Andrew Viñales Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba: A Black Diasporic Practice in Defense of Black life
After the brutal killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor many were inspired to take to the streets to demand justice and systemic change. Some of these demonstrations included performances of the Afro- Puerto Rican musical genre of Bomba, in the Caribbean archipelago and in the United States.
This talk takes a critical look at Bomba through the lenses of abolition and spirituality to make sense of the ways Black Puerto Ricans articulate acts of resistance. It asks why participants find it appropriate to use Bomba in Black Lives Matter demonstrations. More broadly, this talk argues for a serious investigation of Afro-Caribbean resistance traditions as spaces where Black subject-making is fomented, and liberation is articulated through notions of “ancestors,” “roots,” “spirituality” and “healing.” I ask how these terms inform practitioners’ political commitments, and explore what Bomba might teach us about abolition and maroonage today.
Andrew Viñales was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, by proud Afro-Puerto Rican and Dominican families. He is a twin and recent initiate in the Lukumí Afro-Cuban Orisha tradition, as well as an oral historian and cultural worker passionate about highlighting the experiences of queer Afro-Latinx politics, culture and spirituality. Currently, he is a 4th year PhD student in cultural anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center in NYC. He hopes to explore anthropological possibilities in cultural work, storytelling and public scholarship.
