Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music

by George Torres

  three-pandero set of seguidor, segundo, and requinto (as described above), and

  applied for them techniques from the conga drum. Other changes included the

  elimination of the antiphonal soloist-choir structure in order to give the chorus

  the leading role along the entire piece. Less commercial were the recollections

  of jíbaro music by Los Pleneros de la 23 abajo, whose 10-line octosyllabic déci-

  mas shifted plena from the nostalgic and pleasurable complacency into matters of

  harsh social situations. Diverse routes for plena’s validity and adaptability were

  taken since 1977 by artists such as Irvin García, Jorge Arce, Tony Croatto, and

  Andrés Jiménez; and groups such as Atabal, Paracumbé, and Los Guayacanes de

  San Antón. And once more, a period of international exposure began in the mid-

  1990s, when Plena Libre entered the American Latino airwaves through their

  blends of plena with world music sounds of the time. Around the time of Plena

  Libre’s breakthrough, Bumbún’s “Temporal” was the main theme of an album by

  Arab-Andalusian group Radio Tarifa, in 1998. More recent trends stretch plena’s

  resourcefulness into more elaborate works (as is the case of the Viento de Agua

  experimental ensemble, or William Cepeda’s Afro-Rican jazz ), and into rap and

  reggaetón styles contained in plenas by New York-based groups Yerbabuena,

  Pleneros de la 21, and Bombayó.

  Along the evolutionary line from Bumbún to the present, plena has endured

  formal and stylistic changes while maintaining a core set of elements, compris-

  ing Spanish poetic forms of strong social or historical content that are sung to

  varying styles of instrumental accompaniment on simple chords, and with a dis-

  tinctive combination of danceable rhythms rooted on pan-Caribbean sources.

  Perhaps the principal stream explaining these musical changes is traced along

  recurring socioeconomic cycles of local unemployment, community displace-

  ment, and disintegration (as it happened with the neighborhood of La Joya del

  306 | Polka

  Castillo), migration to major economic centers, and the reconstitution of new

  communities, as it is ultimately observed in major urban centers since the 1930s.

  As to this day, pleneros are known to compensate such vicissitudes with a sense

  of solidarity symbolized through their adoption and readaptation of rhythms,

  forms, and styles emblematic of peoples with similar issues in other parts of the

  Caribbean and the world. Their ability in adjusting to mass media requirements

  explains why plena constitutes a vital musical force whenever it is required,

  being it in times of economic crisis, or in times of celebration. In the video “Lo

  que pasó pasó” by Daddy Yankee, the sounds of plena are hardly felt, but the

  visual representation of panderos in a scene attests to the powerful symbolism

  this expression still propels.

  Further Reading

  Echevarria Alvarado, Felix. La Plena: Origen, Sentido y Derarrollo en el Folklore Puer-

  torriqueño. Ponce, 1984.

  Flores, Juan. “Bumbún and the Beginnings of La Plena.” Centro: Bulletin of the Centro

  de Estudios Puerterriqueños 2, no. 3 (1988): 16–25.

  López, Ramón. “Breve y ajorada historia de la Plena Enrojecida,” Claridad ( En Rojo

  cultural section), May 10–16, 2007, 21–25.

  López, Ramón. Los bembeteos de la plena puertorriquena. San Juan: Ediciones Hura-

  cán, 2008.

  Edgardo Díaz Díaz

  Polca. See Polka .

  Polka

  The polka is a dance of Bohemian origin, popular in much of Latin America since it

  was imported by Central European immigrants in the 19th century. It is performed

  in a moderately fast tempo in binary 2/4 rhythm, often employing an inverted ana-

  pest rhythm of two 16ths followed by an 8th note (short-short-long). Along with

  other imported dances such as the waltz, shottische, and mazurka, the polka became a mainstay in the salon repertoire among elite social groups, especially in

  those countries with strong German, Polish, and Bohemian immigrant populations.

  Those countries include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Mexico. Despite the

  strong European influence, much of the polka appropriation that has occurred in

  Latin America has resulted in a mixture of European and national styles resulting

  in a creolization of the polka. In Mexico, the polka was brought in through north-

  ern Mexico where it became very popular and maintained its popularity as a social

  Porro | 307

  dance into the 20th century. Perhaps the most famous Latin American polka comes

  from the period of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) with the 1916 composi-

  tion “Jesusita en Chihuahua,” by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés, who also composed

  “Cielito Lindo” (1859–1957). It has become a standard in the mariachi repertoire,

  as well as experiencing popularity in the United States where it was marketed as

  both Jesse polka and cactus polka. In the tex-mex conjunto repertoire, most of the music is based primarily on polka rhythm.

  Further Reading

  Peña, Manuel H. The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music. Aus-

  tin: University of Texas Press, 1985.

  George Torres

  Porro

  Porro is a Colombian musical genre that was the country’s most popular and impor-

  tant musical expression throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The genre originated as

  a folkloric rhythm from La Costa, Colombia ’ s northern Caribbean coastal region,

  and in its urbanized form became the first non-Andean genre to gain national popu-

  larity within Colombia. Porro’s duple meter rhythm, in which both the first and the

  slightly anticipated second beats are stressed, is rhythmically similar to, and shares

  a common folkloric musical antecedent with cumbia . While Colombian folklorists

  posit a Colombian origin, others, mainly writers from outside Colombia, refer to it

  as a local variation on either the Spanish fandango or Cuban danzón .

  A number of theories regarding the genre’s provenance have emerged, all fol-

  lowing similar narratives wherein the folkloric rhythm was adapted by rural mu-

  nicipal wind bands, with El Carmen del Bolívar and San Pelayo being the most

  widely supported potential birthplaces. These wind bands—consisting of trumpets,

  clarinets, bombardinos (similar to a euphonium), bomba (bass drum), redoblante (snare), and cymbals—first became popular throughout the country in the 1840s,

  playing European rhythms, including marches, waltzes, polkas, and fandangos, as

  well as danzones and Colombian bambucos and pasillos at public and private functions sponsored by local elites. Speculation over the genre’s birthplace notwith-

  standing, it is documented that by the beginning of the 20th century wind bands in

  La Costa featured porros within their repertoires.

  In the 1920s, as the emerging international recording and film industries formed

  in Barranquilla and Cartagena, dance orchestras that specialized in North Ameri-

  can and Cuban styles disseminated music from Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and

  the United States. These groups played mainly in clubs and hotels for upper- and

  middle-class audiences and gradually began incorporating urbanized versions of

  308 | Porro

  costeño folkloric styles such as porro and fa
ndango alongside sones , boleros , foxtrots, and Charlestons. Orchestra members from rural backgrounds familiar with

  wind band repertoires were said to be responsible for this innovation.

  A watershed moment for the genre was the 1938 release of the porro “Marbella,”

  by Orquesta del Caribe, composed by group director and clarinetist Lucho Ber-

  múdez. The record was released on Discos Fuentes, Colombia’s first record label,

  founded in Cartagena in 1934, and was a hit. While Bermúdez was neither the first

  to adapt porro for dance orchestras nor the first to record porro (recordings by pia-

  nist Ángel María Camacho y Cano in New York between 1929 and 1931 included

  porros ), he is considered an innovator of the style, its foremost exemplar, and es-

  sential to its popularization. He helped bring porro to a wider Colombian audience

  through his artistic directorships at Radio Cartagena and Emisora Fuentes, and his

  extensive recording. He also introduced porro to a more affluent audience by being

  among the first to bring porro and other costeño rhythms into social clubs and ho-

  tels in La Costa and Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín.

  In Bermúdez’s hands, porro was “ se vistió de frac” (“dressed up in tails”), and

  the sophisticated presentation of his orchestra and his modern, jazz -influenced ar-

  rangements aided in the genre’s acceptance within elite circles, although its popular-

  ity was not limited to these audiences. The orchestras of Bermúdez and others were

  modeled on American big bands or Cuban conjuntos, consisting of piano, bass, drum

  set, conga , maracas , large horn sections consisting of three to five saxophones (some doubling on clarinet), two or three trumpets, and in some cases one or two trombones

  (or a bombardino ), and a variable number of singers. Arrangements were character-

  ized by the alternation of melodic lines between the woodwinds—commonly played

  in three octaves—and the brass, the prominence of the clarinet, the drum set adapting

  (and increasingly standardizing and simplifying) bomba and redoblante patterns, and

  a smooth vocal style. Lyrics tended toward romantic themes, rural subjects, extolling

  the virtues of specific places, and imagery inspired by La Costa.

  Dance orchestras that specialized in porro also played other urbanized costeño

  rhythms, including cumbia , gaita, and mapalé (referred to collectively by the umbrella terms música costeña, música tropical, or even simply porro ) as well as bo-

  leros , pasodobles, and a variety of Cuban rhythms. Throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, the porro of Bermúdez and others, including Pacho Galán and Antonio

  María Peñaloza, cemented its broad-based popularity through dissemination on

  the radio and records, the recording industry being based in La Costa and favoring

  the music of the region. In time, the genre would transcend its regional beginnings

  to become an emblem of Colombian identity at both the national and international

  levels. Bermúdez, and to a much lesser extent Galán, aided this perception through

  touring, interacting with prominent musicians, and even recording throughout the

  Americas beginning in the mid-1940s.

  The 1950s was dubbed la Epoca Dorada (the golden age) of costeño music, and

  the genre was such a prominent national symbol that in 1954, the first Colombian

  Pregonero

  |

  309

  television broadcast was a performance by Bermúdez’s orchestra. The decade also

  saw significant changes in the recording industry and consumption patterns. The

  center of the recording industry shifted from La Costa to Medellín and began to uti-

  lize more musicians from the area. While some, most notably Edmundo Arias, led

  large dance orchestras playing porro, many groups moved away from this model.

  Smaller bands utilizing a less refined sound, a distinctly simpler rhythmic esthetic

  and electric instruments, such as bass, guitar and keyboards, became more com-

  mon. This new sound was given the title cumbia, which would became a new um-

  brella term for costeño rhythms, the label even increasingly utilized by established

  musicians, including Bermúdez.

  By the early 1960s, with cumbia being marketed internationally and youth mar-

  kets increasingly attracted to rock ‘n’ roll, pachanga , and boogaloo, big band porro had become passé, seen as having elitist connotations. Nevertheless, both Bermú-

  dez and Galán would remain active into the 1980s and their orchestras would con-

  tinue after their deaths. In the 21st century, porro was still strongly associated with

  the Christmas season and continued to be repackaged and resold by record compa-

  nies. Additionally, it was among the rhythms that artists in the 2000s explored to

  create musical hybrids of North American and Colombian genres, the most notable

  example being singer Adriana Lucia’s 2008 album Porro Nuevo.

  Further Reading

  Abadia Morales, Guillermo. 1983. Compendio General de Folklore Colombiano, cuarta

  edición. Bogotá: Biblioteca Banco Popular.

  Luis Eduardo “Lucho” Bermúdez (1912–1994). Compositor Colombiano, accessed De-

  cember 2, 2010, http://www.colarte.com/colarte/conspintores.asp?idartista=13151

  Wade, Peter. 2000. Music, Race, and Nation: Música Tropical in Colombia. Chicago

  and London: University of Chicago Press.

  Ramón Versage Agudelo

  Pregonero

  The term pregonero is used in Latin American popular music to refer to a lead

  singer or caller in a group. The term is used regularly in the genre of the son jaro-

  cho from Veracruz, Mexico, and occasionally in Cuban popular music to refer to

  the lead singer in a montuno section of a son cubano . In the son jarocho , the verses are often sung in some form of leader–group alternation, or call and response. It is

  believed that the jarocho style of music contains strong African influences, and so

  the leader–group alternation supports that idea. The leader–group alternation be-

  tween the pregonero and the coro (chorus) allows the lead singer an opportunity to perform improvised versos for the entertainment of the audience while the coro

  responds to the versos with a repeated refrain. Often the improvisation will take into

  310 | Protest Song in Latin America

  account who is in the audience, and the pregonero will craft the improvised texts

  to reflect that. The term pregonero is also used in the performance of montunos in Cuban son performances. After performing the main song, the group goes into a

  short repeated montuno section where the coro sings a repeated refrain in alterna-

  tion with the improvised lead of the pregonero. In instrumental son performances,

  the pregonero role will be taken by a lead instrument, such as saxophone, which im-

  provises between statements of the coro’s refrain, as in the Charlie Parker/ Machito

  performance of “Manguito Mangüe.”

  Further Reading

  Sheehy, Daniel, “Popular Mexican Musical Traditions,” Music in Latin American Cul-

  ture: Regional Traditions, edited by John Schechter, 34–79. New York: Schirmer Books,

  1999.

  George Torres

  Protest Song in Latin America

  The protest song in Latin American popular music is a type of musical response or

  commentary on a particular event, movement, and/or social or political condition

  that is meant to bring awareness to the aud
ience of the event or situation. Unlike

  protest songs in the United States, which are few by comparison to other parts of

  the world, the protest song in Latin America has played an important part in form-

  ing a collective view toward activism. Protest song examples and movements can

  be found all over Latin America, but the ways in which the individual movements

  are carried out are based on the particular set of social conditions of that culture,

  which result in traditions that vary according to circumstances. Through, for ex-

  ample, the works of artists such as Victor Jara, Silvio Rodríguez, and Manno Char-

  lemagne, it is possible to see how music was used as a form of social activism that

  supports, decries, or questions the sociopolitical norms of a culture, in an effort to

  bring about a change among the population. In order to see the diversity of Latin

  American protest song, the following discussion, which is by no means exhaustive,

  examines some of the larger and more far-reaching examples of outcries and com-

  mentaries in Latin American popular music.

  The Mexican corrido , a narrative balladry tradition that flourished in the 19th

  and early 20th centuries, used poetry and song to convey socially relevant sub-

  jects to listeners. Among the many themes in corrido singing are the subject of

  current events and local political situations. The corrido, like the broadsheets of

  artist José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913), became an important vehicle to publi-

  cize a political cause, immortalize a leader, or conversely, to satirize or mock

  targeted leaders. For a large part of the population that was unable to read, the

  Protest Song in Latin America | 311

  oral transmission of the corrido became a vital means of communication for

  current events. The period between Mexican independence (1810–1821) and the

  Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) marks the period when the genre flourished the

  most, with songs from the revolution being among Mexico’s best known songs.

  “La Cucaracha” (the cockroach), as a revolutionary era corrido, has many

  verses that name persons and events from the revolution in hidden, but clearly