In Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month | Sharing My Me Made Bomba y Plena Inspired Look

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month and I found it fitting for me to share my Bomba y Plena inspired look that was featured in the April 2023 issue of Sewn Magazine. Michelle asked me to make something that represented my culture and this is what I came up with. This piece is very personal to me and I hope you enjoy it.

I was born in Puerto Rico to a White Puerto Rican man and a Black Dominican woman.  When I was four years old, I moved to Boston MA with my mother where I lived most of my life.  Growing up, I was a very confused child as far as knowing who and what I was.  I was so confused that I used to check off mixed, other, or left it blank on any paper that asked about race.  I was always told that I wasn’t Black and I just knew I wasn’t white.  I can honestly say, I was confused for much of my adulthood, unfortunately.  It wasn’t until I was old enough to be able to do research on my own that I started to understand who I really was.

I didn’t grow up with my father in my life, but my older siblings on my father’s side made it a point for us to have a relationship to spend time with each other.  There are 5 of us and I’m the darkest one out of my siblings. I think this is funny since I don’t think I’m dark at all. I remember during one of my many visits back to Puerto Rico asking my sister to tell me everything she knew about our family.  She told me that our ancestors were from Spain.  That fascinated me.  Until I grew up and learned that Puerto Rico was colonized by the Spanish with the arrival of Christopher Columbus during his second visit to the Americas in 1493.  During his first visit in 1492, Christopher Columbus “discovered” Hispaniola which is what we know today to be Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are only 236 miles apart and share many similarities including who first inhabitants were.  The first inhabitants of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were Taino Indians.  The Spanish and Europeans came about 1,000 years later and shortly after that is when they brought slaves from Africa to the Caribbean Islands.

Bomba was born in Puerto Rico by our enslaved ancestors and used it as a way to communicate with each other through song, drums and dance.  It was used to talk about the conditions they were living in as slaves on the sugar plantations in Puerto Rico as well as well as political and spiritual topics.  Bomba evolved over time from contact between other slaves in colonies in the Caribbean including Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti. 

The key players and instruments in a Bomba gathering are a maraca usually played by the singer, the cuás which are two wooden sticks played by the side of a small drum. There are also two other drums, the buleador drum and the subidor.  In comes the dancer who will strut around and mark her dance territory.  The dancer will be the one who sets the rhythm for the drummers with the way she moves her feet and body as she dances.  The drummers will follow her lead in response to her movement and they will go back and forth as the dancer tries to make it more difficult for the drummers to keep up.

I wanted to make something that would honor my ancestors and I decided to make this off the shoulder top with ruffles and a long flowy skirt to match.  Traditionally, women wore long flowy white skirts with a pop of color with an off the shoulder top to dance bomba.  They would also wear a turban or a head scarf.  My look was inspired by the women who dance bomba. The reason why I chose to incorporate the red and the blue is because they are all colors found in the Puerto Rican and Dominican flag.  

The top was made using McCall’s M7757 view B in a size L.  I added 4 inches to the hem of the bodice and sewed it following the pattern instructions.  For the skirt I used McCall’s 8205 in a XL and I removed 8 inches from the hem and sewed it according to the pattern instructions.  I made the ruffle by using the front skirt pattern piece and measuring 4 inches from the hem up. I then cut and sewed 3 pieces for the front and 3 for the back and gathered to the size of the hem of the skirt.  Attached my red and blue ruffle and hemmed it.  My head wrap is a rectangular piece of blue fabric cut the width of the fabric.  All of pieces were made using cotton broadcloth purchased at a local fabric store.

My original photo location was rained out and we ended up at the beach to shoot the rest of the photos.  The beach location was perfect for this look.  I felt as one with the sun and ocean and really felt like I was supposed to be there all along.  I’m an Island Girl through and through and the beach always makes me happy.

References

1.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_(Puerto_Rico)
2. https://folkways.si.edu/puerto-rican-bomba-plena-shared-traditions-distinct-rhythms/latin-world/music/article/smithsonian
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Dominican_Republic
4. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/traditional-puerto-rico-clothing

Until next time,

Johanna