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 […]

From information found in her sons’ death records, she was from Loiza and died there as well. She was already deceased by the time her son Eulogio was reported as having died on April 23, 1885 (the same year the Registro Demografico was founded in Puerto Rico and vital records began being kept by the […]

Per his death record, he died in the home he shared with Carlina (Pilar) Robles (Calderon or Colon). Further documentation indicates they had at least five children: Fabiana (about 1869), Juan (about 1870), Calixta (about 1871), Telesforo (about 1873 – Feb 27, 1954), and Modesto (about 1876). The family’s oral history indicates Manuel was known […]