In recent decades, the practice and performance of Afro Puerto-Rican Bomba and Afro-Indigenous Mexican Son Jarocho have been of central importance in identifying and corporeally articulating the complexity of diasporic identity for communities of Puerto Ricans and Chican@s. As such, these two music and dance traditions, each grounded in particular, geographic histories of survival and resistance, continue to take on new meanings and functions for those that engage in the lived practice of these genres, at times quite promiscuously. This panel examines the various ways that 21st century diasporic Bomba and Son Jarocho practice and performance, by engaging the embodied experiences of Latinidad/Chicanidad/puertorriqueñidad, explode and reimagine these sometimes troubling constructs. Comprised of a group of panelists who are simultaneously scholar/artivist/practitioner/performer, this performative presentation, brings unique perspectives to the conversation about the pleasures and politics, the dreams and dramas of the conviviencia, community-work, and bridge-building the panelists experience in their work as bomberas and jaraneras/fandangueras. In her presentation about bomba performance and praxis, Melanie Maldonado Diaz seeks to highlight the physical and social movements that have contributed to creating inclusive spaces for challenging traditional concepts such as Elegancia. She asks: "What is at stake when accessibility becomes more important than executing the elements that inherently define the genre?” Jade Power Sotomayor continues by asking questions about the relationship between "being" and "doing" in understanding identity as she explores the way that Bomba practice in California, a place with a historically small Puerto Rican population, has been nourished and supported by Chicana audiences and practioners, citing shared histories of enslavement and displacement, ghettoification and exploitation. At the same time, she also critically interrogates the way that embodied signifiers of blackness are conflated with a politics of liberation in both Bomba and Son Jarocho practice. These ideas are further explored in Micaela Diaz-Sanchez’s presentation, which, with a particular focus on gender and sexuality, interrogates the contemporary encuentros that bring practitioners of the musical traditions of Bomba and Son Jarocho together to provide generative opportunities to engage in conversations about the African diaspora in Latina/o communities in the United States. These gatherings historically have brought together Puerto Rican and Chicana/o Mexican communities in Chicago and more, recently, Southern California, to engage in critical exchanges about i/migration, race, gender, sexuality, and class in the contemporary practices of these diasporic musical forms. Finally, Martha Gonzalez brings non-Latina/os to the conversation with her presentation about FandangObon a community building project using convening methods between Japanese American, African American and Chican@ communities in Los Angeles. Paying special attention to the movements enacted during the FandangObon celebration, she explores the degree to which the movements act as archives that incite critical consciousness in participants beyond the celebration.
