Event

Los Pleneros de la 21

LOS PLENEROS DE LA 21, formed in the South Bronx in 1983 by National Heritage Fellow, Juan Gutiérrez-Rodriguez, is a group which has spanned three generations of Puerto Rican musicians, dancers, and artisans dedicated to performing BOMBA and PLENA, two styles of Puerto Rican music which springs from deeply rooted African traditions. The group consists of traditional practitioners and professional musicians who have been deeply influenced and formed in the traditional performance and execution of Bomba and Plena, coming together to keep their traditions alive. Not only do they play, sing, and dance, but they make their own instruments. The name evokes the place of origin of its members, the now gone Parada 21 (Bus Stop 21), a predominantly Black neighborhood in the Santurce municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico that produced many of the island's most accomplished interpreters of Bomba and Plena. They have performed from coast to coast all of the United States and internationally in Canada and Russia.