Warning: The following review describes graphic violence and features video clips with excessive and pervasive language. Viewer discretion advised.
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Songs from The Capeman presents an album that represents a stark departure for pop singer and songwriter Paul Simon (b. 1941). It features a preview of songs that were eventually included in the 1998 Broadway musical, The Capeman, which Simon collaborated on with Derek Walcott. The musical focuses on the life of Salvador Agron (1943-1986), a Puerto Rican poet and former member of the Vampires street gang who was charged with double murder in New York City in 1959 at age 16 for stabbing two children and served twenty years in prison. The Broadway production proved a colossal failure due to the negative critical reception from audiences regarding the thematic material and stylistic choices. Both the musical and album combine 1950s doo-wop with genres from the transnational Puerto Rican musical diaspora via salsa, bomba, musica jibara, and other genres.  

Evidence from the album liner notes and biographical information respectively indicate that Paul Simon grew dissatisfied with musicals in the late twentieth century that he perceived as lacking originality and wished to do something different with musical theater.[1] He began working on The Capeman in 1989 while writing songs for his Rhythm of the Saints album (1990). His decision to explore Salvador Agron’s life through music stemmed from the connection that Simon had with also having grown up in New York City in the 1950s and his collective memories regarding public reactions to the murder in 1959: most notably, by the vitriolic rhetoric from the press and testimonies from Agron himself. The fact that Agron displayed candid contempt for authority and had no remorse for his actions back then did not alleviate the situation. [2] In many respects, Paul Simon and Derek Walcott present a more realistic 1950s that offers a darker depiction of gang warfare and racial discrimination in New York City. Both the Broadway production and album contain lyrics with abundant profanities via “f-words” and pervasive language. In addition to fusing doo-wop with musical genres from Latin America and the Caribbean, The Capeman incorporates sung dialog throughout the production.  

While the show has undergone revivals, the latest one from 2010, full recordings for The Capeman prove difficult to find. One can, however, find the documentary film The Capeman on Broadway, which concerns the musical and the processes involved. The documentary not only shows footage from the testimony by Salvador Agron. It also presents the collaboration between Simon and Walcott in St. Lucia while working on songs for the show, in addition to the casting and rehearsals that took place in 1996 (including moments with personal tension due to conflicting creative ideas). The original production featured a predominantly Latino cast, with Marc  Anthony and Ruben Blades respectively portraying Salvador Agron from youth to adulthood and Ednita Nazario portraying Agron’s mother.  

The Capeman attempts to humanize Agron by depicting him as more than just a criminal. He was someone with a purpose in life whose actions affected his family and whose time in prison caused him to alter his ways. That same humanization also backfired by causing outrage from audiences in 1998: many of whom either misinterpreted the musical as glorifying murder or who took umbrage at Paul Simon for trying to incorporate different musical genres. That last aspect presents some irony given that more contemporary musicals, like the works by Lin Manuel Miranda (In the Heights and Hamilton), apply Latin American music and hip hop and have mostly received critical praise.  
 
Songs from The Capeman includes thirteen tracks of the over thirty songs from the Broadway production. Simon reworks the songs so that the result sounds more like a concept album with Latin American music and doo-wop. He periodically intersperses audio clips from Salvador Agron speaking to news reporters after his capture by the police. These clips function as the glue that holds Songs from The Capeman together to give the album consistency. This does not mean that the album does not contain odd moments, however. Simon sings most of the songs himself, with a few moments from other artists. This decision can initially come off as jarring to listeners, especially when Simon spouts profanities on tracks like “The Vampires,” or when he sings the track “Can I Forgive Him?”: a song intended to represent how Salvador Agron’s mother felt about her son’s crime and conviction.[3] The liner notes to the songs also include lyrics assigned by the characters in the Broadway production, even though Simon sings most of the parts on Songs from The Capeman. In that respect, the album serves as an intimate glimpse into how Paul Simon approaches the material and to offer listeners a sample of what the music from the production sounds like.

[1] Marc Eliot, “The Singing Capeman,” in Paul Simon: A Life (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), 218-230; Paul Simon, Songs from The Capeman (New York: Warner Bros. Music, Inc., 1997), Liner Nores.

[2] The liner notes for Songs from The Capeman demonstrate that the title for the musical derived from an infamous nickname that the New York City newspapers used to identify Salvador Agron because he wore a black cape.

[3] Paul Simon, Songs from The Capeman (New York: Warner Bros. Music, Inc., 1997), Tr. 5; Tr. 7.

I discussed in one of my previous posts last month that music marketing often requires the artist to stay vigilant and attentive to potential online scams. Consider this current post an expansion on what I previously said. Locating jobs related to music can prove difficult at times due to unpredictability. Even though creating an accurate and honest resume and Curriculum Vitae (CV) can help secure work for a potential candidate, such documentation alone does not suffice. The artist must also showcase their skills and demonstrate what they can do. I present this process through “Demo Reels.” They clearly show clips from audiovisual works and collaborations from my creative output over the years. I have intentionally inserted these reels on the “Home” page of my website so that potential visitors know what kind of works to expect from me in advance should they commission music.

Artists in this current era must also be aware that some job postings in the field are not always what they seem. It helps to conduct searches online to determine the legitimacy of a given company or organization for freelance or academic work. This shows whether or not a company or organization is officially accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and can elicit audience feedback via reviews and complaints from customers or clients. Here are some factors and situations to think about when searching for remote or location-based music jobs:
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1. The advertised institution or company features questionable background information about their history or services.
2. The company or website applies paid subscriptions and online job markets with polarizing services.
3. Customers often experience short trial periods with little time to react when the trial periods end.
4. Some paying customers also complain of being overcharged with monthly fees.
5. Customers often find it difficult to cancel subscriptions and lessons.
6. Success largely depends on how well the potential candidate for the job knows a given subject, which varies drastically based on audience feedback.
7. Some customers complain about deceptive or unethical business practices from a company or institution, leading them to proclaim that they are scam.
8. Potential candidates receive decent compensation, but the job applicant must find the clients on their own. This especially applies when tutoring or creating a private music studio for teaching.
9. The qualifications for freelance music composition jobs vary by what a given project requires.
10.  Qualifications for a job depend on how well the skills on an applicant’s resume match what the job requires.
11. Some job postings can appear new, but they are outdated.
12. Some job listings receive “promoted” advertisements to increase visibility and persuade potential applicants.
13.  The time to apply and submit works for consideration varies, with some offering a surprisingly short window of opportunity.

The United States Supreme Court recently rejected copyright eligibility for artistic content generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The decision stemmed from the Thalmer v. Perlmutter case from March 2, 2026 and ruled that any work of art created entirely by AI cannot have copyright status. Thinking back to my recent Symphony (In the Age of Artificiality) (2019-2025), I explained that I applied an “Electronic Voice” in the final movement of the piece. I created the text for the “Electronic Voice” via the text2speech.org website. That website does not, however, implement generative AI. It functions as more traditional “Text-to-Speech” (TTS) conversion programming instead. The computerized voices available on the website also do not apply more realistic emotional inflections that "sound" human. The website also requires human effort. I physically typed the text into the given space on the website, chose a computerized voice to narrate the words, and downloaded the narration as an audio file to include for my electroacoustic orchestral piece. The end result produced electronic speech that I intentionally wanted to sound cold, and monotone and eerie to complement the overall theme for the Symphony about invasive technology in the arts.      

(The following is an expansion of materials that I wrote on LinkedIn earlier this month. My original posts concentrated on how to identify potentially misleading conversations and  online scams when trying to collaborate, market music, or other business purposes. The information and guidelines that I provide are based primarily on my personal experiences as a composer and musician and do not necessarily reflect the same situations for everyone.) 

I wrote several discussions in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic concerning rules that composers should follow in relation to collaboration projects and online etiquette. Six years later I must expand on what I have said, albeit in relation to how I have structured my website and musical output. As someone who runs a self-publishing music company registered through the American Society of Composers and Performers (ASCAP), I create every aspect of a given musical score or audio recording and digital publication for distribution on my Patreon. I assemble each publication myself and provide the necessary title page, “Table of Contents” (if applicable), program notes, score, and back matter so that the digital publication gets treated like a book.[1] I primarily use the Audacity music editing freeware to create and edit audio files of my electronic and acoustic pieces.
 
The processes that I follow require much attention and effort. That is why I usually try to make it a habit to direct potential clients to my website if they are interested in my work. While I originally included a questionnaire that I created through Google Forms, I deleted and replaced it with a basic form on my “Contact” page. I also manage a SoundCloud page and a YouTube channel to post my works available for purchase. I keep track of which people interact with and respond to my music. With that said, the potential for fake audience engagement through “bots” tend to become more prominent: especially in an era where anything generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming normalized. Here are some warning signs that can indicate potential scams:

1) The business or person in question writes first, often without context.

2)  Language barriers aside, their messages are filled with too many grammatical and typographical errors or they give the impression that they are desperate for attention.

3) The conversation starts out as polite, but the tone quickly shifts to something that sounds too good to be true.

4) The person on the other end asks questions like “Can I ask you something?” or “Can you do me a favor?” These kinds of questions can indicate potential harassment and are usually code for “Give me your money!”

5) The person falsely claims to have a family member in your field of expertise and is offering paid work for a large sum of money by randomly mentioning a contract that requires an immediate signature.

6) Someone asks for personally sensitive information and does not stop until they get what they want. That attitude usually indicates a complete disrespect for privacy.

7) The conversation indicates a collaboration, but you find yourself having to do all the work while they do nothing but come up with excuses.

8) Someone asks you to pay them for your work.

9) Conducting thorough searches online reveals that the company that they claim to work for does not exist.

I have one final point before concluding this post. If you are on SoundCloud or YouTube and you follow or like my work, please refrain from sending messages about "music promotion" and "audience growth." I am going to assume that you're trying to spam me with dubious paid services scam tactics. Those kinds of messages are also incredibly rude and disrespectful to artists, many of whom already devote their time and energy to their craft. The last thing that they want to do is to pay for something that does not deliver or truly benefit them.


[1] While I initially used the Finale music notation software program to compose music, I have switched to the MuseScore 4 music notation freeware since around 2022 or 2023.

It has been three years since I started compiling tracks for the Iberian, Latin American, and Caribbean Elements in Video Game Music project. I have already amassed hundreds of musical tracks from games across myriad arcades, consoles, and computers from the past four decades. My process for collecting the VGM tracks has relied on active listening for instrumentation and genres related to music cultures from Spain, Portugal, Latin America: criteria that I have discussed in a multi-part series regarding the project. I also adapted to the sudden shifts in video game music preservation when the Nintendo Music smartphone application released in October 2024. Given the bulk and purpose behind my ongoing work, I needed to renovate the page on this website and categorize everything to provide greater clarity for researchers in ludomusicology or those who are curious about video game music. I have divided my project into the following main categories so far. I will continue adding to these extant parts. Whenever necessary, I might include more categories depending on the overall progress of the project:

• Video Game Music Tracks That Evoke Iberia (Spain, Portugal, or Mediterranean)
• Selected Tracks from the Uncharted Waters Series
• Selected Tracks from Games Published by Sega
• Tracks on the Nintendo Music App That Evoke Iberian, Latin American, and Caribbean Musical Elements
• Some Background Information About Mario Paint[1]
• Tracks from Nintendo Games Not Listed in the Nintendo Music App[2]
• Tracks from Games Developed by Capcom That Evoke Iberia, Latin America and the Caribbean

  
 


[1] This part functions as a brief description about the multimedia edutainment software program for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

[2] This list concentrates primarily on licensed games created exclusively for Nintendo consoles in collaboration with third-party video game developers.

Mardi Gras functions as part of the Carnival celebration in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe. I had discussed the Afro-Latin American connections to Carnival in previous posts over the years in relation to Puerto Rico via the African diasporic connections through the vejigante masks and bomba music and dance. Regarding the version specific to the United States from areas like New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama, Carnival and Mardi Gras combine the traditions from African, Francophone European, and indigenous cultures. Carnival celebrations run based on the Christian (Catholic) Liturgical Calander and begin on the Epiphany (January 6). Mardi Gras marks the final day for Carnival festivities in preparation for Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent through fasting and personal reflection. Mardi Gras for 2026 falls on February 17th.[1]

The American connections to Mardi Gras in the “New World” derive from French colonization. However, they vary by date and location. One of the first documented references to Mardi Gras and New Orleans derives from the settlement of Louisiana on March 2, 1699, via the “Pointe de Mardi Gras,” after French-Canadian colonizers arrived on land on a Fat Tuesday. Mobile, Alabama also claims to have the first reference to Mardi Gras festivities in the city as early as 1703. Sources on the topic mention that this occurred because Mobile served as part of Louisiana under French rule at the time. Information concerning the first documented Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans proves equally conflicting. Local historians and tour guides indicate 1837 based on newspaper archives, while others specify 1781 during the brief Spanish colonization of Louisiana.[2] Entertainment for Mardi Gras originated as private events via masked balls and limited to the wealthy via subscriptions. It did not grow into a more public event with parades, music, and performance societies and social clubs (krewes) until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with Mardi Gras becoming an official holiday for Louisiana in the 1870s.

I have visited both New Orleans and Mobile respectively several times over the past decade. Based on the photo galleries that I have provided below, both cities share the historical preservation of the cultural and musical traditions of Mardi Gras through pageantry and jazz, even though New Orleans tends to receive more attention. Both cities also provide schedules for the festivities and parade routes throughout the Carnival season, with each parade hosted by a given krewe or social club.

New Orleans, LA Carnival/Mardi Gras Schedule

Mobile, AL Carnival/Mardi Gras 2026 Schedule

[1] The origins for Carnival date back to ancient Rome and served as a time for partying and debauchery, with the tern “carnival” deriving from Latin meaning “farewell to meat.” 

[2] Viewers must exercise caution when searching for visual documentary evidence about Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Some videos tend to concentrate too much on sensationalism and spreading disinformation about people and events in the city.

​The images that you see before you in the following gallery derive from real historical artifacts and architecture from the Spanish colonial era via the Yuso monastery at San Millan de Cogolla in La Rioja, Spain. Through my recent travels across northern Spain, as well as parts of France, I visited many cities, towns, and sacred spaces that adhere to the Catholic religious practices and cultural customs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. The monastery at San Millan de Cogolla demonstrates careful documentation and preservation: not just of the first known written instances of texts presented in both Castilian Spanish and Euskara (Basque) languages. Visitors can also find handwritten musical scores of Gregorian plainchant and Mass settings presented in Latin and written in one of the earliest forms of grand staff notation, which have been documented in gigantic books bound with animal skins and leather. The area within the monastery reserved for the church choir also features a rotating device intended to simplify reading and singing the sacred scored through group participation, both in practice and for religious events. Some evidence suggests that such exposure to music can demonstrate positive psychological and therapeutic benefits, based on current research from Dr. Kathlyn Gan at the University of Toronto Scarborough. 

Communication and collaboration served as valuable approaches for enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico in the nineteenth century to work together and fight against captivity. Some documented enslavement insurrections indicate that participants also incorporated music and dance via the bomba through “call and response” vocality and percussion by playing barrel drums, the cuá (sticks), and maracas. This specific performative genre in Puerto Rico has existed for nearly four centuries in the 1600s since the Spanish colonized the island and is often historically connected as a form of resistance to African enslavement. Readers should comprehend the bomba as having more than one type of rhythmic pattern played by the Buleador (Low Drum) and the Primo providing improvisatory drumming. The bomba consists of sixteen known drumming patterns, with the “Bomba Sicá” functioning as the basic drumming pattern in bomba performance and other variants like the “Yubá,” “Holandés,” “Belén,” and “Cunyá” (see "Figures 1 through 7" for Buleador drumming patterns).[1]

Dance also figures prominently in the bomba. By establishing nonverbal communication between the primo drummer and lead dancer in a bomba performance (eg., physically looking at each other or the dancer gesturing to the drummer by waving clothes), the primo drummer must watch and closely follow the dance movements. The main sections in a bomba dance consist of the paseo (introduction), piquete (picket), and corrido (rapid dance movement that simulates running). The dancer in the bomba dictates when the primo drummer should play and improvise the musical portion. Readers should also not assume that the bomba remains exclusive to Loiza. Bomba also exists in other parts of the island like Santurce, San Juan, and Ponce.[2]

Information concerning initial documentation about the bomba and its origins tends to produce murky results due to colonialist interference. However, most sources concur that its inclusion within the Puerto Rican lexicon derives from the French rather than the Spanish and from a source that has little to do with either music or dance. Historians often credit André Pierre Ledru, a French naturalist, for applying the term while documenting his travel experiences in Puerto Rico in Viage a la Isla de Puerto-Rico from 1797. While the book mainly concerns the work that Ledru conducted in relation to describing the landscapes and plants that he encountered on the island, the historical document also functions as ethnographic material from the eighteenth century. Ledru provides social commentary regarding the Puerto Rican people, their history, and customs.[3]

Viage proves significant because Ledru additionally includes information about the Afro-Puerto Rican population. He denotes the visibility of the enslaved and freed people on the island in the eighteenth century through statistical census information by describing their visual attire, cuisine, and their participation in social events. His work also presents one of the first known uses and descriptions of the bomba music and dance in writing. Available editions of Viage, however, stem from Spanish translations and not from the original French text. The etic perceptions that André Pierre Ledru expresses about Afro-Puerto Ricans can also come off as ignorant due to his misguided description about “benevolent” enslavers on haciendas.[4] 

Examples from the nineteenth century concerning enslavement revolts demonstrate Afro-Puerto Ricans applying the bomba through the “call and response” vocal techniques to secretly transmit coded messages regarding rebellion and liberation in Puerto Rico. Historians mention several key moments that happened in 1826—the same year that Miguel de la Torre issued the Reglamento de Esclavos de Puerto Rico—where enslaved Africans on the island used the bomba to resist bondage. The first event transpired as a joint effort from enslaved people from Toa Baja and Bayamón in July and involved a planned escape to Haiti led by a José Joaquin from Bayamón from the hacienda of Miguel Dávila. The second instance took place in Ponce, also in July, and featured the bomba as a tool to relay information about causing mayhem in the barrios of the city by intentionally burning the sugar cane fields.[5]

Archival materials from the 1820s and research concerning connections to the bomba and enslavement revolts reveals that myriad participants in these events arrived in Puerto Rico as enslaved bozales. They had been purchased by hacendados who initially immigrated to Puerto Rico from areas in Europe and North America. The bozales also strongly opposed their captivity and resisted through rebellions via the bomba in places like Ponce in southern Puerto Rico.[6] The Puerto Rican historiography indicates that the second documented conspiracy for revolt involving the bomba transpired from July 9 to 10, 1826 and had been perpetrated by an Antonio Congo. Congo and many other enslaved bozales planned to hold a bomba demonstration in protest on July 10th that year because it fell on a Sunday, when most enslaved Afro-Puerto Ricans could rest from all their work. The conspiracy took place at the hacienda of an enslaver named Fernando Overman and quickly spread to other nearby haciendas. Available details regarding the planned insurrection state that Congo and the perpetrators involved wished to seize weapons and kill the White people on the island.[7]

This information does provide significant details by illustrating that enslaved Africans used music and dance to protest their mistreatment. It also mentions names and provides the reasons why the enslaved Afro-Puerto Ricans revolted at that point in time. However, it leaves some important questions about the bomba and its application within these contexts unanswered. Knowing that the bomba applies many different percussive rhythmic patterns instead of a universal one, what types of bomba rhythms did the protestors play, or plan to play, on both occasions in July 1826? How long did they want each performance to last as part of the conspiracies? Which instruments did they use? Most importantly, what lyrics would the enslaved Afro-Puerto Ricans have sung or spoken that could have denoted the coded messages about their plans for attack, defense, and liberation?

Answers to these questions remain uncertain. Much of the information regarding the bomba in the nineteenth century in relation to enslavement revolts reveals several problems for historical research about Puerto Rico. The most noticeable one stems from the fact that lyrics in bomba music and dance incorporate improvised texts. These texts usually do not get transcribed and preserved for public use. Textual transcriptions of bomba lyrics from the revolts that occurred in Puerto Rico in 1826 have not surfaced.

Readers should not misinterpret the absent information about the bomba as absolute or as a rush to judgement. When compared to other regions in Latin America and the Caribbean, Puerto Rico has endured a fractured history regarding preservation, something that more contemporary research efforts have attempted to remedy by allowing access to digitized historical literature and archival materials.[8] The invisibility of the enslaved Afro-Puerto Rican identity within that history, however, serves to aggravate matters. That means that scholars and readers cannot access the bomba textual transcriptions as archived materials so that more people can understand what happened to that population in the nineteenth century. However, it is possible for musicologists in contemporary times to surmise what kinds of lyrics that the participants in enslavement revolts might have sung or said.

The following excerpt stems from an original collaborative composition called Esta es la Bomba Síca[9] (This is the Bomba Síca) from 2024. My goal in creating this piece stems from maintaining the accurate instrumentation for the bomba by scoring the work for barrel drums, cuá, maraca, and vocals (either male or female). The bomba lyrics, written by Freddy Sanchez and included in this book with permission, demonstrate the words that could have been clandestinely sung or spoken on a hacienda in Puerto Rico in the nineteenth century. The words in Esta es la Bomba Síca signify how the enslaved Afro-Puerto Ricans in the past would have used music and dance as codes to show what they truly thought about the hacendados:    

Esta es la Bomba Síca
que bailaba mi bisabuela,
Esta es la Bomba Síca
que bailaba mi bisabuela,
al fín de la cosecha
bailaba lo que sentía,
al fín de la cosecha
bailaba lo que sentía.
 
(English Translation)
(This is the Bomba Síca
which my great-grandmother danced,
This is the Bomba Síca
which my great-grandmother danced,
at the end of the harvest
she would dance how she felt,
at the end of the harvest
she would dance how she felt.)[10]
 
Some historical research from the twenty-first century suggests one possible bomba subgenre that the enslaved Afro-Puerto Ricans could have applied as resistance when singing and dancing. The “Cocobalé” (sometimes also spelled as “Kokobalé) functioned as a bomba type that incorporated martial arts tactics. Participants would practice defensive “dancing” with machetes to bomba drumming patterns and singing in secret to both transmit the coded messages about rebellion and to prepare the enslaved populations on the haciendas for any impending attack against them by enslavers.[11]

Cocobalé bears striking similarities in its description to “Capoeira” from Brazil. That practice also initially applied martial arts “dancing” to train enslaved Africans to fight back against the plantation owners. Unlike Capoeira, which has received countless attention via historical documentation, Cocobalé presents problems due to scant resources about the topic. I have encountered discussions and demonstrations concerning Cocobalé in research from the 2000s and 2020s from both island and stateside Puerto Rican communities: mainly from the Segunda Quimbanda Folkloric Center, Miguel Machado, and the 2023 Cumbre Afro symposium.[12] At the same time, however, these resources allude to the necessity for further concrete research on the subject. I must presently agree with such conclusions and regard the available details with suspicion. Conducting current online searches for academic materials about Cocobalé often produces few valuable results.


[1] Vimari Colón-León, “Bomba: The Sound of Puerto Rico’s African Heritage,” National Association for Music Education (March 30, 2021), https://nafme.org/bomba-the-sound-of-puerto-ricos-african-heritage/ (accessed August 19, 2022).

[2] Vimari Colón-León, 2021.

[3] André Pierre Ledru and D. Julio L. de Vizcarrondo (Transl.), Viaje a La Isla de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR: Universidad de Puerto Rico (1957), 47, https://issuu.com/coleccionpuertorriquena/docs/ledru_andre_pierre-1957_1797-viaje_/1 (accessed May 1, 2024).

[4] André Pierre Ledru and D. Julio L. de Vizcarrondo (Transl.), 47.

[5] Guillermo A. Baralt, “Chapter V: From the Bomba Dance in Ponce to the New Reglamento de Esclavos de Puerto Rico of 1826,” in Slave Revolts in Puerto Rico: Conspiracies and Uprisings, 1795-1873, Translated by Christine Ayorinde (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers. 2015), 41-52.
 
[6] Guillermo A. Baralt, 41-52; Francisco Moscoso, Inventario comentado de resistencia de los esclavos y de la lucha abolicionista en Puerto Rico, siglos 16 al 19 (Lajas, PR: Editorial Akelarre, 2023), 38-39, file:///C:/Users/antho/Downloads/Inventario%20comentado%20resistencia%20esclavos%20CC%204%200.pdf (accessed October 30, 2024).

[7] Guillermo A. Baralt, 41-52; Francisco Moscoso, 38-39.
 
[8] Francisco Moscoso, 38-39.

[9] Due to poetic license and to preserve the rhythmic flow in the lyrics, the lyrics for Esta es la Bomba Síca feature an accent on the letter “i” instead of the letter “a.”

[10] Anthony Luis Sanchez and Freddy Sanchez, Esta es la Bomba Síca (Savannah, GA: ZEKE SPILLED INK MUSIC, 2024). Lyrics reprinted by permission. Readers should note that the bomba lyrics lose its rhyme scheme and rhythmic flow when translated into English.

[11] Miguel Machado, “Reclaiming the Past: The Afro Puerto Rican Art of Cocobalé,” Medium (March 31, 2021), https://vagabondmachado.medium.com/restoring-the-past-the-afro-boricua-art-of-kokobale-4fe99f215d1 (accessed May 17, 2023).

[12] Guiro y Maraca 5, No, 1 (2001), https://segundaquimbamba.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/volume-5-no-1.pdf (accessed November 6, 2024); Miguel Machado, “Reclaiming the Past: The Afro Puerto Rican Art of Cocobalé,” Medium (March 31, 2021), https://vagabondmachado.medium.com/restoring-the-past-the-afro-boricua-art-of-kokobale-4fe99f215d1 (accessed May 17, 2023).