Music and cultural identities converged yesterday in a two-hour talk tracing Puerto Rican culture and Latin identity, entitled "From Bomba to Hip-Hop."
The event featured Juan Flores, a Sociology professor at Hunter College, City University of New York, and author of numerous books including From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latin Identity.
"I'm here to help contribute to celebrating and pondering Latino heritage," Flores said, kicking off the discussion.
By tying together social contexts surrounding music's creation, Flores talked about hip-hop and bomba -- a traditional Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance form originating from past slave populations.
"Music is at the crux of what the culture is all about," he said during the discussion. "It served me a good thread to tie things together."
In the same way that bomba served as a voice for the oppressed in the history of Puerto Rico, hip-hop today has served as a voice for urban youth.
"You don't have to get to that technical connection to show the sociological connection," Flores said.
Flores compared the social struggles of Puerto Ricans and blacks as reflected in the music.
"The common African roots are really important," he said.
In discussing music, Flores pointed out the difference in defining pop culture as culture produced by the people and defining it as culture produced for the people.
"Let's not be tricked by the Jennifers, Marc Anthonys and Ricky Martins -- that's the hype," he said. "If you go from the point of view of the popular, from below, you'll see things you can't see from above."
Flores warned of the "illusion of power" reflected by media and celebrity symbols. This illusion includes the idea that Latinos are rising in social, political and economic status because they are becoming the largest racial group in the United States.
"In fact, it's not that," he said. "There's ongoing poverty, ongoing sway at the political level, and in education, forget about it."
"That's the hype, the camouflage, that covers the truth of Latino society," he said.
In order to see the true state of Latinos in the nation, he said, one should not rely solely on commercialized products of pop culture.
"Take it from the vernacular. Take it from the street, and look at it that way," he said. "Music from the street is the best thing we have."
Over 20 students, faculty and staff members attended the event, sponsored by the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, La Casa Latina and the African-American Resource Center as part of Latino Heritage Month.
