Turn of the Century through World War I
In 1898, the island of Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war; migration from Puerto Rico to New York City didn't pick up significantly until after World War II. An effort to kick start the island's economy via hotel construction during World War II, part of "Operation Bootstrap," displaced Puerto Ricans agricultural workers for the sake of land development. But the service-sector jobs created by the economic initiative were not great enough in number to create a job for every agricultural worker. Therefore, immigration out of PR and into the U.S. for the sake of finding work was encouraged, which brought roughly 120,000 new inhabitants form Puerto Rico to New York City from 1940 to 1970.
Much like the Great Migration of African-Americans, there was a similar exodus of Puerto Rican agricultural workers ("jíbaros") from the fields to a more urban setting – specifically, New York City. The migration largely coincided with an influx of African-Americans, placing the two ethnicities in competition for labor and housing but also providing fertile ground for new forms of music, including types of doo-wop, jazz and the creation of hip-hop.
As a class activity, students may compare and contrast what they know of the Great Migration to that of Puerto Rican agricultural workers travelling to New York City.
Some Puerto Rican musicians found themselves much further than New York City: Noted African-American bandleader, James Reese Europe, visited Puerto Rico in 1917 to recruit musicians for his commercial band. It is possible Europe became acquainted with Puerto Rican musicians via the recordings of Manuel Tizol's (uncle of Duke Ellington trombonist Juan Tizol) and Rafael Hernández's bands released on the Victor Talking Machine Company, which also released Europe's recordings. Europe must have also heard of the intense formal training that many Puerto Rican musicians received, including solid grounding in reading music and understanding music theory.
When Reese joined the military during World War I, he negotiated with his superiors to enroll Puerto Rican musicians in his band, the "Harlem Hellfighters Band." Glasser describes the goal of this band as "an attempt to change society through the universalization of ethnic cultural norms." The Hellfighters Band toured France, performing for Allied soldiers but also French civilians. While in France, they recorded selections from their repertoire, which was a mix of French music, American military marches, and African-American ragtime. Their recording of ragtime are credited with launching the French craze for ragtime music, which later led to the French style of jazz known as "Hot jazz," led my guitarist Django Reinhart.
African-Americans and Puerto Ricans alike during this period saw acceptance of their musical talent as a precursor to social acceptance. However, these Puerto Rican musicians were making a living playing a music other than their own. However, it wouldn't take long for composers to bring traditional Puerto Rican music to prominence (although the definition of "tradition Puerto Rican" music can get complicated).
Traditional—or Traditional?—Music after World War I
The jíbaros' life was put to musical form by Rafael Hernández in 1929 in the song "Lamento Borincano" Hernández was living in Spanish Harlem at the time and wrote this song to describe the jíbaros in positive terms but to also to portray their difficult lives. The song was immensely popular and has been recorded many times, recently by singer Marc Anthony. Glasser describes this song as a version of the Depression-era staple, "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" for Puerto Ricans.
As a class activity, students will compare and contrast the lyrics of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" to the (translated) lyrics of "Lamento Borincano," and identify which themes are specific to culture/ethnicity and which are universal. Students will also create works that mimic the themes of Lamento Borincano, but in other media – short stories, song lyrics, video, etc.
Hernández musically documented Puerto Rican sentiment again in 1935, with a bolero entitled "Precioso." The lyrics included barely veiled references to US colonialism. The song starts as a tribute to the precious Caribbean island, citing its beautiful women, flowers, and noting that this island has the nobility of Spain and the fierceness of its Native taíno inhabitants. However, the final verse references a "tyrant" that treats precious "with black hatred." Later versions pulled back from this stance by changing the word "tyrant" to "destiny" or "fate." Here, students will compare the lyrics of Precioso to lyrics from the Great Migration about how the South. How are these migrants' homelands portrayed, using what descriptors?
Puerto Rico had good outlets for distributing music, but poor recording facilities – thus further encouraging Puerto Rican musicians to come to New York City to record – somewhat ironically, considering they were leaving their homeland to record traditional music for audiences back home.
As with African-American "race records," Puerto Ricans' traditional "ethnic" music (as close as a definition could be settled on) were documented and sold to recent immigrants with the real intent of selling them (much more expensive) phonographs to play them on. Indeed, "off-the-boat" musicians were sought after for their "authenticity," often signed and managed by first- or second-generation musicians. Here, students will speculate as to what characteristics made them more "authentic" and dissect the notion of "authenticity" and what it means.
Puerto Rico boasted a great variety of song types, including
seis, aguinaldo, bomba,
and
plena
. Ironically, given that at the time "Puerto Rican" was a catch-all term describing any given Latino in New York City, native Puerto Rican music was often overlooked in favor of Cuban music. In fact, Cuban music and Puerto Rican music often intermingled with each other, to the point that some styles of Cuban music were adopted into Puerto Rican music and vice versa. Keil says "People can play and dance to very similar music forms but still maintain a socially antagonistic role." A fruitful class discussion would be for students to examine whether or not this is true – can someone enjoy the music of a certain culture/ethnicity and still be biased against its performers? If so, can music really be a force for social change?
Not surprisingly, during the 1920's and 1930's there were many disagreements in the Puerto Rican community – in New York and also in Puerto Rico proper – about what constituted "authentic" Puerto Rican music.
Puerto Rican Composers
Examining the careers of two prominent Puerto Rican composers may illuminate how native Puerto Rican music traveled and intermingled with other regions.
Augusto Coen was raised in Puerto Rico, the son of a Jewish father and Afro-Puerto Rican mother. He moved to New York in the 1920's, working as a postal clerk and, since Latin music was almost nonexistent in New York in that area, playing with African-American jazz bands. However, hearing that there was a shortage of trained musicians in Puerto Rico (and those that were there were making good money), Coen moved back to Puerto Rico. There, Coen led a school band, formed a society for composers and music publishers, and wrote articles about native Puerto Rican customs and music, including plenas, danzas, and religious ceremonies.
Rafael Hernández, mentioned elsewhere, was a Puerto Rican native who played in James Reese Europe's "Harlem Hellfighters" military band. He later moved to Mexico and wrote the two famous songs "Lamento Borincano" and also "Preciosa." He made his living in Mexico, continuing his formal musical training at the National Music Conservatory, writing music for movies, popular music such as boleros, rumbas, cha-chas, corridos, and also and writing classical music based off of plenas. Rafaél Hernandez, along with Pedro Flores, put "intensely nationalistic" lyrics about Puerto Rico – to commercial Cuban forms – to be sold to Puerto Ricans.
Puerto Rican Music After World War II:, Noyuricans, Funk, and Hip-Hop
Although hip-hop may be thought of an African-American art form, there are strong arguments that it came from a cross-pollination and hybridizing of similar African-American and Puerto Rican cultural elements. This synthesis was accommodated by the geographical proximity of Puerto Rican communities to African-American communities in post-war New York City.
In many cases, Puerto Rican neighborhoods were nestled right next to African-American neighborhoods. In the case of the South Bronx (arguably the birthplace of hip-hop), African-Americans and Puerto Rican families were intermingled. As neighborhood resident, MC, DJ, and producer KMX-Assault described it, "You lived next door, you shared the same cockroaches."
The two groups not only lived side-by-side, but in some cases fought for social change side by side: In the 1960's and 1970's, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans worked together in the Black Power Movement. The Puerto Rican Young Lords Party was an offshoot modeled on the Black Panthers.
Although Puerto Ricans are described as having weaved in and out of popular music for decades, the first possible Puerto Rican/African-American hybrid was the jazz subgenre known as "boogaloo" (or
bugalú
). This genre, led by Mongo Santamaria and also Herbie Hancock, included elements of mambo and rock and roll – "a genuine reflection of 1960's music on young latins." (Willie Colón, who would later have a prominent career as a salsa musician, recorded an early boogaloo track called "Boogaloo Blues.")
In the 1970's and 1980's, the South Bronx witnessed massive decrease in jobs, residents, and housing options (roughly 10.5% overall, as much as 50% in some sections), caused in part by the development of the Cross-Bronx Expressway. The demographic population changed dramatically also. In 1970, 87% of the white population in the South Bronx moved out of the area. By 1980, blacks and Hispanics comprised 91% of the population.
This musical cross-pollination, first established in boogaloo, re-emerged in the 1970's via DJ's selections to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become hip-hop. DJ's Afrika Bambaataa and Charlie Chase (of the Cold Crush Brothers) slipped funky Latin music into their DJ sets. Bambaataa later said that the "Latin-tinged funk" was an essential element in his selection of "breaks" (short one- or two-bar drum solos), which would later form the basis of hip-hop. Jimmy Castor's track "It's Just Begun," which was later sampled extensively in hip-hop tracks, featured driving funk basslines and prominent use of the
timbale
percussion instrument.
