According to Melanie Maldonado, Petronila Guilbe (originally Guilbee with two Es) was one of a few women that have a “near mythological presence” in bomba oral and sung history. She was likely from Ponce, and was a “dancer who frequented the batey of Domingo ‘Dominguito’ Negrón Matías (1877–1955) in Cataño (Fernández Morales 1999, 180), and […]

According to Melanie Maldonado, the real name of this bombero known in the Loíza region was: Meliton Ramos, an African stolen from the Continent and, per his own testimony, brought to Puerto Rico aboard the slave ship the Majesty. He lived out his days in Loiza, and there is a Bomba song in his honor.

Ledru’s original text states: Pendant mon séjour chez don Benito, je fus témoin d’un bal que donnait l’économe de l’habitation, pour célébrer la naissance d’un premier enfant. L’assemblée était compose de 40 à 50 creoles des environs, de l’un et de l’autre sexe. Quelques-uns étaient venus de six lieues; car ces hommes, ordinairement indolents, sont […]