Maribella Burgos English Transcription

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well, today is August 7, 2023. My name is Amanda Ortiz and for my research project titled, “Puerto Rican Bomba fashions: Consumption, Performance and Meaning Making,” I will be interviewing Maribella Burgos. Thank you for being here, it’s a pleasure to have you. The purpose of this study is to collect and document information from Puerto Rican bomberos about their experiences with Bomba and the dress to understand the deeper meanings and uses of the Bomba dress in the context of identity, space, and place. We start with the questions. Maribella, how old are you?

Maribella Burgos

57.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Super. And where do currently live?

Maribella Burgos

I currently reside in Carolina in Ciudad Jardín.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And have you always lived there?

Maribella Burgos

No, I am born and raised in the town of Loíza.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And is your family from there too?

Maribella Burgos

My whole family is in Loíza, all of them.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what do you do at the moment?

Maribella Burgos

Full time cultural manager, in addition to having my LEM Skirts project and then giving Bomba workshops, Bomba classes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what type of education have you completed and where did you complete it?

Maribella Burgos

Well, I just retired as a preschool teacher, 31 years of service. I have a certification in dance from the University of Puerto Rico and my bachelor’s degree is in Language Arts.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

In Language Arts.

Maribella Burgos

Yes, a K to 3 teacher, what they used to call, now they have changed a lot, but basically that is…and I was teaching for 11 years in different grades. The rest I stayed in preschool, specifically in kindergarten.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Ah with the little ones.

Maribella Burgos

Yes I love them.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

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

Maribella Burgos

What gender? What are you referring to?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Female, male…

Maribella Burgos

Woman, yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Are you in a romantic relationship?

Maribella Burgos

Very romantic, happily married for 35 years.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Super, and do you have sons or daughters?

Maribella Burgos

I have a daughter, thank God, who is 31 years old, her name is Erimar.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And can you tell me a little about your family, like the size, what is the dynamic between you?

Maribella Burgos

Well look, I have to say first that I come from a very large family, where the elders are of great age, long-lived. My mom is going to be 90 years old. Yes, my grandmother died almost 100 years old and I have 8 siblings. People sometimes don’t associate me, but I do come from a large, numerous family, like the extended family on my husband’s side, so, but my, my nuclear family, what is called the immediate family, since there are 3 of us, my husband, my daughter and I, currently the two of us alone because my daughter already got married.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Wow, there are many, many. What, then, did you tell me that your family is from Loíza?

Maribella Burgos

From Loiza.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And do you have any physical or movement disabilities?

Maribella Burgos

Me? No, thanks to God.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Could you share your household income at the moment?

Maribella Burgos

No.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Do you have any religious or spiritual affiliation?

Maribella Burgos

Yeah.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Can you share about it?

Maribella Burgos

Baptist Christian.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well now we are going to talk a little about your Puerto Rican identity, what does being Puerto Rican mean to you?

Maribella Burgos

Oh well, let me see if I can summarize it because there are so many things. And it fills me with emotion every time I say it. Being Puerto Rican for me is being someone special, look, it’s like, I feel great, I feel important, I feel chosen by God for having given me the privilege of being born in the land that I was born in. As I always tell people, if I am born again I want to be Puerto Rican again, but above all, Loiceña. So it is a huge pride that I feel to be Puerto Rican.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How nice the way you described it so beautifully. Have you had any interactions or moments where you felt more or less sure of your Puerto Rican identity?

Maribella Burgos

Yes, many times, right here in Puerto Rico.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Really?

Maribella Burgos

In different parts of the United States, I have felt racism in different manifestations, racism for being a black woman, racism because I have been told that I am not black because my complexion is visibly a little lighter than the people of Loíza, for my way of speaking, my way of dressing at the Bomba, my way of performing the dance, so I have felt different manifestations of prejudices.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes Yes. And have you ever felt, well, did you talk about that, about those circumstances that I imagine you have felt bad about, what do you do in those moments to really get back up?

Maribella Burgos

Educate people. That’s why it’s important that you feel happy with who you are, but for that to happen, you have to know where you come from, feel proud that it doesn’t matter. I come from a family, from one, a very humble family nucleus, when I tell you very humble, very humble. My grandmother was not a woman gifted with academic degrees, nor was my mother. My mother became a professional a little later in life due to economic circumstances. But we felt good, we have always been a happy family. If you do not feel pride of where you come from and you do not know your history, you will not be able to defend yourself. So the fact that I was involved in what the culture is, specifically what Bomba is, being from Loiza, well that gave me the responsibility and the need to investigate a little further than what I was going, through listening. When I entered university I took on the task of continuing to educate myself, searching, I still do it and so I defend myself and, and I have my arguments so that people respect me, so that people respect the, the, the black woman, so that people respect the Puerto Rican and the Loiceño.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That’s how it is. What elements or characteristics connect you with your Puerto Rican identity?

Maribella Burgos

Culture, art, my religiosity, my personality, as I would tell you, are important elements. I distinguish myself for what I am, that is, I feel happy with who Maribella is and how far God has allowed me to go. So, those elements of your identity of knowing who you are, as I was telling you earlier, of feeling proud, of feeling happy, when I, I’m going to tell you a quick anecdote, when I wore headwraps years ago, people looked at me and with sight they tried to intimidate me. I can’t deny that on some occasions I felt that way. Why? Because people were not used to seeing us, so through that I educated them, since I felt happy wearing my headwrap, putting on my crown, my African crown, because I was not afraid and that’s how I was, right, that and that is what I do today, also through the workshops I give. So, the element of your, your being, how you feel and how you want people to know you is very important.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, that confidence of who you are. So let’s talk a little bit about, about Bomba and your experiences with Bomba. Are you active in your participation?

Maribella Burgos

Yes, more active than ever.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what is your role or what are your roles in the Bomba?

Maribella Burgos

Well look, I’m going to talk to you first about the role of dancer, which is where I develop myself. So I started at the young age of 4 in Loíza with the group Mayombe, which is no longer a group. A group that was in the 60s, 70s, 80s, around 90s, well, well known in Puerto Rico collaborating with Areyto, jíbaro from Puerto Rico, with those large companies. So I have developed in that environment, despite not having any bombera family, only an uncle. I develop and then look for those parts where I wanted to be. I continue to prepare. People then begin to know me, give me opportunities to work and that’s where the development of my career begins. Already in the, in the, in the ’80s, ’86 I was already working on stage. They called me to make videos, documentaries, interviews. Yes, thank God, so until today I have been working all that time. Currently, I direct the group El Junte Loiceño, I had a previous group called Bella Bomba. When El Junte Loiceño was born, I left Bella Bomba because, as I am directing it, it is such a large group that demands so much work and so much sacrifice, so I pause what is Bella Bomba and I stay with what is El Junte Loiceño, which is simultaneously combined with my retirement as a teacher and when I decided to retire as a teacher, I took the reins of what is my, my, my micro-enterprise skirts LEM. So all that is involved in culture gives me the opportunity to continue working and what I am doing now. Currently, I am working in the municipality of Loíza, in the area of ​​Tourism and Culture as a cultural manager and activities coordinator.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Okay.

Maribella Burgos

And I have the project for a meeting of Bomba dancers.

[Cut 10:02]

Maribella Burgos

I, the most important part now in Bomba, specifically after the dancer as such, the most important part and the one that worries me the most is education. I am happy with what is happening with the Puerto Rican Bomba, but I have a little concern about how it is being transmitted. So in that cultural managers we have to be a little careful, I have a motto that I always say that what is taught poorly is learned poorly. In Bomba, right, nobody can say that they have the absolute truth, because there are many documents, many elements that were lost over time. An example in Loíza, people did not transcribe, did not write, did not copy, and there are even songs, sounds of Bomba that are in controversy, that so-and-so wrote it, no, no one knows who wrote it, with that I want to give you the example of that loss of information due to lack of technology, due to lack of, of, of skills, of writing, you see?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes and access.

Maribella Burgos

It’s not like now that we do one thing and in the second, in bursts of a second it is in the entire world. So with that data I am very respectful and very careful. I mean, everything I talk about I try to do from my point of view of what I lived, what I live, what I learned, it’s easier to do it that way because you have the authority to say, “no, you excuse me, but that’s how I learned it, that’s how I saw it from my elders.” Now I’m going to tell you about the part that was supposed to be. Why? Because I wasn’t there. So that part to me of giving that margin to the truth is very important. I always say, and I say this with humility, that this was one of my important points as an educator since I was a child, when the children asked me something in the classroom that I did not have the answer to, I was honest with them, I told them, “the teacher doesn’t know now, let’s look for information [inaudible],” but children sometimes ask questions that, maybe you know, but how are you going to project the answer. I mean, the same thing happens to me with Bomba. I have heard many things out there that I hadn’t heard in my life in terms of dance, I am seeing other things, I am very modern too and I believe it because I have carried the evolution of, of what dance is and of what clothing is, but the essence cannot be lost, you know we have to have the essence and after the essence make that tree and have twigs grow out of it. Ah, well look, I’m going to combine it with this, I’m going to combine it with the other, but the viewer, the one who is listening, has to see that there is an essence first and after that essence is the rest. So a very important entity for me is the, the, the element of education.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes having humility and not saying, “no this is what it is, because I say so.”

Maribella Burgos

I am talking to you, you are talking to a person that, I am 57 years old and I have spent the vast majority of my life dancing and not dancing in Loíza, dancing, and as I told you, right now doing different movements, theater, imitation, black poetry, singing, I’m not a singer but at school we had a group that went to other schools and we played the part, you know, within the branches of art, not only have I stayed as a Bomba dancer, but I have done other things, modern dance, me, me, experimental dance, that is, one has done other things, but very important for me, the element of, right, what is traditional to combine, the essence, what, what is there, the pure. Where did this come from? Well from here. Why is it danced? here and here. So that is the part that worries me to see, I am not seeing the diversity of the styles projected in the batey. So, before that was criticized a lot by region, no, but if you are from Loíza you dance like that, if you are from Guayama, well, but it has to be done, because in Puerto Rico, al, al, a 10-cent coin is not called the same in all parts of Puerto Rico. An arepa in Loíza is one thing and perhaps in Guayama it is another, time, so the educational element must be there and it is not bad for you to mix one thing with another, but where is the essence? It’s like I tell the girl that I have learned. I had to go to different bateyes because in Loíza they only danced two styles so I could form the Bomba dancer that I am now that I can dance, thank God, the people who have helped me, the people I have learned, right, because I went to see and study with other people the different rhythms of Puerto Rico, the variations. So, if I want people to fall in love with a genre that is so rich in elements because there are 3 elements in unison, singing, dancing and playing, but within that there are too many variations, then let’s give it that emphasis on what it is to point out through what the skirt is, what the clothing is, what those nuances are that distinguish each of the regions and that is what I would like to see, to be encouraged.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, accept that diversity.

Maribella Burgos

Yes, yes sir.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So you are from Loíza, I assume you are from the Loiceña region.

Maribella Burgos

I am from Loíza. I was born in Loíza in the town of Loíza, I was not born in Canóvanas nor like many people I was born right there in Loíza. I am Loiceña, pure Loiceña.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And when, where, and how often do you participate in the Bomba today?

Maribella Burgos

Almost every day. That’s why I told you earlier that this time it’s been 5 years, 6, 7, let’s say 8 years, very active, but from these last 5 years to here I have the time to do it and I have been getting involved in other facets within the same, within the same genre of Bomba, well I am more active. Right now, next week, we have, the group has two presentations. Sorry, this week, and I have two private workshops, tomorrow I have one and on Thursday I have another, we are moving and it’s like everything else, Bomba has now caught a boom that I hope continues to grow and gets its place which corresponds to us, which is the number one. It’s not salsa, nor is it the plena, with my Pleneros friends that I love them, but the plena came later, the Bomba is present since the beginning and formation of the Puerto Rican. It wasn’t the ballroom dances, nor the dance, nor the dances of, no, it was Bomba. So Bomba has to be in that first place. Let’s see if with this generation that has risen and that will continue to rise, well my eyes will not close without seeing that.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, I believe that it will happen and it is happening.

Maribella Burgos

Yes, yes, yes.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What does the Bomba mean to you?

Maribella Burgos

Well, as you asked me earlier about being Puerto Rican is like a part of me. That identity, it is that strength, it is that responsibility to say, because they talk a lot about the ancestors. The word ancestor is in fashion, but when I think about my ancestors, when I think about those people, those enslaved people, specifically the people of Loíza who could not, had nothing else to do other than develop through their agriculture, fishing, craftsmanship, and their Bomba dances. So it’s one, it’s a piece that forms Maribella, yes, if I take off that, that, that, that costume, that, that jacket, well, I’m not complete, so it’s part of my formation as a human being, my formation as a woman, my formation as an educator and my identity, it is what defines us, what defines us.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And what have you gained through your experiences with Bomba?

Maribella Burgos

A lot of things. I tell you many things, but many things that never happen and, I say it and I get emotional, I never thought that, that that was going to happen. Once again, from being in the, in the genuine, authentic batey, to being with artists that, that one does not see them close to one because they also create that, that limitation that you are an artist of Bomba, you’re not an artist, as we talked before the interview. So the satisfaction of meeting so many people, of reaching so many people, of feeling that I can leave a little bit of myself there in the children, specifically in the children. My, my life in my worship are the children. So I believe that those are the greatest satisfactions. Maybe I can’t deny that being on television, when I go out on the street and people recognize me, you are Maribella, you are the one from Loíza, you are the one from Junte, you are the one with the skirts, it feels nice. Notice that I’m telling you, it feels nice and you experience national pride, not a pride that I think I’m, never there, thanking God and all the people who have given me all those opportunities. Recently, on Friday, I was at a, in the third art Biennial, of plastic artists from Puerto Rico, where a piece was dedicated to me. So I have been immortalized through art, through songs. I have two people who wrote two songs about me, one of them totally describes how I am as a Bomba dancer. So they are achievements that when you look back you say wow, but like I said, with humility, humility above all things because this genre comes from our humble people and although we want to be respected and keep us in our place that corresponds to us, people have to see that we are from that, when I present the Junte Loiceño, I tell the public, we are of, of the people and for the people and if you sang with so-and-so or you danced with so-and-so and if you did such announcement or did you do such programming, that cannot help but be the, of, that the, of being humble that does not allow you to be there. But yes, I have had the Puerto Rico Symphony, no, I have, thank the Lord, had many opportunities, many.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That’s great and thank you for sharing those beautiful experiences. Now let’s talk about clothing and your experience as a seamstress, right. Tell me a little about your business. How did you start, like you, when did you realize you wanted to start that business?

Maribella Burgos

Well look, I’m not a seamstress, I’m the creator of the brand, I’m the designer of those styles… and my mom, I have a beautiful story, we’re not going to tell it now because I’ll start crying. I have two mothers, a mother who gave birth to me and a mother who raised me. That mother who raised me, whose name is Gladys Rivera and is a very important person in my life and in art in Puerto Rico, was the director of the Mayombe group. So, I developed with her and she studied haute couture. She designed and sewed us because she does sew, Mayombe’s costumes. And, since I can remember, mom, as I call her, she made different, beautiful clothes, different from what everyone else wore, because she said that we couldn’t continue letting people see us as slaves. Notice that I am talking to you when I was, perhaps about 9 years old, I wouldn’t dare to tell you that I remember if I was 5 years old, but since I can remember, more or less, seeing myself as older, I remember that she told us that. She told us, we cannot let people continue seeing us as slaves, because they are going to treat us as such. Look how beautiful, have you heard that before?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

No, that’s why I am like…

Maribella Burgos

No, look, we’re going to put it in my status later. We cannot allow ourselves to be seen as slaves because they will treat us as such. People still understand that to dance Bomba from Loiza you have to be barefoot and that you cannot wear a skirt. If you go to the old books and see the women of, the Loiceñas ladies, I never saw my grandmother wearing pants, which means that my grandmother did not go to the Bomba dances with pants, what happens is that the clothing that was used in Loíza was not the clothing, as they used in Mayagüez, Doña Caridad Brenes de Cepeda, that elegant woman, Petra Cepeda, all of them because they also had another stage, another position and Loiza did not, but I never remember having seen the ladies in shorts at that stage, at that time, at that time they were not used. So I have just developed a Bomba dance with a shorter skirt, with less flare. And I have always liked to draw. When I go to study at university, I start doing designs because people start calling me. They begin to get to know Maribella, “look Maribella, we are going to do this so that you can go.” I didn’t have a skirt because economically you couldn’t make a skirt every day and so I have always liked to have different things, I mean I always wanted to be a different teacher that my students will remember me like that, not the teacher who sat on the desk and the chair and the students at hand, no, I threw myself on the floor with them and I did the same with my brand, Faldas LEM. I started then, since I couldn’t financially buy a lot of fabric, I then started designing skirts that didn’t have a ruffle. The ones with ruffles weighed me down because they were made of cotton and I couldn’t pick them up and one day I don’t know where, with all honesty, I make that design and I told the lady who sewed in Loíza, “I want a skirt like that,” and she made it for me. I made the design, that skirt fascinated me. I still have the skirt saved, there is a photo of me out there that you can then search for so you can see and then I started to combine skirts, blouses with headwraps, skirt, blouse with headwraps, okay, but in other colors too. Not just white because people in Loiza didn’t dress in white to dance Bomba. I always remember the brothers, the family, the Ayala brothers with their beautiful dress with colorful flowers, how they still wear them, their little checkered suits, mommy would say, yes we wore white clothes, but it wasn’t our first wardrobe. We then had a variety of costumes, and then I come, it’s like if you give the child meat from a young age, the child when he or she is an adult will want to eat meat. Well, that same thing happened with this, it was a transition. One day I am working with the now deceased Cachete Maldonado in Batacumbele and he tells me, we are going to a concert for the 15 years of Batacumbele, that for me was and is the greatest experience I have had in my life. Batacumbele and Maribella are going to dance and he tells me, I need you to make a costume that looks like Bomba, but is not Bomba. Because it was a, that was when the fusions within Bomba began and they were Bombata because it was Bomba with batá drums. My first experience was spectacular since I was walking and then there I designed my first Bomba dress, which is with the dress that I wear in my first painting by Samuel Lind from Loíza, a dress that had the sleeves coming off, I had to make a dress that I can wear for other occasions, so that suit had the sleeves coming off, a red dress with a white headwrap and that was my first dress design, but it was coming, as I told you previously, I was designing and I kept designs in my mind, so when I saw the date of my retirement as a teacher approaching, my retirement, I said, “If God allows it, He gives me that opportunity, I want to do something when I retire, do something that I like.” I don’t want to start teaching somewhere else, like another classmates, teachers have done, I’m going to start designing my, my, my clothes and that’s where Faldas LEM is born. All those designs that I had made, that I had in my mind and I bought a notebook and one day at home I sit down like this, I draw, I have the notebook, an art drawing notebook, colored pencils. I feel great emotion when I tell it, because it is a dream come true.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes and it’s good that today.

Maribella Burgos

Excuse me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

No.

Maribella Burgos

When I open the notebook, so we are at home with my daughter, my daughter tells me, “mommy, dod you see all the, the skirts that you already have,” because I went looking from the skirts that I had already made, that I already I had started and I started putting them down, even ones that I almost didn’t remembered. So I started doing my book in, transcendence, in sequence is the word. And then what I wanted to get closer to there, God then gave me the project of Júnte Loiceño, such a large group and I have always been in favor of, of, group unity. I would go to the pediatrician with my daughter and my daughter, we both dressed the same, her as a baby and I as a mother of the same color, things that one has as a teacher, since they were children and that caught the pediatricians attention and he said, “that means unity,” look what I’m telling you, my daughter is 31 years old. When I got the project of Junte Loiceño, it was a group, it’s a very large group and I said, “I have to do something because so that we all see ourselves as a family, as a union.” And then I continue making all this type of clothing, dressing them the same and I continue designing to this day, and thank God I was able to create my brand. I have to tell you that I started practically from nothing, but from nothing, from nothing. I said, let’s see, if it is up to God that this works, then it will work and for the glory and honor of Him… it has been a complete success, thank God.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

How good and I hope it continues like this.

Maribella Burgos

Thank God.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And I ask you, right, I think that Puerto Ricans have an idea of, of what the folkloric costume is with the long neck, the…

Maribella Burgos

Yes, the wide sleeves, long, the lace that is still used.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Aha and how do you say, you say petticoat in English, but now I don’t remember what, what was…

Maribella Burgos

The petticoats.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

The same petticoat, that’s what I know, I know, you saw it a lot in, in Loíza, was that something that was used?

Maribella Burgos

In Loíza that was not seen. Look, my grandmother wore, what she called, a skirt like this one that I’m wearing, up to the top of the ankles and down to the bottom, right, above the ankles, and in there she wore little petticoats that they bought and that they sewed themselves, because older people, my mother still wears them, don’t say it in the interview because she will kill me, my mother still wears them, I mean it was custom for ladies to wear petticoats, but it was not the petticoat that was used by a example in Mayagüez, which is one of the most outstanding Bomba regions in terms of the petticoats. I recently saw a very interesting video on YouTube, later I’m going to give you the name so you can see it, of how elaborate those petticoats were, very expensive for that time, imagine now. In fact, I have made them, I made them for a group for New York and, and I have one made in case if someone wants to see and we use them in Loíza differently, with less frills, less little cancans, as some people call them, frilly and with many bows. When you see the petticoat that an example, Doña Caridad Brenes de Cepeda, wears that dress, that is spectacular. In Loíza, it was not used like that. Remember that the Loíza Bomba, that it is very important that it, that it is recognized in this interview is a community Bomba, because it was the Loiceño’s job. So you went to Loíza and on every corner you heard those drums wherever you where, and sometimes when there weren’t even drums, the boys played with cans, with whatever they found, but they played Bomba. So with whatever clothes you were wearing, you went. Another very important element is that the Bomba of Loíza takes place on the beach. In the career sector, Loiza had, Loíza was a village. Literally, it’s not a lie, it wasn’t that people walked around in loincloths, I don’t know if that happened, I mean, in my time, right, I’m talking to you because yes, yes, it happened before, but Loíza was a village with little houses in the shape of a hut, of, of leafs that my grandmother came to live in that because my grandmother was born in the last century and told us all those stories. They showed us photos, so Loíza you weren’t going to go to Loíza with a petticoat, but then you saw the ladies in the church well dressed in their good dresses and with those same dresses they went to dance Bomba and they took that skirt, I remember my grandmother and they moved it in a delicate way. This is the Bomba that these eyes recognize, then comes the transition of other groups, Ayala, Mayombe, Raíces and they modify the styles, both in dancing, singing, playing and therefore in the clothing. There is a documentary called Puerto Rican Warriors that I participated in. In terms, they made the recording of me, they went to my house to record with the clothes and I spoke at that point, you can’t stay because I was criticized a lot at the beginning for my Bomba skirts that didn’t have ruffles, because they said that those skirts were not traditional, what happens is that if you go back in time, to the last century, you will see two different dresses, some dresses that are like this skirt that I have on that does not have ruffles and others had those ruffles, but they were not extroverted frills, sorry, extravagant, because people did not have that material to make that, that type of costume, very few could go do that, that experience and Loíza specifically, no, I mean, it was a village, there was no tar, people did not have enough money to buy 2 or 3 pairs of shoes, the pair of shoes they had was good, they kept it, church, school, going out, church, school, going out. And I didn’t invent that, that’s in the history. You know that people have to learn to see that this evolution thing has happened because the world has also evolved. You go to Loíza now, there is tar, Loíza is already a town as our mayor says, a city soon, right, we lack very few elements for that, so we cannot live in terms of, what society was like when we were a village, it doesn’t bother me when they tell me that I am from Loíza village, if they don’t say it with disrespect, because I know my story and if they told me with another connotation I would also tell it to them, so… the one who tells me, but how old is the lady? 80? What happens is that there was a transition and people haven’t seen it. Let’s look at an example, I was born in 66, 67. What has happened historically? What are all these events? How has it evolved from a little wooden house that I grew up in? I grew up in a little zinc house with wood, little by little little by little until we got to where we are now. The same has happened with Bomba’s skirt and with Bomba’s wardrobe. There is one, there is a very important concept called evolution, but it still has what I told you earlier. What is the what? The essence. So I design both, I design the skirt without ruffles, with a lot of flight because I love it, it makes me feel oh how I would say to you, my God, give me a word, that makes me feel free, it makes me feel the movements of certain styles, body expression is something that, that is magnificent, and with flair, well I also love them, so I have those two aspects. One that is my own style, because no one in Puerto Rico danced and I dare say this, no one in Puerto Rico had Bomba skirts without ruffles, I tell you I was, I was the object of criticism by many people, “well ah that’s not the traditional skirt,” but I have learned not to be impulsive in the changes, we are going to let people gradually educate themselves, search, as happened to me at the university in a workshop, “but in Loíza you don’t dance in a skirt”, you are wrong, so we can’t keep repeating what other people like parrots. No, what happens is that people don’t have a skirt like we are now, “oh look at the mouth on my skirt, how pretty,” with whatever you had, you danced because it’s a community Bomba and that’s the big difference and another part is the socioeconomic part that people did not have to put on shoes and that was not necessary.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And I’ve asked you about the skirt, which is an element, right, there are different styles, because you think it is transformed into a, I don’t know how to say it in Spanish, but like a Bomba staple, that is, today people dance with the skirts, but at the beginning the women who danced Bomba at the beginning had skirts because that is what they had, I mean why do you think is like that?

Maribella Burgos

What happens is that there is something called stereotypes, right, there is something called subcultures, there is something called expansion, there is something called, I don’t have the name now, what you see, right. Then if I show you a book that is in Loíza, I show you the part of the clothing that appears there, you are going to say, seriously? I already made the criticism, respectfully, I mean, what I was telling you earlier, we cannot continue making the same mistakes. If cultural managers knew the educational responsibility they have in their hands, they would be a little more careful, anyone today takes a photo on Instagram, on Google and captures it for you, this is absolute truth. You have to go to the root and search, why did that come up? like you are doing, the petticoats, the skirt, I am explaining to you everything that Maribella Burgos has experienced and that has weight because I lived it, and apart from that, I have given myself the task of responsibly investigating, as I told you earlier, I went to Mayagüez, I was going to Hormiguero, all those places, with, with 2 or 3 friends, look, let’s go to learn to dance this and learn and not stay there. So that element is very important, that is, as in the books the Puerto Rican began to be seen, Bomba with that elaborate white dress, the hat, stayed there. Then other people come and break with that pattern, that this pattern is correct, that this pattern of this type of clothing specifically is correct, but where do you leave the others? So it’s easier to say that it’s wrong than to say it’s right because you haven’t researched it. Because you are getting carried away by what you heard and what you saw. How many times did I as a teacher would say, “look, this book was taken for school, this book has some errors here, what about this?” No, but if they put the material there and now what, what happens? We are living life like this. I mean, people don’t want to…and here we go. I mean, they don’t want to do that investigative work of sniffing the paper. People don’t want to read, they don’t want to look further. Look, do it, if there are electronic libraries on your cell phone, you download all those applications and, and you do, it is always good that you have at least 3 different points of view. In Bomba they must have at least the first of the regions, what they call the bastions of La Bomba, those 5 and there are studies that support good information, training based on studies. There are many groups here that are doing extraordinary, extraordinary research, which must be respected and read and what you do not know how to interpret, look for a mentor, tell me, tell me your experience, but they are not5 year experiences because with 5 years you are not going to have an experience of being able to discriminate what was before and what was after and what is now. No, you have to look for a mentor, what they call us now elders, which is not bad, it doesn’t bother me, but then let’s get to the root. You sow the seed and the root comes up first. You cannot bear the fruit if you have not gone down. So, we come back to, that is the part that worries me the most. The fast thing, the young people who are 23, 27 years old, I don’t play, not because this genre was fought by our, there are people who died for this. So they left us that gold, which is the Puerto Rican Bomba and we are going to destroy it, we are going to, no, it cannot be sold so easily. We must continue fighting and honoring those people who came before us.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

For you, you believe that different styles have different levels of authenticity and I’m not saying regional styles, that is, like today there are so many Bomba styles, with different materials, from different places…

Maribella Burgos

You say execution dancer?

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah.

Maribella Burgos

How good, how good that you asked that question. Now, they have them by category, beginner, you go to the second phase, advanced. I have to tell you that I know this interview will be seen and I hope so, Maribella Burgos Pizarro, she does not believe in that. I believe in a personal entity, that you develop, that today you learned this and you are going to continue searching, in my workshops, you will never see, now in a workshop I did, one of the girls told me, “teacher, when is the advanced one? ” I told her, “whenever you want to continue moving forward.” I cannot put the Bomba in levels because our ancestors did not dance in levels, they danced with what they felt in their hearts and in Loíza there are no dance schools. In Loíza no one can say that they have dance schools. There are those who take on the task like me of giving workshops, the only one I could tell you COPI, that I respect them very much, that in fact the person who is there giving the workshops is a teacher by profession. Why do I want to tell you that? Because in schools you set the levels, right, level 1, level 2, I had the kids level 3 in reading, but they are different skills. We are talking about something that identifies us as Puerto Ricans, I mean I can’t because I have a girl who dances better than someone who took professional classes, at what level am I going to put her because she is not of age? This is the point and I have heard it, I mean, I am not telling you anything that I have not seen or heard, so in my workshops you are not going to see that level of professionalism, we are professionals because we already go to platforms that earn a salary. That for me is professional and an aficionado for me would be the one who is in the batey every day who does it because they want to do, for the love of art. That would be the only part that I would make the distinction, but that thing of now I am at level 1, so they moved me to level two, I respect each person with what they want to do, but Maribella Burgos, I don’t believe in that, no I believe in creating a dancer who grows and that can manifest themselves through the art of the Bomba, the dance of the Bomba and learn to choose the style that they like the most and above all create their own style so that people see them dancing and don’t say it’s Maribella, it’s Pepito, it’s Juana, it’s no, it is so-and-so because, because you sowed that and they created their own style. I have seen dancers that I can tell you, and dancers, they come from such a place. The same movements. So, educators have to leave that behind. I’m not going to get into that group because I don’t do it honestly, my dancers, I tell them, I know that one likes to look alike and that one copies styles, that’s good because, learning comes through imitation. You model your teacher, but you cannot copy him, you have a genuine identity. So you may see one of my dancers and this picket that is very distinctive of Maribella, you see it, look oh, but then it also has the other one and that’s what I want. To my girls, I tell them, go to all the bateyes, go and continue studying with other people or other styles.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

What importance or meaning do you give to your Bomba costumes and clothing?

Maribella Burgos

I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I am happy when I wear my skirt, I am also happy when I don’t have it, dancing a Seis Corrido without my skirt too, but since you are asking me, the skirt for me is the element that, that qualifies, that accentuates the movements and as I told you earlier, specifically, there are some styles of Bomba, such as the dances of the south, such as the dances of Guayama, sorry of the western area, which they have, Santurce, which have some Bomba styles, an example, a Sica, a Sica is a style that has a lot of the, that, that, that is accompanied by the element of the skirt, because the movements, the body expressions are with the skirt, that’s why you see the girl doing, because it is with a skirt this, this, this opening and closing that is a skirt and if they don’t have it, then they do it with their hands or else with a bandana with whatever they have and already there you see the consciousness that they have the person, even though they are doing it there, but he knows that he needs that element so that then when you see them and it is good that you can distinguish it, when you see a dancer who comes in to do some hand movements, like I said, my area of ​​education is language arts, but I spent 11 years giving body movement, I mean, it’s not the same thing that I do, that I hold my skirt. Let me tell you, I have done it, because there are times when people don’t have skirts. I tell them, well let’s go, but when you put on the skirt things change. At least for me, there must be good use and management of that element of the skirt, because the skirt gives you that, how can I tell you? that elegance in those styles, although Loíza has one of the rhythms, I say, the most African, is in Loíza, the Corbe… and that is all bodily expression… and even with that, when you dance it, that body expression has something that you say, what it has, you see the spectator who stays, because elegance is created by the movement of the body. That’s what that style is for, the strength emanates from the movement of the body, from your facial expression, from your muscles. In the styles that I was talking about, which we can begin to list a lot, the skirt. It’s not even the top part of the shirt, it’s the skirt, the skirt is what makes that movement, that expression, listening to it. Sometimes at home, when I’m making a skirt, I have a new skirt, I put it on and listen to it to know, do you know why I do that? To know if when I do it with that strength, she will have the same. I do that at home, I bring the skirt from, from the atelier’s workshop and I go home and I put it on and dance and turn around and if it doesn’t feel the way I want, I take it back to the seamstress, I’m missing this, which has not been the case, thank God, has not been the case. I have a very good lady who sews for, imagine, my seamstress has been with me, wow, for 21 years. We are already, my sister because she is not that old, we could be sisters yes, for many years.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And the fabrics for the skirts, are there some fabrics that are not used, right, because of the weight, can you explain a little about that process?

Maribella Burgos

That depends on the person’s taste. There are people who like very heavy skirts, but as I said, it all depends on your development, the experience you have as a dancer. An observation, I have seen different types of people, because now boys also dance with skirts, they can’t even hold them up. So there are many things involved in this element of the skirt, because as I was telling you earlier, I wanted a skirt that when I danced I would feel what? free, I would feel great that I don’t get tired, that I can dance 5, 6, 7 all the pieces I want without getting tired, without going out, that the skirt that I can’t that I don’t want to see, no. Well then I create that, that style, as I told you earlier, with a cheaper fabric, because that skirt has a lot of fabric, many yards of fabric, fabrics that could be handled better at home, that is, there are many elements that I put, because I’m thinking of myself first, then I’m going to give you what I want because I already had it, well, you’re not going to see that I make a skirt with a bad fabric because it’s for someone else and a better one for me, and I explain to my clients, look, I have this type of texture, it costs this, I have this one that is cheaper and you take it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So it depends on the individual.

Maribella Burgos

It depends on the style, the fabric house where it comes from, now I know, they bring a lot of fabrics from outside, because in Puerto Rico many of the large fabric houses have closed, the costs are through the roof, we have to look for economics for you to be able to transmit that economy to the client, because if not, if they sell me a very expensive fabric, how am I going to sell that skirt to the, so all those little things, I think about them when selecting a fabric from where I am going to buy it, the style I give the client options and even more so if they are dancers. Right now I have a girl who saw me with that black skirt at the Caribe Hilton, “I want that skirt, I want it in red, in yellow,” and I, she doesn’t know how heavy that skirt is or how expensive the fabric is, but I told her if she wants it, well, look are people who are willing to pay whatever it takes, but you also have to be with the people who can’t, so since I come from there, as I told you earlier, from a humble place and I owe this to God, I cannot let my heart be damaged because I am very fearful of that, very, very, very fearful. I want people to treat me well, that’s why I treat people well, because then I won’t have, I’ll say, “but why are you treating me this way if, if I’m behaving well, if I, ”And that is what I do with my, with my micro-business, that is why God has prospered it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Exactly do to others what you would like them to do to you.

Maribella Burgos

Treat others exactly the way you want to be treated.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

So, before we finish, I want to talk a little bit about, about…

Maribella Burgos

Of the outfit, of the piece.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Aha, it was called handkerchief but there are also other names and you said, right, that you incorporated it into the clothing, why incorporate the handkerchief?

Maribella Burgos

Well look, there is a difference between what a headwrap is and what a scarf is. The scarf is the one that is small square, the headwrap is big, so the headwraap specifically, right, people associate it with the African continent. Why? Because it is the African woman who brings it to America, right, she brings it here, specifically to our territory and in Loiza, I grew up with both aspects. Look, my grandmother, as I told you, everyone cooked for us and you see, now the nets are used, very cool, the hats are shiny, but before they chose a piece of rag because that’s what it was called rag, because you couldn’t enter the kitchen and I’m talking about Loiza and my grandmother and my people, without having your head covered. So they would take that little piece of cloth, in my workshops I bring those white t-shirts that the gentlemen who are already there, I always like to save them to tear them and show people where the headwrap comes from, right, and my grandmother, I remember that my aunts and the ladies from Loiza did this, look, they tied that little knot there. That’s where the famous mamá Inés comes from, they wanted to discredit and mock that character, right, and they have changed it, that’s where it comes from, because if you look at that little headwrap, it’s the little scarf that was used before, short and the women would tie it because I’m telling you that it was a necessity, it wasn’t a luxury, this headwrap that I have is a luxury, this is my luxury crown, look how pretty, yes the fabric, but before it wasn’t like that before they took their crown and wore it and put on their scarf, that piece of cloth that, that they tore from anywhere, there were times when the temperatures were so high that they would grab from the same skirt they had and form the headwrap. We return to the same thing, life has been evolving from generation to generation, from fashion to fashion, from fashion to fashion, transition, transition. We are in 2023 and people no longer need to take a t-shirt, tear it up and put it on their heads, because headwraps come already-made. An incredible thing, some hats that the person puts on.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

With the knot that you don’t even have to…

Maribella Burgos

Already on the big fashion catwalks. There are headwraps that we black women and cultural managers, what we want is to give that identity and that consciousness, to wear what they call a conscious headwraping of why it is that piece, that is another nuance apart, but that the turban comes from, since when the children were born, what did they do, did they put a cap on them or rather a little thing to cover them to not make them sick, well the same thing happens with the headwrap, I mean, we have been dancing Bomba with that costume and with that headwrap on. This is how I relate it, like I said, that it has another story apart, which is very great, which is the story that we already know that it is because of spirituality. I remember that in one of my workshops, the first time I spoke, about Jesus, that Jesus wore a veil, because in some parts of the world the headcovering that goes here is also called, but it is still a piece that, which identifies you, you see a certain type of headcovering, I don’t know if this has happened to you, you tell yourself, “look he might be from, from Morocco, could he be from anywhere,” because you associate it with the place it belongs to, from where they come from. So some call it Jele, others call it a crown, we call it a headwrap, it has different, veils, it has different names, but it is still that piece that identifies you by many cultural, social, spiritual elements, because even with religions, different religions in the world, I belong to this religion, and the one who already knows says, “so and so is from this, the other is from this,” well, those are the important elements that when you put on that piece you have to be careful so that people see. So when people see me they know that I have a very African-style turban, because these prints are African, just now you asked me a question that I wouldn’t want to leave in the pipeline and it is about the fabrics that some, there are people who confuse this skirt that I have on is an African fashion skirt, with the Bomba skirt. So people mix the, the fabric styles of, of, and that’s fine, that’s done because right now I mix textures, I put a top fabric, you see what I was telling you, evolution. So, those little things make you feel that it was worth all that sacrifice and all that your little head keeps looking for, keeps looking, keeps looking. Everyone makes the Puerto Rican flag with the red, white stripe, the triangle, well, not me, I made a different Puerto Rican skirt, I even have a Bomba skirt from Puerto Rico, with a long Bomba tail, not a Bomba skirt, for a girl who is a troubadour and you who now wear those costumes with the tails, well, we made a fable for her. So we continue in constant evolution, but without losing the essence.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

And my penultimate question is, you have a lot of knowledge and I have learned a lot, and you have already shared that almost everything is from experience because you have seen it, you have lived it, have there been other educational resources that have helped you obtain this information that you, that you have about the Bomba and its clothing?

Maribella Burgos

Yes, what I shared with you earlier, the training in other places and with other, right, other aspects as I told you earlier, well I was going, for example, to Hormiguero or Mayagüez, I saw the dancers there and it excites me and they dance this style like this, that’s how I learned it.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, from experience.

Maribella Burgos

Because of the experience of sharing with other people, saying, with the Cepedas, I was with them for a long time and, and I still share a lot with Jesus and all of them. I liked that style of Yuba that they dance and I said, “someday I’m going to dance in Yuba,” and I came to dance Yuba after many years because I didn’t dare because of the respect that I have for that style specifically, that’s right. So I go with them and start learning. And, just as I told you earlier, successively, and that’s why I tell you, there is a part of me that I share that I lived it, that I learned it because I can’t tell you that I was taught to dance Bomba in Loiza, the cchildren in Loiza are born dancing and playing, it is a, it is something that is inherited.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yeah it’s not a from book.

Maribella Burgos

No, no, now is that there are little workshops as I told you earlier, but in Loiza there are no schools in Bomba like the Cepeda family has, like they have in Ponce, like they have in Mayagüez, that didn’t exist in Loiza, I mean I didn’t teach in Loiza. I have students who told me, “teacher, remember when you gave us Bomba classes,” that I taught them Fine Arts in education, I emphasized body movement, I emphasized my genre because it was what I also mastered, the salsa, I also learned it on the street, at school and the Bomba. Later, when I go to university, as I told you, I studied other things that were necessary to be able to continue working in, in that specific area of ​​Fine Arts in education. So I learned it how? little by little I kept searching. I can’t be so selfish as to say that I learned everything alone, not because in Loiza they didn’t dance Sica, in Loíza they didn’t dance Cuembe, people are still a little…”our Bomba,” no, I say, “Puerto Rican bomba,” and each one has its essence. And you have to live it, you have to feel it, you have to smell it, you have to listen to it, the children laugh, “teacher, but you can’t smell the Bomba,” “smell it so you can see that it smells like Bomba,” and they said, “yes, teacher it smells.” So there has to be that complete meaning that Bomba is one only, Bomba is the Bomba of Puerto Rico and that within that Bomba that is here, is Loíza, Mayagüez, Ponce, Cataño, because people talk a lot about other places, but they do not talk about Cataño, Santurce, San Mateo de Cangrejos, Arroyo, Guayama.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes, returning to that diversity.

Maribella Burgos

And that each one has its essence and even if you mix it with other styles, you must respect the essence of that one, because I am very jealous of my Seis Corrido and my Corbe, very jealous, when I see, not that, people, “no, you don’t dance like that,” it’s not that we don’t want to say that you don’t dance like that, it’s that you are losing the essence of the style, but you have to educate with love and, and continue expanding, right, things to the extent that God allows, as far as one can without offending anyone above all things. Yes, that is very important.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

My last question, does your participation in the Bomba and specifically your use with clothing influence your daily style of what you wear each day or is that separate?

Maribella Burgos

Well, in a way yes and I’ll tell you why. I have my, my, my clothes, as you say, aside, but if one day I feel that I am going to wear that evening dress with a headwrap, I put on the headwrap. I’m going to a wedding and they invited me. I have a pretty shiny headwrap or not shiny, “oh no this day I’m not going to leave my hair down, I’m going with my headwrap.” Today I went out, sometimes I go out and I want to feel like that, I put on my little skirt and you know that everything depends on how I want to feel, express exactly, how I want to express myself and how, but above all I am a woman of many feelings. . I like to feel. Look, I have gone to work, to my office without a drop of poweder because that day I want to have a free face. And it doesn’t bother me, if not, yes, because there are women that you know, and even more so at my age, there are women who, “ah, why,” no, well look that day I didn’t want to do my eyebrows, I didn’t want to put lipstick, I didn’t want to put on earrings, that’s a lie, I sleep with little earrings there, here we go, but I tell you, right, one is how you feel because I have learned. And I’m going to leave this to you as advice from a mother and a master, feel what you want first, don’t do anything because people want you to do it. I have to love myself. I have to feel like myself after that happens then…Like there have been times that I have gone to places, “girl, but why you are so elegant,” and I say, “because I feel that way.”

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Because I wanted to wear this.

Maribella Burgos

Because I wanted to wear that because I felt like wearing it. So that’s it, that’s a very personal decision and it’s a decision of mine, of what you have there and, and I also like that people see us as I told you earlier, de-enslaved, that they don’t associate a tragic time, in everything the sense of the word, marginalized, mistreated, displaced to what the Puerto Rican is today, why I have to, unless I want to give it a nuance that I have done it in one piece, why do I have to go barefoot to dance in a, in a hot tar to say that I’m from Loíza? No, I have shoes. That tar is full, contaminated, hot. That’s not going to make me a better Seis Corrido dancer, no. With respect, like I said, all the styles because I have danced barefoot. I made a, yesterday we were making a video that was totally barefoot, because I was on the beach, but why would I go out, “oh the girl is going to interview me, let me take off my shoes.” I dance with heels and if you see my photos you will die and they criticized me, look, so now everyone dances with heels and platforms. Because you also create a style.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Yes that trust, is contageous.

Maribella Burgos

I told you earlier I was criticized for those skirts, but now I see that the skirt has been copied. I don’t dare to do that and I see and I can say, “look, that skirt is mine.” The style, but obviously the one who has the pattern is me, but because you created what? A style, you implemented a fashion within the essence of what it is, and that makes me feel good because then the work, that is called legacy. Do you know what it means in LEM? My skirt is called LEM skirts. LEM means legacy, elegance and movement… and it was born from many adjectives of some people that I have, a dancer, friends of mine who, when they started, were the first who, behind anonymity, started buying me skirts. “Oh Maribella, those skirts of yours look so elegant, oh they have movement,” I’m not going to attribute it to me because it doesn’t belong to me. It wasn’t me who said it, it was some… so I’m going to say that it was born from me, no, it was born from me and the creation of those patterns continues to be born, but that, that, that theme, that means so much for me it doesn’t come from me. So one day I sit down with my girl and I say, “Erimar,” the girl studied marketing, my daughter tells me, “mommy, we have to give the brand a name, we have to give it,” I say, “oh well, I don’t know, I want it to have the name Loiza, the, the, the L of Loíza, the E of your dad and mine, and my name.” My name is Maribella, the L for Loiza, E for Erimar and Eric. And there we began to pick up words. Look, I would like you to see the notebook.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

I can imagine.

Maribella Burgos

And then we began the words that were repeated the most, I tell this in that, in that interview that they did with me called Puerto Rican warriors, you can search it on Facebook, on Instagram, then, imagine, I started to classify it legacy, movement, this, the other, there is one that what they got were two words and of all those words that they gave me of all those adjectives. The 3 that won were those. My daughter tells me, because I could have easily put Maribella skirts on her because everyone knows me, but that was not what was in my mind. It was not a, it is not a commercial brand, this is a life project, a project of love, of me leaving a legacy, you know how proud and how happy I feel every time I see someone who tells me, “I bought your skirt and I feel like.” And perhaps the one who hears me will say, “Oh she’s acting like Maria Teresa Calcutta,” no, it’s that you’re not in here. And people want you to feel how they feel, no, this is a life project for which I am grateful to God until God wants. A project that I saw far away, but far, far, far away and when I do it, I say, when I look at my notebooks I say, “my skirts,” there is one in Cuba, I say, “My God, Lord, how great you have been, how good you are, Father, that my heart never gets sick,” that it does not get damaged by greed and no, no, I am very afraid of that.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

Well Maribella, those were all my questions, thank you for your time, your knowledge, for sharing your experience, I tell you that, I’ll say it again that I have learned so much, sometimes I forgot that I have to ask another question because I wanted to stay there. But really thank you.

Maribella Burgos

And you found a talker like me.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

No, I love it, I love it. Before I finish recording, would you like to share anything else?

Maribella Burgos

Well yes, first I want to thank you and I do want this to appear in the interview, thank you for taking the time, right, to do this type of research, I know it’s part of your, your resume, right, of what you are studying, but you could very well have chosen something else. So if you chose it it is because you respect it, because you love it and because you want to project it well. So as a mother, as a woman and as an educator, I congratulate you and thank you and the people who are listening to me and are going to see me tell you that as a Puerto Rican woman and a black woman, I feel proud, proud, of , of this little piece of land where God gave me the joy of being born and of all the beautiful things that I have learned and have been able to project through my culture, that if I am born again as I said earlier and God wants that to be my experience. And if at any time I have done something that was not appropriate, then I always apologize as well and as I always say, I have done everything I do, I do it with my heart, with the greatest humility and with the desire that everyone world feels as happy, as self-fulfilled and as proud as I feel to be Puerto Rican, Loiceña and Bomba dancer.

Amanda Ortiz Pellot

That’s super.