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Puerto Rico's 'Singing Newspapers' Tell A Story Of Resilience

Hector René "Tito" Matos (left), leads a celebratory plena musical bar hopping jam session along the trendy Calle Loiza neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Angel Valentin for NPR
Hector René "Tito" Matos (left), leads a celebratory plena musical bar hopping jam session along the trendy Calle Loiza neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Since Hurricane Maria, people in Puerto Rico have been without easy access to electricity, clean drinking water, or food. Many are still staying in shelters; some are living in the ruins of their homes. The once-lush green trees were stripped bare and uprooted.

But all is not lost.

There are two quintessential Puerto Rican sounds that survived:

One is the plaintive song of the tiny coqui frog.

The other is the improvised Afro-Puerto Rican call-and-response musical tradition known as Plena.

Plenas are "very, very Puerto Rican," says Emanuel Santana, a singer with the bands <a href="http://plenalibre.com/">Plena Libre</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vientodeagua">Viento de Agua</a>.
/ Angel Valentin for NPR
/
Angel Valentin for NPR
Plenas are "very, very Puerto Rican," says Emanuel Santana, a singer with the bands Plena Libre and Viento de Agua.

Last Sunday, a group of musicians gathered in Calle Loiza, a San Juan neighborhood known for African-inspired folklore. The annual Calle Loiza festival had been canceled because of the hurricane, but they didn't let that stop them from parading through the streets, playing hand drums and singing plenas.

"It's very, very Puerto Rican," says Emanuel Santana, a singer with the bands Plena Libre and Viento de Agua. "Every time a Puerto Rican hears the drums called panderos, you can have them come down in tears in a time like this. Of course, there's no electricity to even hear music. You don't have no MP3s right now. So we're back to basics."

Tito Matos' son Marcelo Matos Reyes, 3, holds a guiro, a percussive instrument, as part of the Plena.
/ Angel Valentin for NPR
/
Angel Valentin for NPR
Tito Matos' son Marcelo Matos Reyes, 3, holds a guiro, a percussive instrument, as part of the Plena.

The musicians traveled down the sidewalk, stopping at the few bars that have managed to open and are operating on generators. Along the way, they attracted followers who sang along.

Leading the group was Hector Matos — known as "Tito" Matos — a Grammy nominee born in Santurce, and one of Puerto Rico's best known pleneros. He drums and sings plenas about the love he has for the island.

"Love Mother Earth, respect of nature, you know, environment," he says, with his three-year-old son at his side. "Trying to use the moment to also teach the young generation these hurricanes are coming faster, bigger and stronger than ever, and that's because of us."

Matos is a member of the New York band Los Pleneros de la 21 and founder of Viento de Agua. He's recorded and toured with well-known musicians Eddie Palmieri, David Sanchez and Ricky Martin. He also owns a restaurant in Calle Loiza called La Junta. The wooden building was demolished in the hurricane. After the storm, it was vandalized.

"I have to deal with the issues of the hurricane and also go back every day to try to salvage some stuff," he says. "But look at my face: we are happy. I mean, we are alive. All my family members are fine and well. And we can rebuild."

Even as Puerto Ricans continue to struggle to recover from the storm, Matos says he and his pleneros want to bring them a little joy with the music.

"We're all on standby," says Missy Adamus, a chef at La Junta. She says they are trying to rebuild the restaurant, their homes, their lives. But at least they still have their music.

"Music has brought back to life what was dead in Calle Loiza," she says.

Plenas are sometimes known as "singing newspapers," giving the latest updates on what people are feeling and the news of the day. The headline of this week's plenas was about the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

Winding through the neighborhood streets, they sing about resilience: "Our plena, our song, our music, is stronger - our community is stronger than Maria."

Plenas are sometimes known as "singing newspapers," giving the latest updates on what people are feeling and news of the day.
/ Angel Valentin for NPR
/
Angel Valentin for NPR
Plenas are sometimes known as "singing newspapers," giving the latest updates on what people are feeling and news of the day.

NPR's Lauren Migaki contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: October 5, 2017 at 11:00 PM CDT
In the audio, the location is misidentified as the town of Loiza, Puerto Rico. The story was reported in the San Juan neighborhood of Calle Loiza.
As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics. Over the years, she has also covered everything from street gangs to Hollywood, police and prisons, marijuana, immigration, race relations, natural disasters, Latino arts and urban street culture (including hip hop dance, music, and art). Every year, she covers the Oscars and the Grammy awards for NPR, as well as the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Her news reports, feature stories and photos, filed from Los Angeles and abroad, can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Alt.latino, and npr.org.
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