practitioners about their experiences with Bomba as well as with the Bomba dress, in order to understand those deeper meanings and uses of this dress in the context of identity, space and place. We start with the questions. How old are you?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

52.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And where do you live at the moment?

 Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Ahora mismo en Canóvanas…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And have you always lived there?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

No, always, I mean, I was born in San Juan, in the Presbyterian, I have always lived in Carolina, with my mother, my father, my sisters, and raised in Santurce, in my grandmother’s house.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what do you do at the moment?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I’m a teacher.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

To children?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I am a dance, movement and body expression teacher in the education department. And I’ve taught from… from kindergarten to senior year. Right now I’m in high school.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ok, super. And what type of education have you completed and where did you complete it?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, I did a bachelor’s degree, first a bachatero’s degree in social work, I started working in that, then between another time at the university I did another bachelor’s degree in fine arts education, I did a master’s degree in fine arts education with a concentration in dance and I am also a Montessori guide, I like to study, I like to learn and I always stick to that.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes… And what gender do you identify with and what pronoun do you use?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I’m a woman.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what is your sexual orientation?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I have my husband and my children, traditional.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ok, and could you tell me a little about your family, if it is a large family, the dynamic between you?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, before my family where I am now, my children, you mean.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, there were five of us, three sisters and dad and mom. We are very family-oriented, right, we like to get together and do things as a family, even today. And after I became independent, right now I have three children, right, and we live with them. They are eleven years old, they are triplets.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Are all three 11 years old?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

They are triplets, they were born on the same day, from the same belly, and I have a dog that is around. The five of us live together, my husband, the kids, well six, with the dog.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

With the dog, of course. They are part of the family. Could you share your current or estimated household income?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

A what?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

If you could share your household income at the moment or at an estimate?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Damn…I think in total it’s like, like fifty thousand, I think no, no, I really don’t have the information right now.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Don’t worry. Do you have any religious or spiritual affiliation?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Catholic.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Super, well those were the demographic data questions, this is really to help in the analysis and obviously learn a little more about you, everything you want to share. Now we are going to talk a little about your identity as Puerto Rican. What does it mean to you to be Puerto Rican?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, being Puerto Rican is not only being born in Puerto Rico, but understanding that we come from a mixture of races that makes us varied, right, it makes us different from each other and it is also feeling proud of who we are, and practicing what defines us, such as, for example, the way we speak, the accent, the proverbs, the experiences, the expressions, right, the type of expressions we use. We are a race of many talents, not only artistic but athletic, literary, we are very talented.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what, you mentioned some, but what elements or characteristics connect you with your Puerto Rican identity?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, I really like to identify with the arts, in general, in terms of, be it instruments, dance, plastic arts, you know, those types of, cultural elements tie me, right, to the culture.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And have you ever had a moment where you felt more or less secure about your Puerto Rican identity?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, every time I represent, right, my island, I feel more Puerto Rican. I have had the opportunity to leave Puerto Rico and do what I do, when you are doing artistic things you have more, more, I don’t know, deeper opportunities to feel Puerto Rican because you see how people outside respond to your culture, which sometimes they even give more importance to one’s culture than those who live on the island and that makes me proud.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes you are literally representing…

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

The culture, so you feel it in you. Now we’re going to talk about the Bomba, right, and your involvement specifically in the Bomba. Are you currently active in your participation?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, I am with several groups that call me. Right now, the ones I most participate with are Restauración Cultural, by Pablo Luis Rivera, I am with Bomba Evolución by Víctor Emmanuelli, with Paracumbé, also with Rafael Maya’s group, those are the last ones I have had, with Amauro, who also I have collaborated, those are like the last participations I have had.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, and when was the first time that, right, you got involved with Bomba?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, it was when I was 8 years old, with Modesto Cepeda, that was my first training, 8, 7 years old, it was in like 1978, the oldest photos I have. And since I was a little girl, he made that program to teach children outside of his family, because until that moment they were the ones who belonged to the families that practiced the Bomba, and well, I was part of that movement that until today Modesto Cepeda is with his school.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow. And how often do you participate in Bomba right now? Would you say, for example, how many times per week do you participate or per month?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, more or less once a week, like that, at most, since I have the kids, so you can’t imagine, triplets, that changed my life since they told me you’re going to have three.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I can imagine!

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

That I, like, got away from everything I did, until, right, when they were a little older, I started going out again.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And when you dance Bomba, what contexts do you tend to participate in? Are they presentations, bombazos, groups?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, I like to teach and make presentations.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay. But do you usually participate in bombazos or in slightly less formal activities?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Less formal, yes, but since I don’t have, well, the possibility, bombazos always start very late, so with the children, you know it seems complicated to me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, I understand, I understand.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

If it’s daytime, I participate.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly. So, you say, you’re a teacher, do you dance then?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Do you play any other roles in Bomba or is it just dancing?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, I specialize more in dance.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay. And do you belong to a specific Bomba region?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, the one from Cangrejo, which was where I spent the longest time, but I have also studied the Bomba of Loíza and the Bomba of the south that I practice with, with Paracumbé… that.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you have any rhythm that you identify with or do you have one that you like more than the other rhythms?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I like them all, all the rhythms, I think they all have their own way of being interpreted, that is, they have some elements such as an emotion that each of the rhythms brings, and also the songs, but the Yuba rhythm catches my attention a lot, because it’s like more challenging. I say that not everyone can represent well in that rhythm in the sense that you have to, you have to be aware of, of the rhythm of the movement, of the interaction, of, of the one who plays with the one who is dancing. You know you have to have a little more, broader knowledge.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and what does Bomba mean to you?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, it is a genre from Puerto Rico that for me demonstrates, demonstrates that form, that mixture of the races that make up the Puerto Rican, it means that it is a, the Bomba is a faithful representative of what it is, right, to be Puerto Rican and the Bomba, well, it has become one of my favorite forms of artistic expression, it is something that I identify with, and that is part of my lifestyle, you know, the Bomba is part of what I do, of who I am, and who I want to continue to be.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, that’s nice, and what have you gained through your experiences with the Bomba?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well look, through the Bomba I have learned to love and respect the cultural expressions of my land, to respect my elders, to learn that we can learn from others and that we also have the ability to create through art, which has managed to adapt, this art has managed to adjust to social and generational changes. I have gained a community of artists who truly come together for the same purpose and each one continues to fight for what is considered important, right, each person from their experience, from the resources they have available, some specializing in some areas and others in another, right, dance, singing, music, instrument making, clothing making, historians, writers, educators, there are promoters, and there are, right, visionaries so to speak. And all those areas in Bomba are important for the genre to continue to exist.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How nice, I like that a lot. So, let’s talk, then, about Bomba’s clothing, when you participate now in Bomba or when you usually participate, even before, right, if there has been a change in what you have worn, what are the clothing or accessories that you usually wear?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, right now or from before?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well, if you want, we can start with the before and then talk about the changes that you have seen, right, since you have gone through that.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well yes, there has been, for me there has been a big change because for us women the expressive method in the Bomba, right, one of the main expressive methods is the skirt, right, if you are more from the Cangrejos area, because it has been emphasized throughout history from the investigations and the people who still retain first-hand information, that there are some areas of Puerto Rico in which it was not emphasized, the use of the skirt, but we can see that even though that is said, in practice the groups, right, in the performances on stage, they always wear skirts, right, and so I consider it as a double discourse but maybe it is because of the showiness, because having clothing attracts attention and sometimes I see that there is incongruity between what they say and what they do. That is me personally, Jeanitza Aviles, I think that the Bomba has been developed in different ways in different areas of Puerto Rico and should be kept that way because it gives richness to the genre. We should not try to confuse other people who have had other realities, other expressions of the same genre, thinking that mine is better when what it is, is how it came about in different areas, in different realities and the emphasis given to it. Well, with that aside, as I started with the Bomba from Cangrejo, the clothing was the complete suit with the very long zipper in the back with the neck all the way up, the sleeves up to here, with a scarf or headwrap, covering the head, petticoat underneath that we had to decorate. It was a process that we went through, that we had to make them. I still have what Mrs. Kety, who was Modesto’s wife, taught us how to make, which was two sticks with a little board which we used to make the perfect little bows, I still have it and it was a process, right, preparing for that, those presentations that we had that I considered part of what it was, it was like a set of things, you rehearsed, you practiced, you prepared your costumes, and you represented your culture and your art. And it was, preparing the clothing was part of that, that to a certain extent, it fostered that discipline, to the children, of how, right, to, to organize, to prepare, to represent what you are, of that responsibility that you have, that was provided to me by participating in the Bomba. The other thing is that the skirts were, as I see them now, impossible to dance in, but that’s how it was, right, I say this because they were very narrow, right, you could only basically raise them up to between the hip and the knee.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Oh like in the thigh.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, it basically allowed you to rise it up to the thigh because it was not, they were not wide, it has been, right, an evolution or modernization of clothing because now the skirts, practically, you can go up to the top, and before it was not like that. I mean, before when we danced the Bomba with the skirt, it didn’t go up, it didn’t go up that much. That was one of the things.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And was that just with the skirt or was there also some kind of respect for the fact that a woman shouldn’t raise it too much?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes, there was also that, that element that basically did not, right, at the time when the Bomba was developed, no, you know it was indecorous to show, right, skin so to speak and well the women only raised their skirts a little, and that is why then the petticoats were decorated so that the eyes would go to the decorations and not, right, not alarm people when they lifted the skirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes…So from, from that dress, from that clothing, forgive me, to what today, right, was there a quick transition for you or was it little by little, right, because today you no longer see the sleeves, I mean, unless it’s a presentation, right, but usually the skirt, right, as you said, it’s longer, it doesn’t have as much stuff on top anymore because of the heat or because, right, the times. What was that transition like?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, for me it was, it was little by little, but it was quick also, that change was also for… for me that a large part of that, of that liberation, so to speak, liberation of that traditional clothing has to do with when the Bombazos began to be promoted more. The project of the Emmanuelli started taking Bomba from the stage to different towns, they did not have the traditional clothing to do it with, with the public, to integrate the public to I think that was when traditional clothing began to be loosened more to, right, to make presentations. For me, right, from then on there seemed to be a bigger change.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And like what time was this, what year?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Heck that was… I’ll tell you.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Or an estimate.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Let me see if I have the date here because I’m not that good with dates.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Don’t worry, it happens to me too with all the numbers.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yeah, I mix them up, I confuse them. But I, I, let me see I think that I wrote, I’ll tell you, okay… around 93, around 93 we started doing some Bomba dances, the youth of that group at the time, in the house of, it was like in the house of Yamil and Omaira, who is the sister, and in the house of the Emmanuellis, which was on the same street. After that, for me it was like in ’96. In 1996, for me it was when Jorge and José began to do the Bombazos in the different towns, with a proposal, for me from that time it was some of the rigid elements of the clothing were being modified or removed.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And so nowadays, what do you usually wear?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well then now it’s simpler in terms of we wear a skirt and a blouse and that’s it, basically. There are times when they say, well, let’s put on scarves, I mean, we, we used to call them scarves before, now they are called turbans. Should we wear turbans or not? So it’s a negotiation of what we wear now, even the fabrics have changed because before we didn’t wear fabrics, we didn’t wear African fabrics. The most that was used was white fabrics. We also used them as with colors, solid colors. And we also used the gingham one, the one with squares, that was the most seen fabric. In Loíza, you could see more flowery fabrics as a preference that they had for that type of more flowery fabric, but in other areas they were like solid or gingham fabrics. That was the most there was and now the most there is like African fabrics.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, there is also silk, and, right, why do you think that, that we have seen this change of incorporating those African textiles? Because that’s like specific, right?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, I think it is a, I don’t want to, I was going to call it a fashion, but it is like a reaffirmation that we have African heritage. In recent years there has been a resurgence, right, of respecting that area that, which has always been forgotten, has been left aside and for me it is, it has everything to do with, with that, with identifying with that area, right, that practically all Puerto Ricans carry in our blood.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, it is a reclaiming of that part of our identity that has been largely ignored.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And you talked about headwraps, are there other accessories that you usually use or is the headwrap the most…?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes, we always, always put on big earrings. Before we combined the, the accessories with, with the color that we had. We were always told, “Well, it’s your turn,” for me I always had yellow since I was little. And then, well, the necklaces had to be yellow, the yellow earrings, the yellow scarf, the yellow bows, everything was yellow. Then when I joined, with other groups, it was no longer so much the color I had but rather gold or silver, which, for me was a, a change too because the truth is I was always used to, to relate to the color I had.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah to combine. And because I’ve heard that about those on the big earrings…

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I haven’t read it at all, right, because there isn’t much academic literature, but why, do you know why they use large screens, is there a reason?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

You know, now that you ask me, I haven’t given emphasis to that element either and it would be cool…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

right, do it as, as research?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I already have something to look for.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes, but no, for me, I think that, right, wearing the accessories or, right, the big earrings, like part of, like that clothing, because it’s small, it’s like it goes unnoticed, but you can see more, more attractive, because having bigger accessories depends, right, on the colors that one has, because if not one looks like Juan Bobo’s pig like they said before, if one wears a lot of things, but for presentations and that then it is seen as more attractive to have larger accessories.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Which could be for aesthetics, for, to attract as well.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And today, of that traditional dress, right, obviously we don’t use, you don’t see the long sleeves or the petticoat anymore, but are there other parts that you no longer use of that traditional dress, as it is known today in day?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

The main element is the skirt, after one has the skirt, well, right, you no longer have to have the petticoat, nor the long sleeve, it depends on what type of activity it is, but the, the, the style of, of big shoulders…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ballooned.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Aha in, in, in clothing, it is not used as much anymore. If you wear long sleeves, it’s like a more modern blouse, right. The other thing is that there is also a, there has been a tendency to, instead of wearing a skirt, to wear, like, a stole.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

A stole, or else not wearing anything, right, which is another of the modern trends.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, you see it a lot nowadays, specifically in the streets, too, yes. And where do you get your, right, your skirt and your accessories usually, your outfit usually?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well look, it comes from different mediums. My mother, you know that before people made things for themselves, right, everything was made, women used to know how to do many things, well my mother made the first skirts, well, the first ones were made by Doña Kety, who was the wife of Modesto Cepeda, then from there my mother made me some skirts that I still wear and they were, and they were from, those times like, from the 80s, I still have them. I have everything, I have all my costumes, all since, since I started in ’78, 1978. Others, then, have been seamstresses in the different groups that I have been through, I have many costumes. I have costumes that are the one, the blouse alone with the skirt, because when I joined other groups like those in the southern area, well there it is like the clothing was a skirt with a blouse, it was not the complete costume.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah, it is separate.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes, when we had the complete suit, an apron was added that was tied in the front. Well, when I started with, with Bomba from the southern area, it was already the blouse with I think they called it the peplum, which is the part that looked like the apron, but it was the blouse as if extended. I have those suits too and those were made by a seamstress who, right, was hired to do that. I have a skirt that I got on a trip I took to Berlington and it is that one, so good, very big, I don’t even know why they were selling those skirts there, but that one, I bought it and I put a ruffle on it myself , because I like to, I also like to sew, well I added a ruffle, well, and I turned it into a Bomba skirt, but it’s not made of a traditional fabric, right, it’s a fabric with many colors, many designs, well, true, as we were talking about, it has been modernized and now they are allowing more design in terms of, the clothing, the fabric that is used. I say allowing, right, because before it was like there were a little more rigid rules and you kind of fell within those rules and tried not to leave them. And well, I imagine that, as it happens with everything, “ah, but if this person did it, then I can do it.” And well then, it has continued to be modified, well that’s it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And as an estimate, how many suits do you have?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I haven’t added up, I haven’t really added up, but I have, I have many.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And you said you had a skirt that you bought in Berlington, usually, right, and also through these interviews I’ve learned that having a seamstress who specializes in skirts is the usual. Do you feel anything different when you have a Bomba from a seamstress than a Bomba, for example, like the one from Berlington? as true…

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

The skirt?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well… I felt strange in terms of breaking the rules because I am someone who is, who is, if they tell me you have to be there at 10, well I’m there at 10, so I’m not one of those. people of, to say, “ah, well no, because almost everyone arrives at 11, well I go at 11,” no, I like to follow the rules and like, you tell me something and I commit, well I do. So, since I respect the genre so much, right, and I thought about it, I was in the store for about an hour and I said, “Oh my God, I buy it, I don’t buy it, I like it, I would like to have a different one,” because all my, my skirts are solid color, you know that kind of thing. I said I would like to have something, right, a little different and I decided, right, I bought it, but no, it wasn’t easy for me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, how interesting, like, what did that, like, right, that resistance give you, but you did it, right, because sometimes you do it. And what importance do you give to your Bomba outfit?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well look, it’s important to me. Since I see, I see it, right, I see the clothing as one of the legacies of the bomberas of yesteryear, right, that it was one of their expressive means, and, and that is why I believe that I must honor it, I must maintain it and I must, I must teach it, right, I must make it understood that, that it is a part of, of the, the expressive means that those bomberas used, that they left us that heritage.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and when you put on the clothes how do you feel?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, look, when I wear my skirt, my Bomba skirt, which is, right, one of the elements that has endured in clothing, I feel proud, right, because it reaffirms that I know this art, right, I am, I like to practice it and I like to know it and that it is part of, of my history and that it represents me. It means that I wear the skirt with pride and I use it with pride.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you feel a difference when you dance without a skirt? Obviously, as you said, your region emphasizes the skirt, but do you feel different when you don’t have it on or you don’t dance unless you have the skirt?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, look, I’m one of those people who think that, if you don’t have a skirt, you shouldn’t dance with an invisible skirt, that is, in the sense that people do things like that, this kind of thing is, it seems strange, right, it looks like, like what does it do? I have even been told stories that, from people who are not from Puerto Rico, right, gringos for, to say, right, who ask, what is that person doing? When they are doing that type of movement, it means that I do not, I do not support that if you do not have a skirt, you should wear an invisible skirt. If you do not, you do not have the element of the skirt, you can even afford the scarf to replace it, but if you do not have neither the skirt, nor do you have the scarf, the movement of your arms has to be modified, you know no, you shouldn’t act as if you had it. It means that you have to adapt the movement to the new reality…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Not having, right, the skirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you think that the context of where an outfit is used influences how you feel, for example, when you are dancing in a presentation versus teaching a class?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

When I’m teaching class, I normally don’t put on the skirt first to show how the arms move, where they are placed, how far the movement goes, right, technique. Because there are people who think, “no, in Bomba, because you do, you move, you move wherever you want,” but not really, really if you are going to give respect to the genre, how it has developed and that we have the knowledge now ourselves, to be able to structure some things and talk about some things like we are talking about now, we are talking about, about, about the element of clothing that is almost not talked about, that is, and it is an extremely important element because it is one of the ways that it identifies the genre, right, and it is one of the expressive means. And likewise, the movements with the skirt have to be structured. First to be able to preserve it, and then to be able to teach them. It means that, yes, when I teach them, I try to do it without the skirt first so that the movement of the entire torso can be clearly seen, how the arms are placed, how the feet are placed, when they move, which direction it is facing, at what height, you know that there are many elements in which the element of having the skirt on can confuse people about how, right, how to do it, it means that by the time I am teaching, well, I take it off but then I put it on.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, yes, for clarity, it makes sense that sometimes, right, if your skirt is on it is maybe a little difficult, where is the hand, is it on the waist or is it lower? I understand. Do you think that some Bomba styles, and when I say Bombas styles, I don’t mean the different styles of the regions, but the different styles of today, this one that has the long skirt, short skirt, skirt made of silk or what they wear turbans, do you think there are some styles that are perhaps more authentic than others?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well, the long skirt, right, is traditional because it is worn according to the time in which the Bomba was being developed. Why do we wear skirts? Well, because when Bomba began to be developed, women did not wear pants at that time, the skirt was the clothing that was used in daily life. Therefore, it became an expressive means because women had to lift it up so that their feet could be seen, possibly, right, as men did who moved their feet and arms, well then, women had to lift up their skirts a little, to display her feet. Little by little in some regions the skirt was raised more and it was worn more, well, it happened like that, in other regions they emphasized more the feet movements, so now it’s like that, understand, I see it, no, no, not like one is more valid than the other, but that it is part of the evolution in different areas, when there was not so much communication between some regions and others. The other thing of the fabric being changed I see it as positive in terms of the fact that before, the fabrics we had would wrinkle a lot. There are fabrics that I have from the dresses that I still have, that to iron takes a whole day, because they are very thick fabrics and, and you develop muscles because wearing that skirt…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I can imagine.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

You know they weight. It means that having replaced the thick fabrics that wrinkle a lot with another type of fabric, I believe it, you know, I like it. There are people who even use the one that shines, it is not satin, it is another type of fabric, but it has a little shine because satin weighs, it also weighs.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Isn’t satin the same as silk?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I think that silk, I think that silk is another, another type, I think, I don’t remember, it is a type of satin, but no, it doesn’t weigh that much, it also looks very pretty in presentations.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And…

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Oh and there is also a style now that there is, there are some people who use it, which is like open in the middle, that is, open in the front.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

The middle opening of the skirt.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Aja yes, so they wear it and tie I in the middle but it is open.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ah okay.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I mean you can see their feet. I’ve seen that on several people. That’s another, another style of skirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, I think I’ve seen it too, but usually I don’t see how they tie it behind and you can’t see how to say, the “slit”, the open part.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Okay.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

But are you saying that this is a little more modern?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And in terms of where you have those skirts or clothes, for example, the seamstress, who is the seamstress or where, from what store do you have it, do you think that takes away from or adds authenticity to an outfit?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

No, it doesn’t take away from its authenticity, because the seamstresses are specialists, right, in making clothes, right, costumes, clothing. What I do think is that before the skirts and I, I adapted, I, right, I had to adjust, right, so to speak, they used to make skirts so that when you opened them you could see the entire ruffle, right, now you can’t see the ruffle, if you open it, right, in a certain way, as we used to use it, you can still see the seam like a crescent and then you can see the ruffle. It seems that it is the, the cut, right, the cut that is used that I think they make it like round, they fold it and cut it in an oval shape, that when you open it, then it looks that way. At first it shocked me, I said, but why are they making skirts like that? If you use theruffles, but I understood that it was just what bothered me, because no one else seemed, it seemed like…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

It didn’t bother anyone else.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Uh-huh and I said, “ah, well, if it’s me, then what am I going to do,” and, and since that time I’ve been here, well, all my skirts are that same way.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes, that, that means that there are times when one has to move with the times, right. And right, you have many, many, a lot of knowledge about the history of, history, clothing and the genre as well and obviously I know that you have acquired much of this information through experience, but have there been other, other ways by which you have acquired so much knowledge of this?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Look, my interest in, is that I like, I really like to learn, right, I like to know, know how to do things, more of the things that, right, that catch my attention and since the Bomba is part of my life, those different elements of the interpretation of the Bomba and the, and the, and everything that has to do with making the genre, well, as I told you, there are the people who make the instruments and there are those who play them, there are the people who make the clothes, there are those who wear the clothes, I mean, it’s like it’s something so broad, it’s not just getting there and moving the skirts, but it’s, in order for that to be achieved there were, true, other people who inferred or interfered or helped or contributed for that to happen and since I am an educator, right, I always make the students understand that way on the blackboard. So I put it like everything, everything that has to do with, with what I’m teaching them, right, whether it’s Bomba, whether it’s another genre, but that they see that it’s not just that, but that there’s much more behind it. In my interest, right, to learn certain things well and, and also to say what it will be like to do this, right, what it will be like to see how the instruments are made and right and, and get involved in that, entering, touching it, looking at the, the, the rod and the instruments that are used, well I also did it with, right, with the clothing. Before, when I was younger, I made outfits for my teddy bears, I made them outfits and I sewed them myself by hand or on my mother’s sewing machine, so I also practiced sewing on a smaller scale, but I also did it, and the first skirts that I used with my students, in elementary school, which was when I started, I made them together with my mother, we made the skirt ourselves. You know that, that I have also, I have worked with, with the making of the skirts. I’m not a professional, but yes, right, I know how to do it and I can do it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and you have experience.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t treat myself like a seamstress who, I am already acquiring skill, right, I do some things quickly, but, right, but I can do it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And this question, it’s not on my list of questions, but I’m curious what made you want to be an educator of, of this dance, of this genre?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well, basically I had the example first-hand with Modesto Cepeda, because he was my teacher. Before I joined his group, he was my Social Studies teacher at the school where I studied and, and from there, then on Saturdays, he started teaching classes to the school children, some of us are still, right, in, in Bomba, from that time I have other classmates who started with me there and, and I saw that that relevance, that importance of teaching knowledge, right, to teach what one knows. I had the opportunity to, I was a social worker first, right, in my first high school it was a social work and I started as a social worker and one of the experiences was in school. And the teacher, who was in Fine Arts, asked me, who was a social worker at the school, for help in, in some areas I said, hey, how cool, how cool, it feels, right, to teach what you know. And that’s when I decided to go to university again to do a bachelor’s degree in education and, and I did, right, with a concentration in dance. The other thing is that as Bomberas, right, as a Bomba practitioner, I also taught, there came a time when I grew up and started and, and no longer, right, I left Modesto Cepeda’s group because I was already older. He made a group that was Cimiento, which was for older children, I mean, I was in Pase which was for children, I had in Cimiento and after there I started with other groups, right, after that I left and when I left with other groups I started teaching at the same time, right, with, with Agüeybaná by Ángel Luis Reyes, well I also helped him with, right, teaching, we did workshops, I mean, before I trained as a teacher, well, I already taught Bomba.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, that’s cool, it made me curious, right, because I always like to ask how it gets, how people get to where they are right now. Do you think your participation in the Bomba influences your identity as a Puerto Rican?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, I think so. I believe that knowing about Bomba and practicing it reinforces my, my identity.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you think any of your other identities influence how you feel about Bomba or its clothing?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Like my other identities?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well, for example, I, right, I am Amanda, I am Puerto Rican, I am a student, I am a woman, I am that one, that one, those descriptors that are also identities. Do these other identities influence how you feel about your relationship with the Bomba? Obviously, you have different ones, but…

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

I believe that everything that you are, you know everything, everything that shapes you has, that is, you demonstrate it and you make it count through what you practice. It means that Bomba has influenced me, my vision of life and likewise my vision of life is reflected when I dance Bomba. You know that I believe that, that it happens in both ways, because when, the Bomba is a genre in which you, you express yourself, you draw from yourself, right, your personality is seen and reflected every time you dance, sing or play, right, according to what your, your role is. It means that I have, that is, I draw from myself every time I do the Bomba, that is why I believe that it is important that each performer, each participant have their personality, I should not a copy of another person. I believe that it was never like that, I mean, I don’t believe that the bomberas of before said, “well, we are all going to do this same step and you can’t get out of there,” I, I doubt that, that in a, that in a genre that lends itself to be so expressive, you have to be exactly the same, because then it would be very boring, you understand.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah it wouldn’t be authentic to you.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

It wouldn’t be art, right. If you can’t express yourself.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Without expressing your personality. I don’t, I don’t have to, I don’t believe that we all have to dance in the same way, nor does everyone have to dance in the same way.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, how beautiful and my last question before starting with the photos, with the, yes with the photos. Does your participation in Bomba and its use with clothing influence your daily style, that is, what you wear day to day?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Look, at one point in my life, I started to wear long dresses and long skirts to go out, but now thinking about it, I don’t know if it had anything to do with it, right, as an influence, but that thing about, thinking, let me dress in a skirt to be ready in case there is something from Bomba, no, right, it doesn’t cross my mind, but I do have a skirt in, in the car just in case.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly, just in case something, something appears to you.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, great, let’s first move on to the photo section. I’ll give you the time you need to take them out and we’ll see them together and we’ll see, I am going to ask you a few questions, but it’s more to see you, right, we’ve talked so much about the clothes, but it’s also good, right, see and have reference to that photo.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Let me see, do I hit share?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, you can hit share.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I don’t know if you can see it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah, I can see it.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, this one here is me, I don’t know if you can see the, the, the cursor.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, the, the, yes I see it, with the yellow scarf?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, that one.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, how beautiful. Where is that?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

That is the group that I told you about Pasen by Modesto Cepeda in 1978. (See Figure 1)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How beautiful the petticoats.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, that was the one we had to, decorate and take the time to…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And each of you did it yourselves.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, everyone in their own house. With my students, I taught at the Carolina School of Fine Arts and one of the exercises we did was all together, all of us, right, the girls with their little bows, their petticoats, all that, you know, we did it as a group activity.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Oh, how nice, yes, to share making them.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yeah, let me see if it slides. That, this is another of the photos, it is, 1, 2, 3, 4, the fifth, number 5 is me. And then notice how we only wore skirts, up to, as I told you, up to the middle of the thigh. (See Figure 2)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Oh yeah, they’re not there, they’re not up here or anything.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Aha, they’re not all the way up, they are, I mean no, the skirt didn’t allow you to go up that much, but rather take them up to that level, because there wasn’t, right, it didn’t have that much flow.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

But and this outfit, right, which is very different from the one in the previous photo, those are still skirts.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Those are practice skirts.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Which, I mean, at that time they were practice skirts. Nowadays they are the skirts that people wear for, right, for normal dancing, but at that time I called them practice skirts…That’s another one, another one is a newspaper report from ’79, the one in the front is me. (See Figure 3)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, and you have that newspaper?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

I don’t have the report, no, it was given to me. I think it was Brenda, Modesto’s daughter. They have more reports, right, and more things than me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, they have documented it, yes.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

This one is with another group, I’ll tell you the year now… that one, that one was in ’84. (See Figure 4)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow!

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

There you can see how the skirts are a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger, they have a little bit more fabric.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Hmm, is it the gingham?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Oh?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Is that the gingham?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, that aha the ones on the edges and on the scarf are gingham, yes. And even so, if you see it, the back part goes up because, right, trying to make the movement bigger, since it doesn’t have as much flight, the back part goes up too.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And does the gingham have any meaning or is there any purpose for which they use this?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Well, look, I don’t see it as such, as if it had a purpose or meaning, but I do consider that it is one of the fabrics that, right, that was there at the time it began to be used, right, the, the skirt, as it were, was taken as a reference.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, perhaps it was what was accessible and it was what had to be used as well.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

There’s another one, that’s me, you see there that I’m raising my skirt a little more, but anyway it doesn’t have that much, that much flare. (See Figure 5)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes compared to the ones now, which are very long.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

But wow, that’s beautiful.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

That’s another dress we made, that one was for ’85. That was with the Agüeybaná group, we tried to make it with a little more fabric. If you see, I’m here, I’m the one in the middle, and in the back I’m raising my skirt a little more. (See Figure 6)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And that, what you have on your waist is…?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

That’s the apron that I told you that ties from the back to the front.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

This was a complete dress, all I have shown you are complete dresses with the apron on top.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And was it heavy?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

What was heavy, the apron?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

No, the clothing as such.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yes, that one was super heavy.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

It’s because, I still have it, but it was super heavy and the fabric wrinkled a lot.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Easily, I imagine.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Upon gaze.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, because it’s white cotton, if I’m not mistaken.

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Yes, exactly. This photo is from Agüeybaná, they also took it in black and white, I imagine so that it would look older, older, but it was like in 89, 1989. (See Figure 7)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Where?

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

That was in Carolina, wait, no, I think it was, those photos I think they were taken in Piñones, in Piñones. Some of those who are there still make Bomba, there are some who are no longer. That was, that is the same dress from the previous photo, from this one, from the same fabric, it is the same. Then let me see. Wait I got you. I think those were the, the photos that I wanted to post.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes wow.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Photos from before because from now on I imagine you will have…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I have enough.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, I really appreciate you bringing that photo and also all your knowledge, everything you have shared with me today. I really appreciate it and, and I really thank you for, for, for trusting me and, and coming and sharing all that with me.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

My pleasure.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Before we stop recording, would you like to share anything else?

Jeanitza Avilés Calderon

Well, I wanted to thank you, right, for taking this initiative or this topic, because you could have done the research on anything, right, on so many things that exist, but giving the emphasis and, right, the importance to, the genre, that, right, that identifies the Puerto Rican or the coastal Puerto Rican of the coastal areas, although Bomba has spread throughout the different areas of Puerto Rico, but I wanted to thank you, right, for, for doing this work because it is necessary to document and investigate about the Bomba and that, that information remains available for, right, for this generation and future generations, because there are people right now who do Bomba, but no, they don’t, they don’t think about, right, they don’t think about those details, they don’t ask about why, where it came from, why they demand this of me. You know and, and that helps to preserve the genre or to preserve some elements that, that are already being modified and, and there are times that it is being lost because now there is a tendency to dance Bomba without, without the skirt in regions where it was used skirt, I mean, we are still evolving and this study can help people understand why this is an important, right, expressive element.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Of course and thanks to you, because without people like you who keep this tradition and knowledge alive, we would not be here. I couldn’t do any of this so thank you.

Jeanitza Aviles Calderon

Thank you and my pleasure.