Mara English Transcription

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Today is July 21, 2023, my name is Amanda Ortiz and for my research project titled, “Puerto Rican Bomba fashions: Consumption, Performance, and Meaning-Making”, I am interviewing Mara, La Rumbera del Caribe. Thanks for being here. Marae it is an honor to have you and a privilege to be able to learn from you. The purpose of this study is to collect and document information from Puerto Rican Bomba practitioners about their experiences with Bomba and the Bomba dress. We start with demographic data questions, remember, you can answer if you feel comfortable, and what if not, no problem. How old are you Mara?

Mara

I am 45 years old.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Where do you currently live?

Mara

Well, part of my life, I live in two places, in Honduras, in la Ceiba, Honduras is part of where I live and well I have part of my work and also in Puerto Rico, where my house is, my family is, which I not only come to visit, I also come to collaborate with other colleagues or simply do some work, but I am more with the family.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And how many years have you lived in Honduras and Puerto Rico?

Mara

Well, in Puerto Rico since I was born and then in 2007 I went to Houston, Connecticut, Hartford, Connecticut…and in Hartford I was there 2 years. And then I went to Texas. And I went first to Dallas. And I was 8 years in Dallas, then I went down to Houston. We arrived in Houston. We made it to Houston and I was in Houston for 2 years, 2 years and something too. So after that I moved to Honduras always, always, always visiting Puerto Rico and being here for a long amount of time where one can do jobs. While I am in Honduras, that is when I have been in Puerto Rico the most because then I come for 2, 3 months and then I leave and so I am traveling and working and collaborating culturally with both countries.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what do you do for a living?

Mara

Well, I am an artist, I always dance, I sing, I act and I really dedicate myself to the culture with Enlace Cultural Caribeño, which is an organization that my husband and I founded in 2018. Before that, I was a director of Latin Mix Entertainment and Danza Cultura of Puerto Rico since 2003, Latin mix more since 2007, when I moved to Connecticut, because obviously you could see the need for Hispanic integration. And then not just Puerto Rican representation, but integration at the Latin American level as a society. So, and since then we founded Latin Mix Entertainment, so to open beyond that Puerto Rican culture representation, but also open it to the representation of Latin American popular culture. Something that perhaps other people had already done as well. However, we dedicated ourselves more simply to the Fine Arts. In the same way, in Dallas, we continued with the same thing, we had more people, we did many more activities, we opened many doors for other people who today are also doing cultural work there and we shared with many groups. In addition to that, well, we are counting, counting, because since 2003 we have been doing this for 20 years now. And technically it is my main job, it is the work that I do mostly, in addition to my artistic career, as a solo, right, but I have also worked as a medical assistant, I am a medical assistant, I have a pre-clinic in Honduras where we give massages, We take care of patients and we do everything that goes before you go to a doctor, the blood pressure measurement, if you have to do anything, hospitals, any injections and I don’t even, I mean everything that is before and after the visit from the doctor we do it there. We do therapies and so on, in addition to that, I am a doula and I work with pregnant women, that is to say that in the pre-clinic I do everything that has to do with, with natural medicine or traditional medicine, well I am there, but that is like a job that I do, that people would say, “oh, that’s your main job,” but really no, that’s my side job, that’s my sideline and the culture and everything artistic, that is my main job, the priority job.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow excellent, wow. What type of education have you completed and where did you complete it?

Mara

Well, I am a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus, Humanities department, majoring in theater, the drama department, right, Additionally, I was there for 3 years, I turned 3, I completed 3 years and then I finished my studies in Tarrant College Fort Worth. There I finished theater, I studied recreation and theater in the UPI, then in the United States, I studied theater and anthropology. So, but obviously what I really picked up on was what kind of the ending to finish it off. Minus the the the the degree. Oh so. Well, I have a 1st in theater in addition to that, because as I told you before, they study medical assistance at the University of Catalan, in hardware as well. And I graduated from hard as I am hard as 6 years 5 or. Those who work with mothers who give birth last 6 years. And, well, I did that at Bith BootCamp associations where they certify you and well that’s it. There are my studies.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What gender do you identify with and what pronouns do you use?

Mara

Well, I use she, I am a woman and I accept everyone, but yes, I am a woman and I liked the use of her, but of course, I am open that if they don’t want to use one for the groups, then I include myself in that too.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okey I was, how would you describe your sexuality?

Mara

My what?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Your sexuality.

Mara

Huh, like what do you mean when you say how would I describe it?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Straight, gay, any other, as long as you feel comfortable.

Mara

Straight, straight, as of now.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Are you in a romantic relationship?

Mara

Yes, I am married to my husband, Tony Moreno, who is Honduran, he is over there right now.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you have children?

Mara

And I have 3 children, I have a daughter, a son, and a daughter, so 2 girls and a boy. I have four grandchildren, so at 45 I am already a senior, however, they don’t pay me, they don’t give me a discount nor do they give Social Security, but I am a senior in that emotional aspect of being a grandma.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How sweet and you touched on it a little bit, but what kind of relationship do you have with your immediate family? Are you quite close? do you see each other frequently?…

Mara

With my immediate family, I would say my mother, my brother, my children. Technically, we see each other every day. My mom well, she lives with me. When she’s not with me in Honduras, she’s with me here. I mean, I try to always have keep her active. My family, for example, is a little, not extended, but my cousins ​ are quite close to me. However, this season we have not been able to see each other for other reasons, but we are, that is, we do call each other, we are always in contact.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Super…and where is your family from?

Mara

Well, I have family in Aguadilla and right now my family, from my dad’s side, is almost non-existent, the ones I have are my brother and a smaller family in the New York and New Jersey area.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, do you have any disability, physical disability?

Mara

No, no.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Could you share your current household income?

Mara

Well yes, let’s see, it must be more or less, I would say 1 less than 20,000 years, depending on the times, sometimes a little…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Mara, do you have any religious or spiritual affiliation?

Mara

Yes, well, I am very universalist, which means that I believe in everything, what there is in the world. I know that many people tend and have to do so, they have to, right, name and assign their beliefs, which is correct because it is part of, of fostering a culture. I am a spiritualist, a spiritualist, I consider myself to be a universalist, and spirituality is the most important thing within all religious…but I do believe in reincarnation, that we have direct access to the spiritual world and that it also gives us, speaks to us. So, I am a strong believer in that, yes, I believe in God, as I tell you, I believe in the Christian basis in terms of God and Christ and everything because we always have to give, right, a name, an address to what we believe, to that history. So yes, but technically I’m quite a universalist.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well, thank you very much for sharing that information, now I’m going to ask you a few questions about your Puerto Rican identity…what does it mean for you to be Puerto Rican?

Mara

Well, being Puerto Rican is like if you asked me what it means to be Venezuelan or to be Dutch, because I think that has a lot to do with who you are and what value you give to that country where you were born, raised, made, or to the country you are representing. Right, because we already see that not all Puerto Ricans who represent us are born in Puerto Rico, or raised in Puerto Rico, but they come from a family that were, then they have those bases. So I believe that it is a decision to be Puerto Rican, and for me it is very important to be Puerto Rican and it means that it is a responsibility beyond simply having that pride. You can have a lot of pride and be a, a person who does not have morals or a good representation of the country. However, for me, being Puerto Rican is for people to know that the Puerto Rican is not necessarily a person who is lazy, who does not want to work, or a person who is very morally unprincipled, or does not have an established culture. As a representative of this country, I really have to demonstrate with my actions that we are, that we are people, that we are not very arrogant either, and that we are very kind people, open to collaborating but at the same time we have our bases and our good morals, that we are not all the same. So of course, Puerto Rican representation for me in my case it is very important. For me more than being, more than being proud of being Puerto Rican it is more responsible, it is a responsibility for me to be.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Has there been a moment where you have felt more or less sure of your Puerto Rican identity?

Mara

Yes, of course, there are times when watching the news one says, “ah, I want to change,” I want to be, I want to be from, from Chile or some other place, where is the name of this place where they wanted to sell us?…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Spain?

Mara

No, no, Greenland, oh it’s another country, well somewhere else over there. You say, “I want to be from somewhere else,” because sometimes it’s very overwhelming what, the things that one sees in the news, but then you say, “ah, wait, then it’s up to me, as a Puerto Rican, to deal with other ways to continue maintaining that love of our country and that love of what we are, because sometimes it is brutal. Sometimes you say, “but how can a Puerto Rican do such a thing, such a thing,” it is like one falls into despair, but then everything calms down and comes back again, “actually I love who I am and where I’m from.”

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Are there any elements or characteristics that connect you to your Puerto Rican identity?

Mara

If there are some elements?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Elements or any characteristics that connect you with your Puerto Rican identity.

Mara

Elements and characteristics of mine or the country?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

You can interpret it as, as, however you want.

Mara

Well, of course, we all share certain characteristics, right, that we are Puerto Ricans, that we like to eat, the way we speak when we express ourselves, many times how we face certain situations, right, when they say, “Puerto Rican women are,” well, they generalize because all of them, we have, they characterize us. However I think that the thing that I would say that makes me feel truly Puerto Rican is, the passion, the passion with the, Puerto Ricans are quite passionate but some, some are in some things, but Puerto Ricans are very passionate about art, in things that many people would say are vain, meaningless, such as fine arts, natural things, whatever, playing, sharing, and that is something that, despite being a professional, personally, I am very much characterized by the joy, the passion with which I carry out what I do and where I take it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, I love it. Okay, now I’m going to ask you about your Bomba experiences, but before I start with that, the most specific things…what does Bomba mean to you?

Mara

Bomba as a genre, as or as a dance itself? With how, how do you want me to project it to you? Or should I be open about it?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well yes, you can open both, one, as you wish…

Mara

Okay, well, you know Bomba is a genre that is named after the instruments, right? The barrels of Bomba, the barrels are called Bomba, so the genre is called Bomba because of the barrels, but Bomba is also a word that other Afro-Caribbean and Afro Antillean Blacks use and like, Bomba is a moment, it is an explosion of energy, right, for them it is also joy, it is movement. For me it means a moment where fury takes over you and you have the opportunity, whether playing or dancing or singing, to bring out your expressions. I compare it a lot to how when salsa is played, or when rap is played, or I would even say in reggaeton almost, almost but more in rap that has a message, where you can bring out your being from within. Of course, when we dance, we don’t speak…but we do show, according to our way of dancing, what we feel at that moment or what that song, that melody, reflects on us, right, how we go, and then when you are dancing you project it, for me that is Bomba, it is like a projection of what you feel…how you feel.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And are you currently active in your participation?

Mara

Yes, yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what is the role? Are you a dancer or?

Mara

Well, currently a dancer, although I sing, well I also have some songs written. When I’m here in, it’s funny because when I’m here in Puerto Rico, like in Puerto Rico, they know me a lot more as a dancer…well, I’m more focused on the issue of dancing, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t sing. However, I too, the other day, it’s good that you told me because I was in an event and my friend told me, “Well, if you have a song with that rhythm, why didn’t you sing it?” And I told him, “oh no,” and it’s not because I can’t sing it or I don’t want to sing it, it’s just that sometimes I see groups of people who are so involved and so, so… so grounded, as we say, in, in their group that I say “I have to go over there,” and like I’m going to feel a little groovy…so I say no, I better stay dancing, if I have to sing in chorus I do it, I don’t know, but I do have several songs written too, oh one that I love called “Como te llamas luna” and obviously the moon, it has a little bit of religious themes but as I tell you on a universal level nothing specific, and I would love to sing it one day, but for now I say, whenever I come what I want is to dance, because when I dance I kind of leave everything, and well…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That is what moves you, calls you…

Mara

Yes, well everything calls me, but like in those moments I let the others sing and do what they want. So my way is, right, to show what I go through, sometimes I have a lot of confinement, sometimes I have good moments, which only I know and for the moment, dancing is when I can release that energy a little and renew myself. For example, I am the director of a group, which is the group that I told you is Danza Cultura, that we are 20 years old now and we rehearse and when we are rehearsing we dance everything, but when we are rehearsing well it is another dynamic, it is something else, so when I dance in the street, in the bateyes, which there are many now, what I dance is like any common person…when I’m in a show, I’m dancing for myself, and yet when I rehearse and that’s what we do our rehearsals and our presentations are therefore more representative.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And when was the first time you got involved with Bomba?

Mara

I was four years old, my mother is an actress and writer, also a theater teacher, and my mother also danced, and she still dances but she is not active dancing around except when I play music. But she did what is called the baquiné of the little Black angels, so I was one of the girls invited to the batey and the baquiné, so she was the first, I’m trying to get that photo that’s out there, the first to put me in the clothing for dancing, and we didn’t do much, she just repeated the choirs of the enene, by Luis Palés Matos, a poetry that is used, that was used to be part of the baquiné show, then, so I danced certain basic movements and my mom taught me. So since I was four years old…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

You were a baby…and now when, how often do you participate and what do you usually participate in?

Mara

Well, if I’m here in Puerto Rico, of course, I try to go to some Bombazos that there are, sometimes it’s impossible for me or sometimes I don’t have a car or sometimes, I would like to go more, well, but I go to some of the events and then I go to the bateyes and dance, I’m sharing with them, with people, looking at old friends, I don’t like, I’ve always been a person who since ’97 when we started working with them, with bringing out the Bomba to the streets, right, along with Emanuel, José Manuel and among other people who were involved, I try not to get burned too much. People sometimes go to everything and go to everything and they all dance and burn out because then they have nothing more to show. Maybe since I come from stage performances, right, well maybe I’ll hold back a little more, because I think that when you dance you have to dance, you have to, it’s not the same as dancing salsa that you see danced in advertisements and you people dance as to dancing because Bomba is a solo. So, you have to go, or you have to renew your steps, or you have to practice with yourself how you are going to do it so as not to look the same, and as I told you, it is an expression that I have at that moment. So I kind of don’t like it. I like various rhythms, but I don’t want to dance to them all night, because they’re going to think, look what’s happening to her, she’s a showoff, I don’t care about people, but more because I don’t want people to see the same thing. I don’t want to, that’s maybe my thing, a little pride in what I’m going to represent there too, because people are watching you, but I like to do it like that sporadically, I go to the bateyes that I can, I dance. Apart from that I love watching people dancing, I love seeing what is happening today with others, but when I am in other countries, for example, it is more of a show because obviously I don’t have many drummers to chase me, drummers don’t play Bomba, they play something else, so I have to practice doing more routine with the music that I play, maybe with music that is recorded, I have to do it that way. It is improvised many times, yes, but of course I go with what the music is for me, I had already heard it, so I’m not going to do anything crazy, I have to go, right, with the music so that it really looks beautiful.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And speaking a little about the different rhythms, do you by any chance have a Bomba rhythm that identifies you more than others?

Mara

Yes, I love Holandes. Holandes is a rhythm from both the north and the south, right, and from Mayagüez too, it is a rhythm that is happy, it is well known, not only in Puerto Rico, but also in the islands, because it is a rhythm that is played in different places, there is a book that talks about, as Mr. Tato Conrad told me many years ago and he showed it to me, it is from a book that talks about the dance that was danced in close proximity of a partner and the drum beats it was quite similar to the Holandes, which we can say it is an Holandes but from another, another region, right, from the Caribbean. I love that rhythm, I think it’s one of my favorites to dance to, because it can be fast, it can be slow, but at the same time playful, jovial, I like to dance happily, I love what Yuba and…how it is that it’s called? Perate el…there is the Seis Corrido and the Corbe, which are similar to the Corbe and the Yuba, right. But I like those two because they have a lot of passion, too, and if you are in a state where you really have to really get out some feelings, some intense feelings, well, for me, I would use those two. The Cuembe, finally, I think it is my third favorite, because the Cuembe is well danced, well danced, it is a dance of, simply more figure, more flirtation, I would say, not flirtation, well if I had to flirt, but more figure, it is different, it is not necessarily a crescendo dance, where you start softly and end with a mess. No, it’s a dance of you enjoying the moment of how you handle your skirt, your body, I like that, that exchange.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what Bomba region are you from?

Mara

Of what what?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What Bomba region are you from or what region do you usually dance from?

Mara

I would be from Santurce, definitely. However, I dance Loíza, I know the technique of the South, obviously there is a matter that changes, well, for me I change the perspective a little because what we knew as Mayagüez at the moment is now, history has brought other families, other people, other ways that are very good because they are, you know, the more the better, but the truth has always been the knowledge of what Mayagüez was, of what the others are, but more Santurce and obviously Loíza.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what have you gained through your experiences with Bomba? Whether emotionally, socially, economically…

Mara

Friends, definitely, enemies, too…although enemies are friends who may be mad at you, as I say, but I have also earned money because it can’t be denied since one also doing performances and going to places to dance, they call you, “look, there is a show here, or there is a Bombazo in such a place, I need you to help me.” When this started, as I told you, I started with these people in the nineties, forgive me, in ’98 I started, but I had already done workshops alone in ’97 and before, but I was with Areyto from Puerto Rico for many years, but that is another story, but with these people from the Emanuali and the Bombazo from outside, everything that is Pablo Luis Rivera, Pipo, all of them started with the Emanuelis, to take Bomba out to the streets, we each had something to do and my, I was a ballroom dance teacher at that time, and I still am, but at that time it was more and well me, what I had to do was, my job was to get the people to dance, put on the skirt, because a lot of people are shy and don’t want to do anything, so it was, all of that was what I had to do, I mean really, they called me for that and well they paid me for that too, in addition to that because I have gained emotionally, well everything you do in life has stories, and well I have stories of love, horror stories, stories of joy, of sorrows that one endures, so Bomba has been well linked to my life technically knowing how to have your ex and your husband on the same stage, to be on the same stage with the mistress, with the mistress of your husband and you also on the other side, well there have been many, many very comical stories…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Now look at that, awesome. Well now we are going to talk a little more about the clothing, if you want while I ask you the questions you can bring the materials if you want to bring them now…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

When you participate in Bomba, what are the clothing and accessories that you typically wear?

Mara

Okay, very important to note that Bomba clothing today is not the same as before, very important. Why? To begin with, obviously if we talk about what the Puerto Rican Bomba is, we are talking about the genre that was invented in Puerto Rico once the Africans had arrived and began to get together and mix rhythms, right, among themselves, among what was happening here , there were still quite a few Tainos who also had instrumentation, which obviously the Spanish were, and the Europeans, which they saw, right. So the clothes varied from a simple garment, which was true because many of them did not even come with their African attire, others already came with their slave clothes from the plantations, which we know that the clothes were what their masters gave to them, that is very important to mention, because if we see many times we say, “Bomba’s skirt is the same as campo skirt, from the Jibaro clothing wardrobe,” true, although perhaps in time, perhaps we will change, but it is true, because technically the skirt is an imitation of European clothing and if we are going to see in all of Latin America this is how the people are, the Creoles wore their off-the-shoulder shirts and their skirts with ruffles, so technically it is the same. However, Black people, and I am going to show this soon, Black folks here already as they developing, the black folks who used the high-quality clothing that they left them, right, the mistresses left for them, or they gave it a bit of fabric or they could get it somewhere else, it was clothing that was more like vests, I would say European too. I’m going to teach a little about this, this is also, not only documented if you see series or novels or movies or, or on the internet, a lot of clothes from other countries appear that were also the same way, right. So, I’m going to show it to you, I’m going to show you here, what I’m talking about, about the vest, it’s something similar to this… so you can see, where does it look best? Here! I’m trying to make it visible.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

It’s just that since it’s white the light hits it…there, there I see it.

Mara

Here you can see, okay, so its sleeves are highly puffed, let me put it here so you can see it better, I’ll show you photos later, the sleeves are, perhaps, puffy and long like many of the vests and shirts in Europe were, during that time, oh my God, this sun is too much, its ribbons, right, and its well… it is very beautiful clothing, in fact, they also used, we see many representations that have their aprons, because well, obviously many were household slaves, others were not they were from the street, they were from outside, from work in the outskirts. So usually the petticoats, I’m just going to give you this example, this can be a petticoat or a skirt too, there is another white one, wait. I’m trying to search here, we go around to see where it looks best, here it is, it has ruffles, it has ribbons and the peculiarity of petticoats is usually that they have lace.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Is the lace at the bottom?

Mara

The lace, the ruffle is where the lace comes from, or from where they sew it down, this would be a ruffle, something that flies, that’s why they call it a ruffle, right, but this is the lace and the use of the lace obviously comes from the clothes of Europeans. Okay, it is very important to say that these are the clothes that I would say that the house slaves were the ones that most used, perhaps when they were free, a lot of them kept those clothes at the time as well and they could actually buy fabrics and they did the same, but we have here, the ruffle shirt, with a ruffle that is on the shoulder, this shirt is worn by Creoles, people who live in the countryside, Blacks, well, and it is legally usable, no one can say that it is wrong, it is totally correct, because it was the fashion, remember that we also have to think about the fashion that was used to maintain a line of who is who, because perhaps the cooks used this type of clothing more, those who were outside wore skirts that did not necessarily have to be too elaborate or too big. I’m going to show you here, this skirt that we see here, this one obviously has a ruffle, this is a ruffle, see, the last part at the bottom between the seam that when you turn it around, it rises, okay, many times they did it with fabric of the same color, white, remember that white was the cheapest, and also because it highlighted the color of the skin, that cannot be denied. They also used gingham fabric because the checkered fabric was always there, always, obviously this is with a flower fabric because it is more modern, obviously, but it is a skirt that at most measures about, about four yards. That is another thing, very important at that time there was not enough fabric especially in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Ricans were not rich, they were quite poor, and the clothing cannot be compared, and I repeat, it cannot be compared with any other clothing in Central America or some other Latin American country in that regard, because we didn’t have a lot of money, and the fabrics, the suits were tighter, I mean really when they danced Bomba they didn’t raise their skirts up to here like today, they raised it enough to show the petticoats, which obviously the petticoat that I showed you has nothing in it, but they decorated the petticoats with shells, ribbons, they even added mirrors and well.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what century or what century is this or what…

Mara

I think that there is a giant evolution here between obviously the 1500s to when the most historical arrival of blacks to Puerto Rico in the fifteen hundred and seventy-something, I would even say the 1900s because remember that fashion although you see it change a lot but in some classes it doesn’t change that much. So obviously everything evolves within what they wear, what they wear, well they wear rags because they had to cover themselves with something until the Europeans start giving them clothes, okay. Just like they did with the Tainos, they dressed them and gave them warmth with their clothes and well, they are truly evolving their styles, okay. This thing about the little ribbons is very important and that is very curious with the petticoats, because the petticoats used to be shown when dancing, we could even say that it was like, the competition between women, of whoever has the most beautiful petticoat, they would put on mirrors because of the evil eye so that it bounces back and forth and well, little bits of truth, I’m really hoping at some point to make a petticoat like that and they had snails, quotes, etc, but of course we are talking about black people who could get things, buy other things, other materials, get the materials that they had the freedom to do. Obviously, that is the clothing that we have approved to represent a time, okay, a time, a few centuries, an era, but of course things change and vary, and now women, that too, it is also important to mention, women used long petticoats, then cuts, and then small pieces of cloth, they were underwear, you couldn’t show it to the public because it was something private, no, so that thing of lifting your skirt to show it didn’t exist. Very important nowadays we wear leggings, pants, jeans, whatever, so we don’t necessarily have to wear petticoats, so we’re going to wear skirts, we don’t even wear skirts that much, so things change and then comes this situation, you get to be able to use any type of clothing that you have on or something more modern to bring Bomba to the, to the modern, to the now, right, so let’s talk a little bit, if you allow me, about the street Bomba. Okay, when we talk about street Bomba, in the batey, in the totem, in the place to eat, or whatever, people, well, as I say, we no longer wear skirts, much less a petticoat, then we have here the regional matter. Bomba of Loíza was better known for being known more for its physical movements, instead of so much with the skirt, the skirt was used more because of course they danced with a skirt because they had the skirt on but, it was more to show their petticoat or for some movements that they could do with the skirt, including it, but for the most part it was more with physical movement, of course now, I bring this up, because now that we go to the street in jeans and tennis shoes, and we are normal…as we are to dance if we don’t have a skirt, we don’t have a skirt now what am I going to do? Well, we have started to dance with our hands and body, our hands often imitating the movement of the skirt to do some kind of step, which sometimes looks good but honestly, sometimes I watch people dancing, and myself on video, and I say if I were a tourist I woudn’t know what I was doing with my hands…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

You don’t understand much if you don’t have the context…

Mara

Exactly, then I can be confused either as a tourist or as a person that does not know I could get confused. However, I, obviously the musicians know what is happening and so do I and the rest of us who dance, but it has been the case that now people dance more to what people think is their body because they don’t have the skirt, they don’t have the rest of the dress, they don’t have a scarf, sometimes you dance with scarves or something but it’s not the same so you also start to see Loíza’s steps in other styles. That is very important to say because that has a lot to do with clothing, additionally it has to do with people starting to dance today and how people are mixing, without wanting to, they mix one genre, one with another but many times I understand today, and I’m going to give them a pat on the back, because it also has to do with the lack of accessories, because if you no longer need the skirt to dance, then what are you going to do, well, you have to dance with your body how you feel, then you move your hips, you move your shoulders a little more, because that’s what you have, hello? Obviously. Then that is the case, okay, having said that, then we go to the part of the stage when we are projecting and representing or simply bringing the Bomba and doing a show. Obviously things change when you are on stage if you are representing the country in the early years, like these dances from the 1700s, 1800s, well you have to represent as it is, with the clothes you really have to do it because it is what they had, but that does not mean that the Bomba has stopped playing and that they have brought it to a more modern show, which you do not necessarily have to have petticoats, you can also have a skirt underneath or pants underneath, but for that reason many times you add more skirt more yard of fabric. Why? Because you can’t be showing your panties around or you can’t be showing your pants, obviously, when you dance with more yards, it gives you the advantage of not being able to see what’s underneath, so for a performance you say, “oh, those colored skirts look pretty,” but what happens is that they are so big that, I’m going to give you a good point and a bad point, a good point and a bad point. If you are a person who knows about dancing, you say but it looks like Mexico or it looks like Panama, because your skirts are too big.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

They look alike.

Mara

It happened to us without, without, having the normal campo and Bomba skirts, they always asked us in other countries that if we were from Mexico, if we were from here or there, and we would say, “no, I’m Puerto Rican, I’m from Puerto Rico,” Ok imagine. Now that we have the accessibility of having this type of skirts that are so long and so, big, now, now we go with a good point. When we are dancing we dance with these skirts that “by the way,” the golden one that I have was made for me LEM skirts, unpaid ad, and there is the blue one, this one is different, totally different, but I’m going to explain to you why I made them like that too, this one is beautiful. So, it turns out that for dancing, it is an advantage for you as a dancer, because they always make a difference between a social dancer and a professional dancer. It gives you an advantage of making more figures with your skirt, since you wear your little skirt, you know that you are going to a dance Bomba and you start to dance, if you wear a traditional skirt it is a little shorter, because you dance a little more traditionally, with steps that are more within reach of what traditional dancing is, but then if you go with a bigger one it also gives you the option to even mess up everything, I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, and do things that we would never view with favor before, okay, why? Because they are Bomba steps that you say, “but what are they dancing? they seems like a strange person.” Of course, everything evolves, everything changes, everything changes according to what we are experiencing…there are some that are well rooted that this should not change, there are others that are more open, I am in the middle, because I think that depending, depending on what we are going to project. If I am going to dance, let’s say, at an international festival and I am going to say this is from Puerto Rico and this is the folklore of Puerto Rico, what we are projecting is ancestral dances and I am going to dance the jibaros dance as they danced in those years, well, that brings another mess too, sometimes thse skirts fly and they look like the ones from Mexico, and not necessarily, and we are, and dancing traditionally, I can’t, I’m not going to show you as an audience something that is much more modern, because then you think that the folklore, what is ancestral, a popular word today, well that’s how it used to be, it’s with the big skirt, no. Now I have to be very responsible with that information. You know if I’m going to show you something, when I wear those skirts, I wear them for my show, La Rumbera del Caribe, or I wear them for whatever I want, when I go dancing too…but I have the obligation to tell you as an audience, this is a, how do you say the word? It’s a…I lost it, well anyway, this is a, not with enthusiasm, but it’s as if it were Bomba, but obviously the costumes are more modern, we have brought Bomba to modernity, so obviously if I wear more shirts, other things, well obviously I am giving you the information that you need to know that this is what is worn today.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly.

Mara

That’s how it is today. Many times they don’t do it, so they go around to festivals and things and I’ve seen them and I can’t tell them anything because sometimes people don’t like it when you tell them something, but I resist to give them maybe, I don’t want to say give permission, because the truth is we all need it, but I refuse to believe that we really have to do that to be able to go to festivals, no, you have to be responsible with what you have, and especially at festivals where there are other people from other countries, who are in the same event as you representing their country. So, you have to stay in line with what is traditional if you are going to do traditional, and if you are not going to do traditional you must say, this dance, the dance is traditional, however, the other thing that is allusive, that’s the word that I was looking for, the costumes are allusive to what it was before, now it is more modern, I don’t know, something has to change.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, that is very interesting and makes sense so that, for the audience that is not Puerto Rican or that perhaps does not know, they do not get confused, they do not say, “oh well that was what they wore before,” when that is not the case. That’s very interesting. And then when you dance today, you then said that you use those that you showed were like gold…

Mara

I use all of them, for example, I like to vary. If I’m going to do my shows, my shows are different because since I sing Latin American songs too, I mean I do a Caribbean and Latin American show, then I have the license to use everything. However, I always do, whenever I go to dance Bomba or something and I wear that type of costume, out of respect and awareness, well, I say it, I say it, I make the assertion that it is an allusion to modern costumes, but I do use everything, I use scarves, I use my body, or I use the more traditional skirt too, it’s very interesting, very good.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes that is awesome, and you said that one of those skirts was made for you, the LEM skirts, and usually do you have a seamstress or do you have ones that a family member gave you, how do you obtain these materials, or how have you obtained them?

Mara

Well, I have of everything, for example I have the one that I showed you first that has gone from being a show skirt to a practice skirt, because it is already torn… the one with the flower ruffle, that was my mom’s. I have donated dresses, inherited costumes, I have, well, my first Bomba costume, which I actually have in Texas, in a warehouse, it was given to me by Meni Nuñez who was an Areito dancer, she is still a collaborator, and I remember that she left the group and told me, “you are going to inherit all my wardrobe,” and I felt so proud, because she is a tremendous dancer, and a tremendous Bomba dancer, she is excellent, that woman is something else, she is not a well-known dancer out there that people see her in places, no, she stayed, she left for religious reasons, but whenever she, well, she started dancing, I mean I’ve seen her there, you have to see her, you have to stop to look at her, because you can see her love, first of all and obviously security has a lot to do with the dancing part. And well, I inherited many things from her, I inherited her full dress, her petticoat, not her Bomba petticoat, but her Bomba dress, yes, the color she wore in Areito in the campo dance part was yellow and well, when she left, I stayed and among others and the taller ones we used yellow, but technically I used it more, well, very cool, I have inherited many nice things, really, yes, from my mother, from my cousins, ​​from my cousin who also dances, what can I tell you.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And I can see that inheriting these dresses gives you a lot of emotion, but of those ways of obtaining a dress: inheriting it, buying it from a seamstress, buying it from anyone else, are there any of those, some of those methods that you usually prefer or…?

Mara

Well, it all depends, but I have a seamstress who makes my dresses, she is Honduran, for economic reasons and no, she is also a tremendous, tremendous seamstress. And obviously she knows what she’s doing because she makes folkloric costumes for Hondurans too, so the Honduran clothes, she has that reference and when I have to show her, well I show her this is what I want, that’s how I want it. LEM skirts, definitely, Maribella, I have contacted her several times, she made me that gold skirt plus the girls’ skirts for another one, for our 18th anniversary, she made the blue one for me because I asked for it that way, I wanted to do it blue with silver, many people tell me it is for religious reasons, well it could be too, but more because it is a color that fills me, it is a mixture of colors that fills me, and more than that, if I am going to do things that are more out of the traditional, then I want it to be showy. I have another seamstress who made the jacket that I showed you, it was made by another girl who sewed for Johny Rey, Johnny Rey’s costumes were made by her, she is from Carolina, tremendous lady, kisses wherever she is. And well, well, I have had quite a few experiences, my aunt has sewn for me, my cousin, but I like to inherit things sometimes, I think that inherited things when they fit you of course.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Important.

Mara

Important, they have a value, because they already have that experience that energy from that experience of that person who used it before, of course we are talking about dance. You say, “oh, but the new things are pretty,” yes, of course, of course, who doesn’t like having something pretty made for them, of course, but the fabric changes with use, with the dancing it gets easier sometimes, that weight of that experience is also there, I used so many inherited dance clothes that it really was, it was already normal for me to also inherit that energy with which the person also dances so it is something very fun, so I think that for me it’s very special, although of course new things are always popular and always good for the show, of course.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and do you think that where a dancer or practitioner obtains their materials for their clothing takes away or adds authenticity? For example, if a dancer, if it is made by a Puerto Rican seamstress or if someone buys it from Walmart, which apparently Walmart is selling Bomba dresses or Bomba skirts…but do you think that affects the authenticity of the clothing?

Mara

No, definitely not. Obviously, if you are going to dance Puerto Rican folk dances you are not going to go to the Mexican store to buy a Mexican costume to make…now I am going to tell you something, and I am going to confess, I recently contacted a Mexican seamstress who makes Mexican costumes, he has some skirts that are exactly the same as Bomba’s and I told him, “How much do you sell them for?” The material is different, I want to try it, and since they are a little more open than traditional skirts, they are more or less part of the modern thing that they are trying to wear here and he told me so much and I said, “perfect, I want you to make me three.” Now I have to add two more but I want you to do them for the things we are doing now, that doesn’t mean that I won’t look Bombera when I dance. Why? Because it is technically the same as I told you before, the Hispanic skirts, of the Hispanic dances, so to speak, they are almost the same as the Bomba skirts, some are a little narrower, others more depending, right, but they are technically with the ruffles and the rest. I remember in Areyto sometimes we didn’t have time to do things, the changes were very fast and we didn’t have the space, so what we did was we danced with the jibaro dress underneath, which was for jibaro dance and the Bomba bodice, then you would put on the scarf according to the color of the suit so that you wouldn’t look so, so mismatched, then we would dance the part of Bomba with the jibaro suits, no one knew anything, no one realized because what really mattered was the movement and dance per se, so really wherever you buy from, I buy Bambi’s jibaro costumes, I have bought, I think that petticoat that I showed you is a skirt that I bought at Bambi, in fact, from Bomba, which what you have to do is decorate it because it is not decorated but really, that has nothing to do with where you buy, there is, I think that from the photos we have, which I sent you some photos, there is a photo of me dressed in complete white with a gold headwrap and the costume also has a little something here, those are church dance costumes, my cousin bought it for some shows she had with her group, she invited me to dance with them and we recorded, we did everything, the costume was spectacular because we had our petticoats down, the skirt was volatile enough, so to speak, to be able to dance quietly, who says that that is a costume of what, I mean I think that here it doesn’t matter where you buy it, who makes it for you, The material, really, what matters here is what you do with it and what you want to project with it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And of the different costumes, as you mentioned, you wear everything, right? Is there any costume style that you identify with most?

Mara

From my Bomba costumes, of course. Well, I think so, I think so, but I have to differentiate the Mara of before and the Mara of now, I have to do it because before I didn’t do some things that I do now. Before, I was only dedicated to Puerto Rican folklore and well, still, but before it was the only thing that I projected, and, and obviously for me I think that the bomba jacket, the earrings, this gold ones, my, my, my, my bead necklaces. In the group we used gold, sometimes we changed colors to make it look more attractive, more cheerful. I loved it and I love it and the turbans…the turbans fascinate me and right now I want to, if you allow me, to put one on…I have always loved turbans, excuse me?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, you can wear it, you can show how to wear it…

Mara

So, well, I love it, that part of my wardrobe fascinates me. The petticoat, I believe that the elaboration of the petticoat, the complete costume, has so much meaning that really when you project it on a stage or put it on to dance in a parade or wherever you feel like putting it on to project that specific time has so much meaning that when I actually wear it, I, I, I feel like a very powerful woman, a woman from that time, but really, well, I had the power because the clothes gave me that power, since I had a lot of fabric, I don’t know something strange, but I felt very empowered and, cool! Now in this Mara now, how things have changed, my, my show as such has changed, now I am the rumbera of the Caribbean, now it is not just the Puerto Rican projection, but also Latin America, the Caribbean, the mix between one thing and another. So I already feel that I can, right, be empowered with some other techniques, for example, wearing shirts that are, even if they are not very rumba, one of these that are from the shoulder, but that are perhaps sexier, use of turbans and scarves. There is the fashion of also bringing the, the, the African fabric and everything that that entails. I was presenting Puerto Rico and Honduras in the, in last year’s carnival of the ceiba in Honduras, which is the largest carnival in Latin America, in Central America and we were representing and what we wore was shorter, cooler African clothing in appearance, we wore our turbans, we wore our skirts to dance, shorter, it seemed more like plena style, but it was not necessarily what we project as plena, as Puerto Rico. So now I have the freedom to say that I can wear my new skirts and feel just as empowered as if I used my other one, my other wardrobe, right, to feel projected there.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That evolution, right, I like what you said, the Mara of before, the Mara of now, because feelings sometimes change or circumstances sometimes change, but one kind of, right, feels the same or as you said, a little more different, that’s really cool.

Mara

While you ask me the other question, I’m going to look for my turban and I’m going to put it on.

[Cut 52:50 to 54:38]

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Do you think that the different contexts in which one puts on the clothing and by context I mean, there are the folkloric presentations, there are the resistance presentations in a, a demonstration, for example, in, in old San Juan, there are the, the Bombazos, you know, that there are different contexts with different circumstances and purposes. Do you think that affects clothing or how you feel about clothing?

Mara

Well, that question is very interesting because obviously we return to the fact that today you go to the Bombazos or wherever there is that type of music with the clothes you are wearing. Okay, it’s optional to wear the skirt. If you are a dancer who feels better with a skirt than dancing without a skirt or with any other item, then wear your skirt, that is, you have to wear it because you feel comfortable, so for you, it should be optional for that type of dancer. However, if you don’t have the skirt at the moment, well, you have to, you have to, and you want to dance, then you are going to dance like, with what you have, with what you have on. Of course, that affects, perhaps not in the way people respect others, for what they want to dance. Why? Because if I go, is it okay? Okay, if I go, for example, to, as you said, the protest in San Juan and I know that there is going to be Bomba, but it is not necessarily the Bomba that I want to dance to which is for myself, but it is to project a situation that is happening. And I’m wearing my clothes, shorts, flip flops, a backpack and I want to dance, well obviously I can dance and I dance and I make my moves. I don’t have clothes for, for… a presentation or I don’t have clothes, I don’t have a skirt, but at the moment someone comes along someone who wants to dance. They also didn’t have a skirt, but they had a big scarf, a stole, and they started dancing with the stole because the way they dances is more with, with a skirt, they didn’t have the skirt, but they danced with their stole. Me, if the person who went, who went with shorts and had nothing, they can’t criticize that person, they can’t see him in a bad light. “Ah look at this one, she came with a stole, over here, but with how hot it is…” And you can’t criticize them, because it is their way of dancing, everyone has to respect the style they are going to dance at that moment, as you say according to the circumstances. The same thing happens that if at the moment I know that there is going to be Bomba and I say, “ah well maybe I want to dance there, I’m going to take my backpack, I’m going to take my, my skirt,” I’ll put it in my backpack and I put it on there, cool, and if it’s worth it, I’ll put it on in the place and start dancing, because that’s my way of representing that type of dance, because I know that I dance Bomba that way with a skirt. I have the responsibility of, taking it as my responsibility because I feel like it. Not necessarily because I want to steal the show or because I want to stand out or whatever, at that moment, remember, we are talking about an example of a protest where there is Bomba. We’re not even talking about, that there’s a stage or anything, we’re talking about the streets, so that was my option to take it. No one can say, “look at this one or look at her dancing with a skirt here on the street, in San Juan, when there is that one…” And you came in flip flops, I came in tennis shoes, they can step on you and it hurts, but not me. you understand what I mean, so really that is something that has to do with the personality and with the person, the individual who is going to go to that place and what he thinks depending on the music there is. I don’t think there should be that problem, however, obviously it does affect, obviously, it affects because again I tell you, we no longer wear petticoats to go to protests, nor do we wear long skirts on our common day.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you think that your different, your experience with Bomba’s clothing, affects how you feel about your Puerto Rican identity?

Mara

Personally for me, no, but I do know that, and I am going to talk a little about the people who are in the United States or some other country, many times, because we have to work and deal with what we have. Something very curious happened to me and maybe it has nothing to do with the clothes, but more or less it has to do with Bomba, because many times we did not have drums and we had to work with recorded music, with congas. It wasn’t the usual, it’s not what it’s supposed to be, but we had to do something. That doesn’t mean that I was going to stop being Puerto Rican, the conga, the timba, it’s just a drum as well. Of course, it’s different because it is Cuban, but it was what we had, because no, the person who had Bomba drums never wanted to lend them or rent them or anything, so well, we had to deal with what we had and there wasn’t the money to buy the drums, so yeah. The same thing happens with clothes, if there are people in the United States who don’t have, someone who can make them or how to get some clothes, not now, because now there is more accessibility, but in the old days especially, because they had to deal with what they had, especially with what they thought it was prudent to have, which was the original clothing, right, with the little that they could have known. So maybe they had to deal a little bit with not having some of the tools. Maybe it doesn’t have to do with feeling Puerto Rican, but rather how to represent being Puerto Rican with music, etc. Maybe that would have been more of the dilemma. Many of course do not know the Puerto Rican experience in other countries, because it is limited, because many people do not know many details that teach what they know. So, many are half American, half, half, Puerto Rican, so they have that mix and I saw a lot of people who had that kind of problems, and I tried to help as much as I could in my case, for example, to, to teach them what , the, the details that I know that I am not, I don’t know everything, but at least I knew something that could perhaps guide them a little better, but I did see a little bit of, of in the, in the, as to what, what I had and what I have to wear, so sometimes they used Jamaican or other types of scarves, of ethnic origin that were not Puerto Rican, then sometimes with the clothes, sometimes they used Mexican costumes to dance jíbaro. I got to see it, I got to see very strange clothes used for Bomba dances, you know that then you meet with some of those that I was able to intervene, teach them, but there are others that will have to deal with what they had and with that part of identity. Here on the island and for example for me it doesn’t, it doesn’t change the feeling for me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And by any chance, do you think other parts of your identity affect your relationship with the Bomba clothing?

Mara

Other parts of my identity.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, for example, as a woman, as a universalist, other parts of, of who you are.

Mara

Yes, it definitely also happens. As I explained to you about the blue dresss, that dress, many people asked me why I wanted a blue dress for Yemaya, for the Virgin of Regla, or for whoever it is, for the Virgin of the sea, so to speak, to give it a detailed name. I asked some Cuban friends for it, in fact, before making that one, because I wanted one exactly like one I saw. And, well, I realized, they never did it to me and I said, “ah well, I’ll have to do it,” and I said, “this could be something allusive to what I want,” and I did it. Not necessarily all the time I wear it is for that reason, no, but I did do it in a representation of a deity of a spiritual situation that I believe a lot in and that is in the sea. And, well, I got carried away, we did it, I love it when I put on the turban and everything it fascinates me, because it’s the whole thing. You saw one of the photos that I also sent you dancing with it, with the blue dress, I love how you see in that photo I am with a, with the, with the tube top, I made the turban into a tuve top, the one where I don’t have anything on top, so I also give it that variety. Obviously it gives a personal touch to what you are wearing, the necklaces, I make these necklaces, for example, and these ones you can, you can, how do you say it? You can dedicate them to any spiritual thing that you need or something that you feel good about, it is not necessarily the same necklace that my ancestors wore, that I know, but it is something very personal and that I, that I wear it with my clothes to dance, well of course I’m going to wear it, why not? Just like my bracelet, my thing, because that is my style that I am giving to what I am projecting. There are many people who, who, who don’t, it’s simply what they wear and that’s because it’s the projection only of, of that time, but perhaps they don’t put a personal touch on it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And you who have had so many experiences with audiences, right, maybe you have had experiences with Puerto Rican people who know a lot about Bomba and people who don’t know as much about Bomba. What kind of information have you learned about how people feel about clothing through those interactions with other people?

Mara

Oh yes, for example, with turbans mostly, well today I believe that turbans have always been very important for Afro culture mostly and people don’t know that peasants also used scarves in different ways, they did just used flowers, they also used scarves and they used other types, really, of things like that on their heads, but I have learned the different ways to put on a turban, I know the basics, wow! but I have friends who do magic and they put them here and they put them there, and when I get the inspiration, I do it, but sometimes I get tired and I go with it. But I think that the turbans are not only from our African heritage, we have to think that in our African heritage we also have an Arab part and it does not necessarily come to us through the African heritage, it also comes through the Spanish heritage and, right, through the peninsula and that we love turbans for that reason and that we also have to learn from there and I have other friends who have taught me another type of, of, of putting on a headcovering in a different way that is more Arab than, well, African that I have learned with, with people, with people, we made a very beautiful forum, and we talked about clothing and it was wonderful because we talked about so many things that are not necessarily African, but that are part of our bombistic heritage, of our Afro, Creole, Afro, the Afro Puerto Rican, like what I was explaining to you about how the bodices stayed in fashion, but really that fashion came, it’s European. So they adopted that, so that’s the wonderful thing, the wonderful thing is how we are defending all these changes today and also when they happened in the time before, also those changes and they had that modernity too. I have learned a lot from people who, who talk to me about the clothes, about what they used. Well, we return to the petticoats, so I have learned a lot from this type of people, company directors, friends who are musicians, who also definitely study costumes and so on.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What, do you think that the Puerto Rican society has any specific Bomba messages, or how do I say, they promote typical, specific Bomba messages and do you think that, that, that… let me go back… What types of messages, if any? What do you think society promotes about bomba? Does that question make sense?

Mara

It can have a very great meaning, you know…because we can say that, what society is projecting today and sending a message is that the black community of Puerto Rico and not necessarily only black folks, but we are going to talk about the, the point that, that Bomba comes from black culture, right? But we’re going there, we’re going to integrate the others in a bit. And the message is that these people live, that is, they are here and they have tools that, as we said just now with the example of the 8M marches, on March 8, and that whole issue, they can, they can mobilize huge numbers of people through Bomba. The message they are carrying is that we are alive, we are here and we are many and we have one, a culture that can move the country by itself and it has been demonstrated in recent years, as we have seen, how other genres of folklore have been overshadowed by Bomba. Not even plena has arrived, and plena has always been constant, but not even plena has arrived as far as Bomba has arrived. It has been intense and I tell you, this is not a job that was, of, of, of, two days, it was a job of several years, but it has arrived and mobilized people, it has mobilized in countries in Spain, in wow, in Honduras itself, in, in the United States, don’t get me started, and we make the comparison again with the plena, the plena, for example, in, in Uruguay it is a rhythm like bachata here, that is, in Uruguay they play plena like saying Prince Royce and all the others.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes.

Mara

And then not even, not even with that country, with it, with our genre, being so active, has it reached the, the resounding that the Bomba has had in recent years. Definitely the message has been very direct, forceful and now I am going, and it has opened doors for families and groups that have been there, that are not black, to come and be in the community and in the Bombera community. We are talking about families that have, true, mixed traits, but that are more white-skinned that are from the Bomba del Campo, the Bomba de Montaña, the, in Mayagüez, this other, another chapter of the Bomba in Mayagüez did not emerge, where it is no longer, it is not necessarily the ballroom Bomba as it was known now they also have a dynamic and theme of how it is danced, the why and a story behind it. That is, and they are not black, we all go, that is what I come to bring, that now we see that Bomba is not really just about black people, it is about the mixed Puerto Rican community that we are.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And yes, you can see, you can see it today what you are talking about, how it has evolved and how it has been a little more open towards, towards other…not communities because they are Puerto Rican, but, but those Puerto Ricans of different heritages. And the final question. Does your participation in Bomba and your Bomba clothing, that is, your use of Bomba clothing, affect your daily style, that is, what you wear daily, that is, how you present yourself daily?

Mara

What a nice question, because I know many people who do, who always walk around with their headwraps, others who are not necessarily from my time, but they always walk around in their more, more traditional skirts, things that one sees, right, curiously. In my case, as I told you, I have always liked the headwrap, I have always liked it, however, I don’t use them all the time, I don’t use them all the time, as I said before, I am a person who inside me, in my eclectic way of being, I am… I also like to vary a lot, I don’t like to be the same, I don’t like to burn myself, let’s put it that way and well I also like to have loose hair, I blow dry it or I iron it, which is normal for me, and then I put on the turban one day or another and that’s how I go through life. I like it like this, for example, my bracelet, my rings, if I’m going out, I like to always have it on, not necessarily for a reason, perhaps for a spiritual or energetic reason, but also because I like them, because I I like to keep bracelets and things like that. So it’s something quite personal to me, to my style. You don’t necessarily have to be a Bomba practitioner, but you can also, you can be from another country or anything else, for example, let’s see, these rings and I have, for example, you can say oh this is because obviously it’s a stone, it is not a tourmaline, it is… a black stone and then it absorbs the energy. We can think of that as cool, but I don’t necessarily wear it for that, I wear it because of my grandmother. So it has to do with different things. I have a tree of life, here a friend gave it to me, I love it, I do believe in, in the situation of what the tree of life is, etc., but is more like that. Look, I dedicated this necklace to her, yes, to everything that is femininity, femininity, in some they call it ochún, in others aphrodite, in anothers I don’t know, well, whatever it was, I dedicated it for that and I put it on and I feel that I love dedicating it that way, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be because it’s from Bomba or because it’s that, because it’s that, that is, my style, because I create it myself, I love to maintain my, people call me the rumbera of the Caribbean for a reason, right, but it’s more because of the party, because of the party, but the elements are also part of, my projection as an artist and also a part of me, as an artist, just as I love to wear tennis shoes and in, and in leggings and in sportswear it fascinates me, it also has nothing to do with, if I was athlete. It is very important, I wanted to mention to you, we were talking and I told you that a few years ago we started the folklore catwalks. That’s something that I, I love to mention because it made a difference because they always talked about Puerto Rican folklore, but we always talked about Bomba or Plena or some things, but we never went into the, the details and the elements of the clothes, for example, jibara, what was it like before? How has it changed from ballet performances? Because it’s not like that dance, out there at full blast, you can hear the music, but it’s not like people go to a country party to dance seis chorreao. The truth is that this has been devalued and we really have to bring it back because it is a very beautiful, very happy dance, but the same thing with the bomba, like on a catwalk, you can show a dance, a campo dress, a Bomba dress, a plena dress, a dance dress, a dance dress and not so not just dance, but high society dances. I mean, why did they have to be like that? How is dance affected? That is, there are many things that we can talk about both women and men, because we leave the man out, but it is of equal, equal importance, that is, when we made that movement it was something quite incredible how people began to , “Wow look how cool huh?” They are not dancing, they are simply representing their outfit and representing their country through their clothes, right, and we have seen on different catwalks like the ones from Miss Universe, when they do the, what’s it called? that of the typical costume, how they assign parts of the folkloric clothing to their, to their attire, to their trousseau, which is quite an illusion, right, but they assign it a little and they put some [inaudible] from, from the folkloric form.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes, I think I don’t know if it was last year that someone from, I don’t watch many of those competitions, but who had a typical costume inspired by Bomba and obviously no, it wasn’t the actual Bomba costume, but it was like with that element and it looked, it is very interesting how, how they mix that with folklore, well thank you for sharing your experience and thank you for answering the questions that I have asked you now, right, I asked you for the photos. Let’s now choose some and then I’ll ask you some questions about, about them, I’m going to look for them in WhatsApp now and you tell me which ones to…

Mara

We can discuss all of them, because the ones I sent you, all the ones I sent you have something important , you choose, you choose what is greatest, most feasible for you.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, well let me start from the beginning. Is this the first one, right?

Mara

That was the one I sent you first, that’s from a “photoshoot” that my daughter did for me, which hasn’t been completed yet, that’s because we needed it for an interview in Mexico and I told her, “edit one of those quickly.” (See Figure 1)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Is this recent?

Mara

Oh?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Is it recent this year?

Mara

Yes, yes, yes, it’s been a few months, it’s just that my daughter took a long time to edit it because it’s free… you know.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That, that’s true, that takes time. And she is in the same skirt that you showed me, the, the blue one?

Mara

With, with, with silver.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay then there’s your turban.

Mara

I have my turban, that is the white turban made, and what I did was that the turban, since it is very big, I put it on like, like, like a shirt. In fact, I have another photo of me with the proposed turban as if it were a one-sided, one-sided shirt…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ah yes they call it off–shoulder, something like that.

Mara

It looks pretty nice too, but that one isn’t ready, that’s why I can’t give it to you because it’s, I should put a “please do not photoshoot” on it, so, well, I’ve tried to behave well, but let me see if she has it ready as this is going to come out later on, well maybe, because that one also looks very good matching of clothing.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So the next photo looks like, I don’t know…

Mara

What this is showing is a Bombazo, that was in ’98 when we are taking out, as I told you, Bomba to the street and thats in Piñones, but so you can see that we did wear the white gingham skirt, not too long in the most traditional style, so with that we danced in that crowd that you see there of people, that people began to accept, “wow, this is what happens, look, how cool.” So that skirt, for example, I put it on different people, on different women who wanted to dance, so I took them out to dance and I would teach them a little, right, so they knew what they had to do. I’m talking about anyone who was there, white, black, Chinese, French, Dutch, whoever was there, tourists, who were there, Puerto Ricans, who wanted to dance and have an experience, that was what we had, what we did. (See Figure 2)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, there are a lot of people there, wow

Mara

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How awesome, and that, right, the person in the picture was part of your group or was that also someone that you…?

Mara

It’s me! It’s me in ’98.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Oh wow!

Mara

That is half of what I am today.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, and then when you give it to someone, right, for example, a tourist, whoever is there, who didn’t know much, you teach them dance steps or…?

Mara

Yeah, we had to teach them several steps, you had to, you know, at least the, the basic steps that they could defend themselves so that they would not do, right, that they would have more or less an idea, because it is not the same as I told you, dancing salsa, you are watching people dance and more or less when they ask you to dance you say, “what do I do?” but with the same swing you move from the back to the front, but not with the Bomba, because you are alone in, in, in front of people, so what are you going to do, if you don’t know what you are doing, then we had the responsibility of at least giving them two or three steps so that they could at least defend themselves, and then if they did anything else, that’s one them.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That’s on them. So this is, I imagine this is similar to folkloric and I see a little bit of the petticoat with the little bows, right?

Mara

Yes, yes, I think I sent you another one with, so that you can see it, in which you can see the little bows, that one is so that you can also see with the more traditional skirt, how the steps are also limited, of course, I was taught and I am very faithful to what they teach me that you cannot be dancing with your skirt over your face and covering everything, because first you are in a, first it doesn’t look good, second you are in a presentation where the, the gestures are very important. And remember that we are talking about, in that photo specifically I was on a stage, on a stage, the audience wants to see what you emanate and to know what you emanate they also have to see your face, your gestures and the, right, and what you do. So, if I’m here all the time, you won’t see me…but you saw that since the skirt is shorter, it doesn’t go all the way to the top, it goes all the way to the shoulder, a little higher, but I wasn’t going to do, so really these steps here the height for me to dance was here the neck, the neck, around the neck. (See Figure 3)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and what year was this?

Mara

That was in 2009, 2009 and 2009, there are some that are from the same place in 2010 but 2009.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And I have this next one, that’s the one, the golden skirt, right, the one you showed me.

Mara

The golden skirt, see, then that one, that was the year, that was about two years ago that photo. My daughter made it for me too, so you see how it changes that I no longer necessarily have to use it, because I am proyecting a more modern Bomba, I don’t have to use the complete bodice, unless I am going to use it for a presentation that I am going to represent, you know, technically, that I have used it, not that I don’t use it, but that it is traditional. So here I am going outside of the traditional, I am perhaps sexier, more, I don’t know, but I am still with my, with my elements. (See Figure 4)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, it does look more feminine too, but it’s interesting because it also has sleeves that are puffed up too, which is like you also have that…

Mara

gesture yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

It seems, exactly, but then.

Mara

Those details are what make it the same, but now it is a little more modern.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

A more modern version. So the headwrap is like more a, a different material, right?

Mara

Yes, that headwrap was a, a “scarf” of my mother. So, that’s the same thing, you get it, it depends on how you put it on, I really like it because it has the same colors as the skirt, it has other brighter colors, it has the little hangings that I put there so that they can be seen, that is, it has a different theme, but technically it is a headwrap that I can wear at any time, or in any performance.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay. Yes, it goes better with the skirt. And it looks… so I have this one.

Mara

Okay, I want you to know that that group, that video I saw the other day, which was from a group from New York that appeared on Sesame Street, but incredibly when you call me and I say, I watch the video, I say, “Wow, I have, I have to show this to her,” because it’s true that we were talking about the groups that had diversity with the, with clothing. Well, there the girl has the headwrap, she has the shirt on her shoulder, right, that is a shirt that we call it, right, I call it a Creole shirt, because it is technically what the Creoles more or less wore. Not having a vest or anything like that, that is, they do not have the most formal clothing as we were talking about the distinctions in clothing of, forgive me, the distinctions of the Black folks according to their clothing as well. Maybe she doesn’t know it, she didn’t, she put it on without thinking about any of that, of course, but she has the skirt with the ruffles, with the little bows too, so that element can be seen there, that is, so, it is important that they see that, in the United States, although perhaps they had less, it is not that they had fewer economic resources, obviously, they didn’t have the resources to get the clothes, someone had to make them. But the clothing that they made was this type of clothing that is traditional, but it is another type of clothing that we can use together for the traditional Bomba, which is not necessarily the one, the one with the vest, with the lots of ribbons.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And is this also the same one or another one?

Mara

That’s the same thing, that’s because I wanted you to see the ruffle at the back, how the shirt runs completely, it’s not just the front part, like sometimes there are shirts out there and you see that the little skirt thing isn’t a little skirt either. here, nothing to do with it, it is a shorter, more manageable skirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So this one has the same costume as the other one.

Mara

So that you can see it more or less and see how it changes from the part of, of the figures, with the skirt, with the figures and the skirt we can work and when the skirt is bigger, you can make a seagull. (See Figure 5)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Like a silhouette…

Mara

You can do more things… it sounds like I am mocking it, but I’m not mocking, it’s that you can really see, there are steps that you, I see, look like a flying bird.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

They do look like peacocks with, really, with these things like that.  

Mara

I saw myself the other day I was dancing in a Bombazo here, and I wore the blue skirt. And I started to dance and I started to watch the video and I said, “I haven’t gotten much use out of that skirt,” because I do some bigger movements but almost everything is lower like I got used to dancing that it’s more normal, more traditional for me, maybe the large amount of fabric, for me is even uncomfortable on certain occasions, so I’ve had to get used to, to try to do some movements and I, I see sometimes that, like I don’t necessarily do it, I don’t get the juice out of the skirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Then there is this one.

Mara

OK that’s me at a, last year’s festival “Renace.” That is a character that I have called “the chocolate doll,” it turns out that what you see there is the traditional white skirt. It’s not very big either. And above, more colorful shirts and more colorful headwraps. Of course, she is not representing an ancient era. Why? Because in ancient times there were colors, but we did not have enough money to buy so much colored fabric and other things. And that, obviously, those prints did not exist the same as the flower prints, we always put flower prints on the campo dances for that time that we are representing, that’s not of that time, that came much later, so there is, one has to have that, that, that historical knowledge of the dates and when it arrived and when it didn’t, to be able to stay up to date, right? But what, but when, when I play this character it’s a doll, well of course it’s already dressed, now I’m going to tell you something else, another scoop. The boy that I told you is Mexican, he is going to make me a costume that is from Jalisco. The thing is it is exactly the same as a Bomba costume. In fact, I’m going to send you the photo because the vest is exactly as I showed you, but in color, in one color, I have one in chocolate color and another in pink, and the same skirt with its ruffles and everything the same as a Bomba dress. I mean, look, look how far the European influence goes, how it impacts all of us who, all of us who lived here before, how it impacted. The same thing happens in Mexico, the same thing in other countries, so really in that same photo that you see she is, we are with elements of Bomba, but she is not necessarily with her, with her bodice or whatever, it is a little more modern and that is a fictional character, that is, it is, it is a doll that we are making. (See Figure 6)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes, beautiful. I love those colors. Then, there is this one.

Mara

Okay, that’s important, because we always talk about Bomba’s clothing, traditionally, what was normally worn, but in Loíza they have other styles of clothing because they have other characters, just as in Hatillo they have the knights of Hatillo, in Loíza they also have the vejigantes, the gentlemen, the old man, they have the crazy one, who is a man who dressed like that, he didn’t dress like a woman, but he would grab an apron and start sweeping and put on a handkerchief and start sweeping the house, on people’s balconies. Actually, that’s a true story and the guy wasn’t gay, nothing to do with it. They call him crazy because what he did was, well, sweep, obviously time changes and men begin to dress as women like from Miss Universe or whatever and they begin to make fun of that, but with another connotation towards the woman. This man was mentally ill and then he became an iconic character for the people of Loíza, for the Loíza festivities. So whenever Loíza is represented, or when you go to the Santiago Apóstol festival to the parade, you will see these men dressed as women, but it is because they are imitating a more modern version of that person who they called crazy who was a sweeper man. So there are other types of costumes, you see what they are like, and they are not necessarily for men or for women, because the vejigante was a man, but it can be a woman dressed as a vejigante. You know that the vejigante represents evil, the evil spirits, the old men represent the poor, the others who… Same, knights can be a woman dressed as a knight, same with the old men, so sex doesn’t matter, it has no gender, you have nothing. (See Figure 7)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, yes, wow.

Mara

Okay, it’s important for you to also see the rehearsal skirt, like, that was a student of mine, within the classes that she took, well, they had their rehearsal skirts that are generic. Those long ones could be used for Bomba or for campo dances, the plena ones were shorter, but in the same way she used that little skirt to do her movements or also to dance the campo dance. What I want to reitirate is that it gives us the, the, gives us the basis to say that the skirts almost had the same measurement, that of the, the campo dance, right, the jibaro people with the black people who were on the coast. (See Figure 8)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Mara

That, okay, very important, that and the other one are costumes that appeared a lot in what were the books, in school books or, for example, I was in Copani for many years, in the island ballet, and no, it was from the department of education, and in the brochures they told you about the folkloric costumes, they showed those costumes, and to do the dances they told you to use the same costume, but they gave you additional sleeves that you put on, which were to give it the look that it was a longer dress, but it was really the same dress. (See Figure 9)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And in that…oh go ahead.

Mara

No, no, tell me, tell me, what were you going to say?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

It’s that, right, for my thesis per say, I am trying to explain the different styles and their evolution. Does this type of dress have a name or definition?

Mara

That’s a jibaro costume, let me see something, let me see the photo you showed me…Okay, that one, look at them both, they are both technically the same, the only thing is that one of the skirts is a little wider than the other, the one with the vejigantes, symbolizes that it is Bomba’s, right? Then the other one that has a pavita hat, well, that is more jíbaro… but really that is the vision that, well, they gave it a name as such, no, it is simply Bomba or jibaro or dance… so no, a name as such per se for that no, no, no, you will not find it. However, you see they are almost the same, they just add a little more fabric, which I think is really not so correct. For the years, again, for previous years, from that time to now yes, but, but the skirts were not neccesarily too wide.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

But that, in that… that shirt, do you call it, is it called a ruffle?

Mara

Yes they are ruffled shirts, yes a ruffled shirt.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Was that more what mountain jibaros wore?

Mara

Yes, I’m telling you, it’s the same, and if you look at the costume of the people of Colombia…

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, they are very alike.

Mara

Very similar. If you go and check for yourself in Central America, make a comparison and it is almost the same. In fact, I’m going to tell you, let me see if I can…I’m going to get you a photo of the previous festival where, the previous festival called “Drums of America.”

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Mara

That festival. Is that the one from “Drums of America”? Yes, or I don’t remember which one…Yes, the “Drums of America” or it’s another one. Well, last years festival, and I’m going to look it up for you, because one of the groups, one of the groups danced exactly with clothes that were very, very similar, that’s cooler, right? because that shirt is cooler and to work it is much better. So that was a group where, a group from Honduras.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, and I have also seen the traditional costumes of Panama and they look very similar to what is known, what is known as the folk costume with the long sleeves, the…

Mara

And Panama had gold thread, well, with gold thread, we hardly had anything.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And almost all of them are made with cotton? Because that’s what, doing these interviews, almost everyone says it’s with cotton.

Mara

Yes, almost everything, obviously yes, the traditional ones are with cotton because it is the super fresh fabric, super good fabric, and it was the fabric that was available in in those times, that is, we cannot say…of course, today I have one that is made of satin and another that is made of, almost silk, I mean there are, we change because we want to do something more attractive when we are on stage or something like that, but that is not necessarily traditional. The traditional thing is that you use cotton for everything.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly, yes, so this, if I’m not mistaken, is the character of “la loca”.

Mara

See how that one is dressed, the other one dresses differently, the other one had a little dress and pants. A dress that is more like the plena dress, more normal, but not this one, this one is more dressed like more between, between jibaro and, and, and his Bomba bodice. (See Figure 10)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes.

Mara

I mean, it’s also allusive, that’s going to depend, right, on the person who directs it, how they to represent it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Oh exactly. And I also see the vejigante from behind.

Mara

And the broom, well obviously, so you can see the skirt, it is a traditional, normal Bomba skirt, and how we can also use it for other types of dance genres. There we were dancing “Boricua en la luna,” we were doing a, a cha-chachá.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Is that you?

Mara

¿Ah?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

¿Is that you?

Mara

Yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What year is this from?

Mara

That was in 2009, too, two thousand…let me see, yes, 2009. So obviously, we use that skirt for different things, there is, I think, another photo. I don’t know if I sent it to you because I had sent you some first that were not sent, but on that same day, that same dance, I had a headwrap, I had those same black clothes and the skirt and with the same skirt I was dancing, dancing Bomba. It was not representative in terms of all the clothes, but it was representative in the dance in what one wanted to wear through the dance. (See Figure 11)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, wait, I missed it.

Mara

Okay that was a bomba, you see, you see the skirt that I showed you, that now, it was no longer useful and now, now… that was a bombazo, that is so that you can see as we were putting the skirt, that was in Texas, on other people so that they will also have the experience and dance, that is, and that, in fact, that Bombazo we did with timba, not with Bomba drums, because we didn’t have, as I said, but the guys who played, they played well because they knew what they were doing. And we did a performance and got people to dance and it was really cool. (See Figure 12)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So, these next ones seem to be the same because these look like the same girls.

Mara

That’s my daughter’s quinceañera, what I’m trying to show you there is so that you can see that you don’t necessarily need the Bomba dance outfit for you to dance Bomba, well, there, for example, you see me there, there I am on the floor, but I wanted you to see that they played even Loíza style and obviously yes, I threw myself on the floor, but I didn’t necessarily need the skirt, I didn’t necessarily need anything, I was just dancing normally. In the case of the male, well, he didn’t have a hat, he didn’t have his vest, he didn’t have a scarf, nothing, he’s dancing with their body, with what he has on, it is obviously easier because they always dance like that, right, but in the one’s case, well, one has to deal with what there is, with what one has. (See Figure 13 & 14)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And here is the other photo, I think you told me that the petticoats can be seen more, I mean in…

Mara

There I am more traditional, there I’m totally traditional, of course, my petticoat was new at that time I remember that was in ’97, and ’98? I don’t know, I don’t know 98, 98, that was in ’98 in England and there was the petticoat, my mother, my mother had made it for me and she made it for me with one more ruffle. Usually there are four ruffles, that one had a little extra, that one had one more, it had one more and in fact the, the same shirt, was a little more voluptuous, but within the traditional range, okay, if you come to see the headwrap is not that it’s very fancy either, it’s a normal headwrap, everything is quite simple within the tradition. (See Figure 15)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And you said this was in England?

Mara

Yes, that was a festival in England…in Sidmouth, England, in Sidmouth, England.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Sidmouth…ah Sidmouth, England.

Mara

It’s like “Sigmouth” but it’s read Sidmouth.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I hadn’t heard of that place before.

Mara

Sigmouth and Brunson, the thing is that we stayed on one side and then we went to another, that one was in San Juan, there we also see the normal skirt, the people with their pants, I mean that’s where I wore my skirt because I had it there I put it on and went and danced, but it’s not necessary for me to do it. I like to dance with skirts, so I like to wear them or at least wear a scarf. That photo is so you can see how you one looks in pants and a skirt, I knew I was going to dance that day, so I obviously wore a skirt, so I took advantage, because I really like to dance with a skirt, I’ll be very honest with you, dancing without a skirt in the style of Santurce or Ponce or whatever, for me it’s not like it’s enough, I’ve done it, but I don’t, I don’t, I don’t like it very much, I like having some element where the movements can be seen more, because, now if it is Loíza well it is already different because then it is another, another dynamic. (See Figure 16)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay, and here are more photos of what you had already shown me…

Mara

So that you can see more or less everything that was done, that is a collage that I had made with Bomba’s skirt, because that is a Bomba skirt specifically, so, that, that we used it because it is a skirt that you can really use for anything for any type of, other genre of dance. (See Figure 17)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That’s so cool. That too is the same petticoat.

Mara

That’s the one, the same one that I had shown you first, yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And where was, where was this?

Mara

That was, that one and the one from, the, the skirt of, from Bomba that I told you are in, in Hartford, in the, in the Caribbean Jerk festival it’s called, and we were the first group from the, from the, from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean , Spanish-speaking, right. We were the first time that a group from Puerto Rico or Hispanics went to a, to a jerkfest festival. And we went 2 consecutive years, I imagine that afterwards they were calling the, the group that stayed there in, in, in Hartford, so well. (See Figure 18)

Figure 20: Mara at the Caribbean Jerk Festival

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, that’s awesome. There is this photo.

Mara

Yes, that is the same girl that I told you about with the boys, I want you to see the girl who has the Bomba one and the other girl who is more or less jibara. If you look what changes is the print, but technically the clothes are always, that type of clothes are a bolero style… (See Figure 19)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, that’s beautiful, and…oh sorry

Mara

That photo of the girl was in Texas.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So here’s another photo.

Mara

Aha, those photos that I sent you are because I want, those are for you, so that you understand, right, the relativity between the clothes that we use in Bomba, in, what is it called? in the campo and I say those two more, because they are the two oldest, well, and the gypsies and the people from Spain, and if you come to see the resemblance is evident because the skirts are almost the same. The bolero shirts also come from there, so we really have to see that when we are talking about creolized things such as the music of the Africans who did not arrive with Bomba, of course, they arrived with their music and their dances. The Bomba was formed here as a result of the mixture of themselves, of themselves with the other Creoles, with the people who were already here, obviously, because then they began to merge that was what created the Puerto Rican Bomba. Puerto Rican bomba has some specifications that we cannot say are African from Africa, they are Afro-Antillean, especially Afro-Puerto Rican and well, they are some details that are from here points that were formed on this island, just as others were formed in their respective countries, so that’s why it’s very important. Well, it is very important to know that matter of, well, our heritages are mixed and that we must know what, what mix they come from, where they come from and we should not criticize…Well, anyway to finish telling you what I was telling you was that, it is very important to understand what we are about, everything that happens in Puerto Rico, all our genres, are all Puerto Rican genres, mixed, we cannot simply attribute it to one side or another, because we are a mixture. The first Tainos were here with their music and there is a lot of jibaro music that has indigenous elements, in a lot of Bomba’s music it also has indigenous elements and in the same way the Europeans cannot deny it because no matter how much we want to separate it, unfortunately, we cannot let it happen to us as it happened in Honduras or as it happens in other countries that ethnic segregation is rampant. And it’s horrible because then everyone is Honduran, but everyone goes their separate ways, so the ones, the ones who dance the Spanish style, which are the campo dances, call them the Indigenous because it’s the only thing they know that are closer to the Indigenous culture, it’s crazy so well.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

There is also this photo.

Mara

Okay, that was in Dallas, there what I am representing is again that, that in any, that show was with guys who play music more, they play everything, they play Bomba, rumba, whatever, so I was totally traditional because what we were going to do, my part of it was traditional. Now later I changed and put on other clothes, I had the headwrap and other elements, but it was not traditional when I was already singing and doing other things. (See Figure 20)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Mara

Okay, that too, that was in Missouri, at a festival in Missouri with Areyto in, in, I want you to see the, the skirt part of, of, of, the campo clothes that I mentioned to you. That great similarity between one thing and another, because you remember that I mentioned that we danced Bomba too, we even danced Bomba with that type of dress on underneath. So that you can see that really, this style of clothing that is obviously for show, because I mean, the clothes were much simpler than that, but that we could use to dance another, another genre as well and I sent you that photo so you can see the, the similarity between one thing and another. Of course, the top part is a complete suit, that is, it has no divisions, but the bottom part of the skirt can be used for anything.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

But this is also in Bomba, right? They are also dancing. 

Mara

No, that’s jibaro, baile de la montaña.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ah, bailes de la montaña. This photo is awesome. This one is the same thing you had on in the other one, right?

Mara

The same clothes, that picture is somewhere else, years later. That was in Houston, and yes, that, the ruffles, the importance of having a ruffles is the, the eye-catching, the movement definitely. When you move the ruffles correctly it looks beautiful like, how it looks. (See Figure 21)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, the shape it makes is very interesting, it is very cool. And this one also looks pretty when it moves, the movement gives it life.

Mara

The components of the petticoat when you turn around or anything, they rise and look very attractive, of course, depending on the amount of ruffles it has and how they sew it. They are quite a lot, our Andalusian heritage is quite clear in that type of clothing. (See Figure 22)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And so, this is the last one you gave me.

Mara

Aha, that one, do you remember that I mentioned that we were at the carnival last year that we used more African fabric clothing, and what not? Well that’s it, so you see how you see that the, the, what’s it called? The, the skirt is, it is short, but the way of wearing the shirt, of wearing the headwrap is different, because it is already another type of, of, of, of coastal, and that does not mean that it was not used that way in Puerto Rico simply, because, this is the most feasible way to include everything that is Afro-Caribbean. Why? Because there are many little islands that dress that way to represent their Afro dances, that’s from there. Even in, in, in Honduras, although they use Creole clothing for their Garifuna dances, which are the black dances, they also use that type of fabric and that type of costumes for other performances. In other words, they really vary and it’s cool seeing that because you say, “ah, how cool because they have variety within the same thing.” (See Figure 23)

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Different variations and as each one represents that part, it is, it is beautiful and, right, thatwas the last, the last photo and I already asked all my questions. I wanted to say, thank you very much for your entire story, your experience, I have enjoyed learning from you, hearing from you. And I loved that you brought the pieces, so I am very grateful and honored to be able to have you at this moment. Would you like, do you have anything else to say, that you would like to share?

Mara

For the moment, thank you for allowing me, right, to be a part of your thesis and well, the little that I know, well, I am grateful to share because the worst thing in the world that one can do is die with information that others need and I believe that they do not, it is not just Puerto Ricans but the whole world in general, but we Puerto Ricans who struggle so much with our idiosyncrasy and our identity, and struggle to maintain the little that we can maintain of who we are, we definitely need to know our history and the details of our history and our culture, because the worst thing in the world is to go around the world preaching that you are Puerto Rican and when they ask you something about your culture, you don’t know how to answer. I think it’s embarrassing and sometimes it’s, well, it denotes cultural immaturity or cultural ignorance, so to speak, so it’s everyone’s responsibility to maintain that knowledge, pass it on, and if we don’t know it, that’s fine, it’s a matter of, of giving it to your children or givign them the tools to search for who they are. If you live outside of the island, especially if you live outside of the island, look for the right people or the right way for your children to learn about their culture, not just their dance and music, also, history, literature, there are so many beautiful things that, that we, we Puerto Ricans have and, and it should give us a lot, a lot, a lot of pride to say that we know those, those stories, so that is the responsibility of all of us and I thank you and you, this is a beautiful job that I know, that, that will reach many.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Thank you, thank you so much Mara. 

Mara

Thank you.