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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.101.1, Connecticut Historical ...
Flyers from Puerto Rican Community Music Events
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.101.1, Connecticut Historical Society, In Copyright

Flyers from Puerto Rican Community Music Events

Subject (Puerto Rican)
Subject (Puerto Rican)
Date1994-2003
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.101.1-.7
DescriptionFlyers from Puerto Rican community events orgnized by and featuring La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Connecticut; Ramón Arroyo; Concurso de Trovadores de Nueva Inglaterra; and Alfred Rivera Productions.


2015.196.101.1: flyer, La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Ct., Inc., “Homenajes Para El Pueblo,” 1995

2015.196.101.2: certificate, 5th Concurso de Trovadores de la Nueva Inglaterra, Auspiciado Por La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Connecticut, Inc., awarded to Ramón Arroyo, 1994

2015.196.101.3: certificate, 6th Concurso de Trovadores de la Nueva Inglaterra, Auspiciado Por La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Connecticut, Inc., awarded to Ramón Arroyo, 1995

2015.196.101.4: certificate, 7th Concurso de Trovadores de la Nueva Inglaterra, Auspiciado Por La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Connecticut, Inc., awarded to Ramón Arroyo, 1996

2015.196.101.5: certificate, Festival de la Familia Hispana Certificado de Participacion, awarded to Ramón Arroyo, 1998

2015.196.101.6: program, La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Ct., Inc., Ramón Arroyo Un Pueblo En Su Canto

2015.196.101.7: flyer, Directamente desde Puerto Rico! Alfred Productions presenta: Miguel Santiago Diaz y Mariano Cotto
NotesBiographical Note: Virgilio Cruz, master cuatro player and composer of décimas (an old poetic form with ten lines of eight syllables each) first learned traditional music from trovadores (folk poetry improvisors) and from his father who played and built cuatros, the 10-stringed guitar-like instrument. After moving to Hartford in 1986, Virgilio established a community traditional music school and orchestra, La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros. Through the school many local Puerto Ricans became good singers, cuatro, guiro, and guitar players as well as trovadores. Like the school, Canto Isleño was formed by senior members of the Orquesta to fill a void in the cultural life of Hartford's largest ethnic group and to expand appreciation for traditional music and poetry. Canto Isleño performed Puerto Rican música jíbara, the songs and poetry of the island's mountain farmers. Their repertoire included folk forms such as Puerto Rican seises and aguinaldos, along with joropas, marumbas, and semi-classical mazurcas, valses criollas and danzas. In 1998, Virgilio moved back to Puerto Rico, a long-time dream of his. He is producing a book of décimas based on the vernacular speech of Puerto Rican campesinos.

A master cuatrista and teacher, Virgilio is also a poet, accomplished in composing the words of decimas, seises, and aguinaldos (specialized poetic forms in Spanish) which he sets to music. These become both folk songs and popular songs which he sings himself or arranges for Canto Isleño. He was First Prize Winner as Composer, at the Segundo Festival de la Voz y la Cancion, San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico and Semi-Finalist Composer at the XI Festival de la Cancion de la Nueva York in the late 1980s. Virgilio is an experienced performer who can explain as well as perform music in both English and Spanish. The concept of a roving singer/songwriter skilled at extemporaneous song composition is so much a part of Puerto Rican folk music. Virgilio and others developed and presented several Concurso de Trovadores de Nueva Inglaterra" events, traditional competitions in jibaro poetry creation, in Hartford, with support from the national Endowment for the Arts.

Virgilio served on the advisory committee for the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP), and CCHAP served as mentor to La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros, advising on grantwriting, organizational development, and marketing/promotion, through a Connecticut Commission on the Arts program. Canto Isleño performed at Charter Oak Cultural Center during the first traditional arts performers series organized by CCHAP in 1995-1996, and was selected for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Touring Roster. In 1992, the Orquesta was a participant in the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Newcomers Project, a technical assistance program for artists from recently arrived communities. In 1995, Virgilio was selected as a mentor/teacher as part of the New England Foundation for the Arts Apprenticeship Program. He and the group Canto Isleño are featured on the 1998 CCHAP/WNPR-produced CD "Sounds Like Home."

“I am a musician and poet in the folk traditions of Puerto Rico. I play the cuatro and compose both popular and folk songs. I also write folk poetry in the vernacular of Puerto Rican campesinos as well as Spanish language poetry. My introduction to music came from my father, a luthier who also played cuatro. Later I took lessons in music theory and practice from private instructors and at the Institute for Culture in San Juan where I joined their orquesta. After moving to Hartford in 1986 I formed the performing group Canto Isleño. Several community members asked me to teach cuatro which I began to do, later adding classes in guitar and folk singing. This has developed into regular evening classes and the establishment of La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros de Hartford.

I have been teaching cuatro, guitar and folk music to a variety of age groups for several years. Primarily my teaching experience has been with adults in both a one-on-one lesson format and in a classroom setting. The Institute for Culture in San Juan, where I received musical training, uses a teaching method I feel is very effective: having experienced students as part of a class including less experienced ones, helping to pass on their knowledge and motivation directly to the new students. I am collaborating with a member of my folk singing class, a trained opera singer, on a teaching guide for Puerto Rican folk songs - El Trovador Boricua. Teachers will have this as a resource on the words and written music of the songs so they can use it in the classroom with a trained musician.”


Biographical Note: Ramón Arroyo was an honored jibaro singer who performed often with La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros, a large performing group of cuatristas and singers which would hold regular concerts in local churches and halls around Hartford. Later he sang with the música jibara group Amor y Cultura around New England. He competed as a trovador in the annual Concurso de Trovadores, a traditional competition for oral composition of the décima song form held in the 1990s and again in 2003 in Hartford.


Biographical Note: Alfred Rivera of New Britain began to play the guitar from age five, absorbing the music from his father, a well known trovador, and family and friends. He has dedicated his life to learning, performing, and promoting música tipica and musica jibara, the folk music of Puerto Rico. Alfred took cuatro lessons from master musician Virgilio Cruz as part of the cuatro academy La Primera Orquesta de Hartford, later playing guitar with the group Canto Isleño under the direction of Virgilio Cruz. Alfred also played cuatro to accompany the folk poets who competed in the Concurso de Trovadores that were organized by Cruz and others in Connecticut during the 1990s. Alfred and other musicians kept this musical tradition alive in Greater Hartford after Virgilio returned to Puerto Rico. He brought popular Puerto Rican trovadores to Hartford, including Mariano Cotto and Miguel Santiago from Comerio, a city from which many of Hartford’s residents originate, in 2001. CCHAP and Rivera produced a Concurso in 2003 on Park Street in Hartford that was attended by over 300 people, with a dozen poets from all over the East Coast competing to compose extemporaneous verse in the décima style, with musical accompaniment. Alfred’s service to his community was honored with a special dinner concert at La Sociedad Puertorriqueña in 2012, with several musicians including his father Florentin Rivera performing. In 2016, Alfred played one of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts at the Connecticut Historical Society with Amor y Cultura and several trovadores from the community, and in 2019, he performed there with another group, Grupo Guajiba.

Alfred Rivera formed the group Amor y Cultura to perform Puerto Rican música tipica, traditional folk music of the countryside and mountains, featuring bongos, guitar, guiro (gourd scraper), vocals, and cuatro - the signature instrument of this style and Alfred’s specialty. Their repertoire of música jibara is rarely performed in Connecticut, making it an interesting addition to the salsa, merengue, and other popular forms which predominate. They play songs from several important Puerto Rican musical forms, including Trova (rhythms such as Seis and Aguinaldo which accompany improvised sung poetry such as the décima); Danza (a more classical instrumental style), and Plena (an African-influenced form characterized by percussion and verses of commentary on current events). Amor y Cultura has been performing for over twenty years. Early members of the conjunto included Joe Diaz - cuatro, guitar, tiple, bordonua; Milton Rosado - bongos, conga, tambora; Raul DeLeon – guiro; Alfred Rivera – cuatro; Florentino Rivera – vocals; and Ramon Arroyo - vocals (occasional performer). The recent line-up of musicians includes Pedro Alvarez (guitar), Robert Piñeiro (bongos), Edwin Velez (guiro/gourd scraper), Alfred Rivera (cuatro), and Antonio Rivera (trovador).

Amor y Cultura is one of the most popular groups working in this genre in Connecticut. Their mission is to preserve and sustain the folk music of Puerto Rico, which is so important to the history and character of Puerto Rican culture. Amor y Cultura carries on the traditions of the island’s music that have been transplanted to neighborhoods in Connecticut while also reaching general audiences who learn about and appreciate Puerto Rican culture through it. Amor y Cultura is an active group, performing widely across the region at venues including the Hartford Public Library, the Bristol Arts in the Park Fest, numerous Latin festivals, the Hispanic Professionals Network awards ceremonies, and at fundraising events. They were part of the Evelyn Preston Fund Summer Concert Series for many years in the 1990s and early 2000s. As a community-based group, they have performed at Sacred Heart Church Fiesta Pastoral (Hartford), at Centro Civico’s Latino Festival in Amsterdam, New York, at fundraisers for St. Mary’s Church in New Britain, and regular open mike sessions at Los Hermanos and Peter’s Café on Park Street in Hartford. They played often at the Capitol Towers Senior Center in Hartford and collaborated with organizations such as Charter Oak Cultural Center, Park Street Library, City of Hartford Cultural Affairs, and Bulkeley High School to present top musicians from Puerto Rico to the community. Regular performances have taken place at Los Hermanos Café (Hartford) every Sunday evening, at La Fontera every Saturday (Meriden), and at La Sociedad Puertorriqueña on Sundays (New Britain). Amor y Cultura was featured in concert at the Institute for Community Research in July 2003 as part of the "Que Bonita Bandera" exhibit there, and Alfred organized a Puerto Rican music festival and traditional trovador competition in September 2003.


Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists, events, and community.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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