24 Hours in Santurce — Xavier Harding

“The Taíno, the Africans and the Spanish formed the heart of Puerto Rico,” the Cepeda family tells me. “They didn’t speak the same language, but they communicated through the music.” The patriarch of bomba, Puerto Rico’s first music genre, was Don Rafael Cepeda. As I sit with his granddaughter, I realize I’m graced by the presence of music royalty. “La bomba was a genre of resistance," Tata Cepeda says. “It isn’t just music and dance. It is our history.”

Fast-forward to the summer of 2025. The biggest music artist on the planet is holding his ongoing concert series right in his home of Puerto Rico. With the spotlight on Puerto Rico, the residency serves as a proverbial master class in the vibrancy of Latin music and the importance of preserving the Island’s culture — and it’s all happening right in the capital city, San Juan. Santurce, its most populous neighborhood, is filled with even more cultural knowledge, a vibrant history and an undeniable magnetism that’s hard to resist.

Puerto Rico’s history with music is a varied one. Cultural institutions are keeping older genres like bomba, plena and more alive. With so much to see, I gave myself 24 hours to experience it for myself, not knowing if it would be enough time.

Santurce, originally known as San Mateo de Cangrejos, was founded by freed and escaped African slaves. Now it attracts both locals and tourists thanks to museums, nightlife and music and dance schools.

8:00 AM - La Placita De Santurce

I head to La Placita de Santurce, the city center known for the farmers market on weekday mornings and epic parties on weekend nights.

A store owner tells me to start with the mango since it's native to the Island. It's as rich in taste as it is in color. Then I reach for some fruits I've never had before: garcinia and a very spiky rambutan. The store owner cuts me a piece and both taste super sweet. I made the right choice.

11:30AM - Hipódromo

I head to Avenida Hipódromo in the section of Santurce of the same name. I go to Ojo De Tigre, a record store/art gallery, where I chat with its owner, Karla Cruz Bonilla, a writer and former Spanish professor. As I thumb through records, she offers a lesson in classic Puerto Rican styles.

In Spanish, Cruz Bonilla tells me about traditional genres like bomba and plena and how newer genres are influenced by those early styles. She tells me about the craft beer her shop makes and how prevalent those traditional music genres are, even as Christmas music.

"More recent sounds are having a global impact," Cruz Bonilla says. "Being Latino is cool now, it's in style. Now the whole world wants to speak Spanish. This new wave of artists are encouraging Puerto Rican people to get in touch with genres like salsa and bomba and plena."

Just as I wonder what exactly "bomba" and "plena" might sound like, she presents me with an expansive list of places to find out.

3:00PM - Miramar

I get lost in the best way possible. Strolling down Avenida de la Constitución, I stumble into an art museum. The facade is a beautiful black and white, with a tranquil koi fish pond in the back that's more koi fish than pond.

| look at the list and think, "No way I can fit all this in one day." Then I see a building that I can only describe as magnificent - large iron gates at the front with the middle filled with outdoor hallways and arches. At the rear, a beautiful view of Laguna del Condado, a tranquil waterfront with clear blue-green water.

The building is the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, the last place built by the Spanish government back in the late 1800s. The conservatory's name is a familiar one. Some of the conservatory's students are part of that big concert playing at the coliseum nearby this very weekend.

Manuel Calzada Delgado is the president and rector of the conservatory, with a focus on jazz and classical music. Even though he's an expert in the classics, Delgado reaffirms the importance of modern Latin genres. In English, he tells me, "Reggaetón is a link in the chain of many different styles of music - bomba, salsa, plena, trova - but that's not to downplay it. Puerto Rican culture is undergoing a renaissance and that's thanks in part to reggaetón."

I tell Delgado we definitely feel the reverberations back home in New York. "A genre like salsa," he says, "was started in Cuba but took shape with the help of Puerto Ricans that moved to and lived in New York City. That's why it's called salsa, it's a mix of ingredients."

But what about bomba and plena? "La plena, much like bomba, developed more on the coasts," Delgado tells me, "and was heavily influenced by the African population that lived here. Similarly, la bomba

Just as he starts, my phone reminds me to head to the dance school where I've arranged a lesson with Tata Cepeda - a bomba class, funnily enough.

Delgado tells me I'm in for a treat.

When I reach La Escuela de BombaY Plena Tata Cepeda, I chat with two of the institution's directors: Margarita "Tata" Cepeda of the school here in Santurce and Bárbara Liz Cepeda of the school in Florida. The Cepeda family has practiced bomba and plena for decades. "Eight uninterrupted generations," Bárbara tells me, starting with the legendary Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles.

I think back to everything I've seen and learned today and there are echoes of African, Taíno and Spanish influence in it all. "We say bomba is our first and oldest genre of music and dance in Puerto Rico," Bárbara says. "The Taíno people were here first but unfortunately a lot of information about their culture was lost. Bomba is largely associated with the enslaved Africans that were brought here but we do know of traditional Taíno elements that were added into bomba with instruments like the cuás and the maracas. These combined with African influences to bring us bomba."

The famed Tata Cepeda begins the class. "Where do I stand, what do I do," I think. "Bomba and plena served as el periódico cantado" — or, "the sung newspaper," Tata says in Spanish while leading the class. "One country alone like Nigeria can be home to 500 different languages." Not only did the enslaved Africans use music as a shared language, she says, they used song to covertly share stories and information from one town to another. In a world without TV and internet, in an existence where slaveowners limited who could say what, Puerto Rico's first musicmakers doubled as news gatherers.

The class continues. I have no idea what I'm doing. Three men are on drums, two keeping the beat and one improvising, emphasizing Tata's movements. A room of women in large, flowy skirts move in unison with her. When she flicks her skirt to the side, so does the class - with a drum beat to match. Tata flicks her gown twice, the drum sounds twice. It's clear one of the drums is meant to match the lead person dancing.

"With force!," she continually reminds her students in Spanish as they move to the beat. The subtext is loud: This isn't just dance, it's a form of resistance.

6:30PM - Pulguero

I set off for another of Karla's recommendations and I'm surrounded by the sound of the coquí frog that fills the trees — the Island's beloved national symbol. I listen to the frogs' song - "co-ki, co-ki." It hits me how the amphibians got their name.

I see her recommended place but it isn't open yet, but next door there's an orchestra filled with expert-level violin and cello players, with hints of Latin music splashed in.

A woman invites me in to get a closer look at the rehearsal. Yabetza Vivas Irizarry, I soon find out, is a conductor at Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico, and the first woman to direct a show with the group. She tells me about how the orchestra blends classical sounds with traditional Puerto Rican styles and references. "Our holiday shows are some of our bestselling shows, where we create symphonic arrangements of local Christmas songs," Irizarry says. "All year round we do collaborations with local artists to merge classical instruments and the sounds of salsa, bomba, plena and aguinaldo, the traditional Christmas music."

Similar to the Cepeda family, Irizarry and the Orquesta Sinfónica know the importance of passing the traditional genres on to the next generation. The group plays for free in open-air plazas across the Island. "In the past we've had bomba dancers perform as well as danza dancers perform," she says. Danza is a style of dance associated with Puerto Rico's Spanish European heritage. "There are groups in Puerto Rico that dedicate their lives to maintaining these traditions, so we invite them to perform with our orchestra."

9:30PM - La Placita De Santurce

I end up back where the day started: La Placita. The farmers market is long gone. Instead, the plaza has transformed into a lively party scene, full of dancing and jubilation. I start to wonder if it's the loudest place I've ever been in my life.

At the plaza I meet the owner of Bar 0.2, Yiyo Tirado. He is also a visual artist who creates works that center on the Puerto Rican experience and have been exhibited at art museums in New York City and right here in Puerto Rico. His bar, about a 10-minute walk from La Placita, is equal parts bar and art gallery. "Everything in there is art, even the planters, Tirado says.

We walk the streets and alleys of the placita, surrounded by people singing and dancing to the final night of the big concert being played on every TV and phone screen in sight. Even after several hours, the placita hasn't lost an ounce of energy. Tirado shouts over the sheer volume of the crowd to offer a reminder to the tourists like me.

"Puerto Rico has great beaches and parties but the Island isn't just its parties. I tell visitors, 'Get to know our art, get to know our music, get to know the local culture — in a way that doesn't exoticize things," he says. As I talk to Yiyo — taking in the music, dancing and energy around me -I start to realize that not only is my night only beginning, but that I can't wait to come back.