We recently connected with Miriam Padilla and have shared our conversation below.
Miriam, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I have found my purpose by connecting to my roots. I was born in Puerto Rico but moved to the mainland USA when I was 7 years old. Throughout my life, I lived in various cities including Baltimore, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and others. In 2015 I moved to Utah, a state that has about 14,000 Puerto Ricans. While in Utah, I wanted to feel a stronger connection to my Puerto Rican roots and thus began a journey of researching my ancestors and their stories. As part of that journey, I was able to trace my family to being in Puerto Rico as far back as 1575 and I also found that I was part of the Taino Indiera clan. Wanting to experience a deeper day to day connection with my ancestors, I started practicing the art of bomba music back in 2017. We then decided to establish the first ever Puerto Rican bomba group here in Utah. We named the group Bomba Marilé which is a combination of sea in Spanish and Ile in Yoruba which means home. Bomba Marilé thus signifies playing bomba in our home by the sea. Over the last 6 years, we have grown to now be a non-profit 501c3 organization. We have greatly received the support of various grants including ones from Salt Lake City Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Ogden City Arts Council, and others. We have thus been able to organize multiple events where we hold free bomba dance and percussion workshops followed by discussions on issues related to colorism, the significance of drumming in cultural identity, the connection between Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and many other topics having to do with identity, culture, and history. We also hold almost monthly free community bomba gatherings where the community is invited to drum, sing, and dance with us, Together, we heal each other through music and dance and through the energy of our ancestors speaking to us through the drums.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Bomba Marilé focuses on sharing Afro-Puerto Rican bomba with the greater community in Utah. We always strive to include education into our events and share aspects that discuss the complex ethnic and cultural diversity of Puerto Rico and its connections to others in the African Diaspora. We invite the community to join us in multiple events, most free to all, to share in feeling the power of music and dance and how it can connect us and heal us. Some of the upcoming events we are organizing include “Caretakers of our Musical Traditions” on Saturday November 4th from 9:30am-7pm at the Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City. There we will have free bomba dance workshops followed by a discussion on the importance of honoring elders as guardians of our ancestral knowledge. We will then have free live music including Mariachi and of course bomba music. Another upcoming event we are organizing is called “Subidora”. This event is supported by the Salt Lake Arts Council Career Empowerment grant and has allowed Miriam Padilla to take weekly classes to learn how to be a lead drummer in bomba. on Saturday December 9th, 2023, Miriam will be showcasing those new learned skills from 4-7pm at the Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City. The event is free and open to all and we encourage those present to dance with the drum. Some other exciting events we will be participating in include the Hispanic Heritage Festival on Saturday September 9th at the Gateway and the TedxSaltLakeCity event on September 25th at the Rose Wagner Theatre. We love to see the support of the community and hope to see a lot of you there to cheer us on.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
To aid a journey of growth, I think it is important to partner with other organizations with similar goals and purposes. In all of our events, we have tried to lift up the voices of black, brown, and Indigenous voices by partnering with other local POC or Queer organizations. We find that we can reach a broader audience base by partnering with multiple organizations that reach out to unique community groups. We can also support each other in making our events more successful and getting the word out about what each organization is doing. Becoming a non-profit has also helped us a lot by opening up many opportunities to apply for grants. The grants have allowed us to bring multiple bomba practitioners as instructors all the way from Puerto Rico, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and other locations. As a non-profit, we are also able to partner with schools and do after school programs teaching bomba to kids. Finally, a third quality that has been helpful is sticking to a specific mission or goal and not trying to do more than we can handle. By focusing on bomba music, we can become knowledgable on all aspects of bomba and share that with those who support the cultural arts. That also gives the space for other local Puerto Rican organizations to then focus their energies on other social gatherings, gathering donations for Puerto Rico, and organizing festival parades and so on. The great thing about being in Utah is that there is so much space for growth and if you are missing something, you have the opportunity to create it and make it come to fruition.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
As part of our journey of discovery and of connecting with our ancestors, we have taken the time to read and study books that specifically focus on the history of black or Indigenous culture in Puerto Rico. These books speak of resilience, strength, and survival. Here are some of the books we have found extremely valuable and interesting to read. Fighting the Slave Trade by Sylviane Diouf
El Pais de Cuatro Pisos y otros ensayos by Jose Luis Gonzalez
La Esclavitud urbana en San Juan by Mariano Negron Portillo
Esclavos, prófugos, y cimarrones: Puerto Rico 1770-1870 by Benjamin Nistal
Sociedades Cimarronas by Ricard Price
Negro, Negra Afirmación y Resistencia organized by Afrodescendencia en Puerto Rico
Esclavos Rebeldes by Guillermo Baralt
The Free Black Man and Woman Puerto Rico 1800-1873 by Maria Gonazlez Garcia
and others. Always find the time to read and study and to look up the significance of each song and the meaning behind what you are sharing with the public.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bombamarile.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bombamarile/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BombaMarile/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFU-tEXLtLUOzxtu7MKoug
- Other: https://linktr.ee/bombamarile
Image Credits
some pictures by Koraima Cromar other pictures by Samantha Ordaz other pictures by Isaias Alavez Martinez other pictures by Miriam Padilla Vargas
