AUTHOR’S NOTE: Like most Bomba history, the details surrounding female practitioners is little known and continues to be poorly documented. May these sparse details about the early life of Caridad Brenes Caballero, the matriarch of the Cepeda Brenes family of performers and practitioners, encourage research into her contributions and those of the many women under represented in the multiple narrative sources that inform about Bomba.

Caridad Brenes Caballero was born to Antero Caballero Ortiz and Petronila Brenes Luzunaris in Humacao. In the 1920 census, she was living with her mother and five siblings on Calle San Ciriaco in Barrio San Juan, Humacao as of January 13. A decade later, she was recorded in the 1930 census on April 21 living along the Martín Peña Channel in Santurce with her mother and working as a servant in a private home. Less than one year later, on February 25, 1931, she was living at #21 Calle República in Santurce. She and Rafael made their lives together shortly thereafter and had their first child (named after his father) on April 30, 1935.

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