1
MUSIC EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO
FROM THE TAÍNOS THROUGH THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
by
George N. Heller
The University of Kansas
American music education history pays scant attention to its southern or western
roots, even though they often predate northeastern developments in the field. Nor do
music education historians often take into account music teaching and learning among the
various tribes, whether southern, western, or northeastern, whose histories predate
European arrivals in the so-called New World by many centuries. The biases are easy to
understand, since the first historians to take a serious interest in music education were
New Englanders. Later historians followed in their well trod path, and so an impression
has emerged that people on the margins have no history or that their history is not
important.1
The history of music education in Puerto Rico differs considerably from the
traditional American story. It involves a largely unknown and almost unknowable
aboriginal past. For over four hundred years Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony in which
organized music and music education took place under the aegis of the Roman Catholic
Church, while natives, African slaves, and European immigrants and their offspring
passed on their music, often combining two or even all three traditions, through less
1The
most recent American music education history has nine pages on early music education in the New World,
beginning with the Incas and the Aztecs and the Spanish and French missions to Native Americans in the sixteenth
century. The book then takes up the Quakers, Moravians, German Pietists, Mennonites, and the Shakers before
plunging into the conventional beginning with the Pilgrims and Puritans in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century.
See Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education (New York: Schirmer Books,
1992), 41–49.
2
formal means.
Only in recent years has the Island developed public schools and music education
of the kind prevalent in the continental United States for one hundred and sixty years. A
comprehensive history of music education in Puerto Rico far exceeds the limitations of
this paper, but it is interesting to note some early and important formative events and
some of the people who participated in them. Perhaps one day a more thorough and
detailed investigation will take up a larger portion of the history of music education in
this most interesting place.2
The story of Puerto Rican music education before 1800 is interesting and unique,
due mainly to the Island’s geographical, religious, and political situations and conditions.
The Caribbean Islands form an ambling S running from Florida to the mouth of the
Orinoco River in South America. Originally called La Isla de San Juan Bautista (The
Island of St. John the Baptist), Puerto Rico is the fourth largest of the islands after Cuba,
Hispaniola, and Jamaica, which lie immediately to its west. As with its larger sister
islands in the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rican religious beliefs and practices have been
mainly Native American and Roman Catholic, with a smattering of African tribal
influences and other faiths, most notably various Protestant missions. Politics before
1800 ran from native tribal to Spanish colonial institutions and structures. Music teaching
and learning both before and after Columbus’ arrival in 1493 was largely functional and
often tied to religious indoctrination; often it was informal. (See Figure One.)
Like most of the rest of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America,
Puerto Rican music education, like the music itself, is multicultural. The Taínos, whom
2Puerto
Rico had nothing resembling U. S. Public schools until well after the Spanish-American war of 1898, and its
attempts at public school music on the U.S. model date from after World War II. See Bonita Inglefield, ”Music in the
Public Schools of Puerto Rico,” Music Educators Journal 48 (June–July 1962): 86, 88.
3
Figure One
Puerto Rico and Surrounding Islands*
4
*Cathryn L. Lombardi, John V. Lombardi, and K. Lynn Stoner, Latin American History: A
Teaching Atlas (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 67; and Sarah Cameron and Ben Box,
Caribbean Islands Handbook, 9th ed. (Bath, England: Footprint Handbooks, Ltd., 1996), 409.
Columbus called Indios (people of India;. i.e., indians), were the first to inhabit the land
and thus practice music and teach it. Spaniards brought with them both sacred and secular
music and music educational practices from their homelands on the Iberian Peninsula.
Other Europeans—Portuguese, French, Dutch, and even a few English—have also found
their way to the Island. The Spanish immigrants also brought African slaves almost from
the beginning. Africans soon numbered in the thousands. They also brought their unique
musical traditions and their own special ways of teaching and learning which became part
of the cultural mosaic of Puerto Rican music education.3
The Taínos (Indios)
The first period of music education history in Puerto Rico belongs to the native
Taínos. The Taínos were related to the Arawaks who lived mainly on nearby Hispaniola
and in Eastern Cuba, possibly as far north as Florida. They were rivals of the Caribs from
the Lesser Antilles to the south and numbered about 50,000 at contact. The Taínos called
the Island Boriquén (Island of the Brave Lord). It was the mythical home of their god,
3Jan
Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present (New York:
Meridian, 1994), 29–30.
5
Juracán (Hurricane), who controlled the weather from the Island’s highest peak.4
The Taínos, like other Native Americans in the Western hemisphere practiced
vocal and instrumental music. Their songs were mostly monodic with some antiphonal
chanting. They danced in the manner of their relatives in North, Central, and South
America and had a particular step they called the areito. The Taínos did not have a large
number of instruments; those they did have were non-pitched percussion. The two most
noteworthy were the maracas and the bastón, an ornamented stick they struck heavily
against the ground. The Taínos used music in both informal domestic activities and in
formal religious ceremonies and rituals.5
No direct evidence exists of Native American music education activities in Puerto
Rico. Speculation rests on assumed similarities between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
Fray Ramón Pané came to the Caribbean early in the sixteenth century by order of
Columbus to learn the language and customs of the natives. He found that the Native
Americans on Hispaniola had a thorough belief system, a theology, and liturgies. Fray
Pané observed their use of music in ritual and noted that they called their priests bohutís,
and that “They have their laws reduced to ancient songs.”6
When they wish to sing their songs, they play upon a certain drum instrument called the mayohavau,
which is hollowed from wood and strongly made, and very thin, an ell [twenty-seven inches] long
and half an ell (thirteen and a half inches] in breadth, and the part where it is played is made in the
shape of the pincers of a farrier [blacksmith’s tongs] , and the other part is like a club, It looks like a
gourd with a long neck. . . . This instrument . . . has so loud a sound that it is heard a league and a
half [four and a half miles] away. To this sound, they sing the songs which they know by heart; and
the principal men play it; they have learned from childhood to sound it, and to sing according to their
4Franciscano
A. Scarano,Puerto Rico: Cinco siglos de historia (Puerto Rico; Five Centuries of History)(San Juan, PR:
McGraw-Hill, 1993), 44–68. Before the Taínos, Arawaks, and Caribs were a prehistoric people, whom Puerto Ricans
now call the arcaicos (the archaic peoples) very little evidence remains of their culture, and nothing of their music or
music education. The spelling of Boriquén varies; two other popular spellings are Borinquén and Borikén.
5Donald
6Fr.
Thompson, “Puerto Rico,” in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 1986.
Ramón Pané, “Relación sobre las antigüedades de los Indios” (Account of the Antiquities [Customs] of the
Indians) (1505), in Kal Wagenheim and Olga Jiménez Wagenheim, eds. The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History
(Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994), 9.
6
custom. . . .7
How the Taínos learned to sing, play their instruments, and dance remains a
mystery, mainly because very little evidence of their activities has survived. Fr. Pané
reports only that the people he observed learned music from a young age. There is no
reason to assume that they differed significantly from their colleagues on the other
islands or on the mainland. Thus they may well have had a domestic tradition of teaching
and learning functional music for domestic use in an informal system of imitation which
involved improvisation and stressed participation. They also probably had a priestly
tradition, as Fr. Pané implies, in which they learned somewhat more formally to sing the
sacred chants and play the ritual instruments in a carefully, perhaps even rigorously,
prescribed manner.8
Fr. Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra (1745-1813) wrote a history of Puerto Rico in 1782 in
which he described Taíno musical activities of over two hundred years prior using
sources now lost. He wrote that their dance music was simple, but that the dances were
very lively. War dances, he wrote were the most descriptive and expressive. He reported
they played maracas and drums made of hollowed tree trunks. Their songs, the friar
wrote, were grave; he also found them uncouth and rude to his European-trained ear.
Song texts were often historical. They had a popular social song and dance formed called
the areito, in which large groups, both men and women, participated. Fr. Iñigo says
7Pané,
“Relación Sobre Las Antigüedades de los Indios,” 9–10. Fr. Pané’s account of this instrument is also in
Fernando Colón’s biography of his famous father. Fernando died in 1539, and he wrote the manuscript late in life, but
it did not see publication until 1571. See Fr. Ramón Pané, “The Relation of Fray Ramón Concerning the Antiquities of
the Indians, Which He, Knowing Their Language, Carefully Compiled by Order of the Admiral,” in Fernando Colón,
The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son, Ferdinand, translated and annotated by Benjamin Keen
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1959), 158–159. Fr. Pané tells of how the Caribbean natives used
music in religious rituals and healing ceremonies, much like their counterparts in North America.
8Pané,
“The Relation of Fray Ramón,” 160; and Bruno Nettl, “Native American Music,” in Excursions in World Music,
2nd ed., Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Isabel K. F. Wong, Thomas Turino, and Philip V. Bohlman, eds. (Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 251–268.
7
nothing about how they learned these songs and dances or how to play the maracas or
drums.9
The Taínos did not do well after contact with the Spaniards in 1493. Spanish and
African immigrants in the sixteenth century treated their hosts badly. The Taínos
contracted European diseases to which they had developed no immunity, and they
suffered from extreme overwork and abuse at the hands of their European overlords.
Despite their formal liberation by Spanish crown in 1542, the number of Taínos had
declined significantly by 1600. Today they survive in very small numbers and celebrate
their past in places like the Caguana Indian Ceremonial Park near Utuado, now a historic
site for recreation and ceremonies, and the Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center in Ponce,
now a historic site containing burial grounds and ruins.10
Spanish Missionary Activities in the Sixteenth Century
Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) (1451–1506) came to Puerto Rico on his
Second Voyage, 1493–96. He landed in the northwestern part of the Island, near what are
now the towns of Aguadilla and Aguada, on November 19, 1493. Juan Ponce de León
was in his company. Columbus stayed on the Island only two days and did not establish a
colony. He was Viceroy of the Indies (and hence of Puerto Rico), 1493–1502, but gave
most of his attention elsewhere.11
9Fray
Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra, Historia geográfica civil y natural de la Isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico
(Geographic, Civil, and Natural History of the Island of Saint john the Baptist of Puerto Rico)[1788] with an
introduction by Isabel Gutierrez del Arroyo (San Juan, PR: Ediciones de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1959), 28.
10Scarano,Puerto
11Washington
Rico: Cinco siglos de historia, 36–68.
Irving, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus [1828], ed. John Harmon McElroy (Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1981), 191–193. Irving is best known for his fiction writing, but he had a serious interest in history.
He spent the years from 1826–31 in Spain doing research in the various archives there. He wrote another work on the
Admiral’s companions in 1831. At the end of his life Irving produced a five volume biography of George Washington
(1855–59).
8
Fray Nicolás de Ovando (c. 1451–c. 1511) was the Royal Governor of the West
Indies), 1502–09. Ovando, had little interest in Puerto Rico, keeping his office in Santo
Domingo on Hispaniola. He helped establish the encomienda (royal grant) system which
led to large Spanish estates and forced native and African labor. Ovando returned to
Spain in 1509, recalled by the Spanish government because of his harsh treatment of the
natives. Lake many another absentee landlord, Ovando did not provide schooling of any
kind for his charges. What music Puerto Rican children learned in this period, they
acquired on their own in family life and through participation in social activities.12
Music teaching and learning under the Spanish friars in Puerto Rico began around
1510. No direct evidence of this exists, and so Fr. Pané’s reports of his own work on
Hispaniola are all that is extant. Fr. Pané reported on music education there in 1505:
We were with the cacique [chief] Guarionex for almost two years, giving him instruction all the time
in our holy faith, and the customs of the Christians. In the beginning, he showed a good will and gave
us hopes that he would do everything we wished, and of desiring to be a Christian, asking us to teach
him the Lord’s Prayer, the Ave Maria, and the Credo and all the other prayers and many of his
household learned the same. Every morning, he said his prayers, and made his household recite them
twice a day.13
Pané noted that he had learned the native language and customs before attempting to
teach them the Roman Catholic faith and Spanish culture. This was a model that early
Spanish missionaries, especially the Franciscans, soon followed on the other islands and
on the mainland.14
“12Royal Instructions to Ovando” (1501), in The Spanish Tradition in America, Charles Gibson, ed. (New York:
Harper & Row, Publishers, 1968), 55–57; and Washington Irving, Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of
Columbus (Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1831), 292–322.
13Pané,
14The
“The Relation of Fray Ramón,” 166–167.
most detailed information on missionary music education in Latin America is on that which took place in Mexico
beginning in the early sixteenth century, some nineteen years after Fr. Pané’s 1505 report from Santo Domingo on
Hispaniola. See George N. Heller, “Fray Pedro de Gante: Pioneer American Music Educator,” Journal of Research in
Music Education 27 (Spring 979): 20–28.
9
Juan Ponce de León (1460–1521) was the first to establish a colony in Puerto
Rico. Ponce de León had accompanied Columbus, 1493–96, and served as Ovando’s
deputy, 1508–09. He founded Caparra (near today’s Bayamón) in 1508 and served as
Governor of Puerto Rico, 1508–09 and 1510–11. Ponce de León founded San Juan
(which he called Puerto Rico, or Rich Port) in 1510. He began exploiting the Island,
initiating gold mining and sugarcane farming activities. After his death Ponce de León’s
family built the Casa Blanca at 1 Calle San Sebastián in San Juan in 1523.15
Pope Julius II (1443–1513), the patron of Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo,
created a diocese on Puerto Rico (then called San Juan Bautista, St. John the Baptist) in
1511. Don Alonso Manso of Valencia, Spain, became Bishop of San Juan and Puerto
Rico in 1512. The Puerto Rican faithful began building the San Juan Cathedral in 1521
(just five years after Julius II began St. Peter’s in the Vatican) with remodelling occurring
in 1540. The second bishop, Don Rodrigo de Bastidas, served an astounding twenty-six
years (1541–67). Bastidas did much to develop the church and its educational activities.
Five more bishops served in San Juan in the sixteenth century. There is some evidence of
music at the Cathedral at this time, mainly organ music, and, of course, chanting the mass
and other ceremonies.16 (See Figure Two.)
The Dominicans had arrived in Hispaniola in 1510, where Fray Bartolomé de Las
Casas (1474–1566) began his great missionary work. The Dominicans founded the
Province of San Juan Bautista in Puerto Rico in 1521. They built the monastery of St.
15The
early history of San Juan and Puerto Rico is confusing because the city was originally Puerto Rico and the Island,
San Juan. Due to a map-maker’s error, the city became San Juan and the Island, Puerto Rico in 1521.
16Vicente
Reynal, Diccionario de hombres y mujeres ilustres de Puerto Rico y de hechos historicos (Dictionary of
Illustrious Puerto Rican Men and Women, and Historic Deeds) (Rio Piedras, PR: Editorial Edil,Inc., 1992), 36, 125;
Catedral metropolitana: San Juan Bautista, Puerto Rico (Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint john the Baptist, Puerto
Rico) (San Juan, PR: Anthony Fridman, n.d); and Thomas S. Marvel and María Luisa Moreno, La arquitectura de
templos parroquiales de Puerto Rico (The Architecutre of Paroquial Temples in Puerto Rico) (San Juan, PR: Editorial
de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994), 74–82.
10
Thomas Aquinas in 1523, the Hospital de la Concepción in 1524, and the Church of San
José in 1532, all in San Juan.17
Figure Two
Bishops of Puerto Rico in the Sixteenth Century*
Bishop’s Name
Dates of
Service
Don Alonso Manso
Don Rodrigo de Bastidas
Fray Francisco Andrés de Carvajal
Fray Manuel de Mercado
Fray Diego de Salamanca
Fray Nicolás de Ramos
Don Antonio Calderón
1511–398
1541–6726
1568–691
1570–766
1577–8710
1591–921
1592–975
Years in
Service
Number of Bishops = 7
Average number of years in service = 12.4
Median number of years in service = 6
17Cristina
Campo Lacasa, Notas generales sobre la historia eclesiastica de Puerto Rico en el siglo XVIII (General
Notes on the History of the Church in Puerto Rico in the Eighteenth Century) (Sevile, Spain: Instituto de Cultura
Puertorriqueña Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1963), 55; Jaime Monge Rivera, San Juan de Puerto Rico:
Guía histórica (1508–1993) (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Historical Guide, 1508–1993) (San Juan, PR: Publicaciones
Puertorriqueñas, Inc., 1995), 3–11; and Marvel and Moreno, La arquitectura de templos parroquiales, 74–82.
11
*Cristina Campo Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia en Puerto Rico (1511–1802) (History of the
Church in Puerto Rico, 1511–1803) (San Juan, PR: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1977), 321. NB:
The title, “Don,” indicates a regular priest, sometimes called a secular priest. “Fray” indicates a friar, or
member of an order; most were either Dominican or Franciscan.
12
The missionaries’ work with the Taínos suffered from the ambiguity of their
status. This was a problem not only in Puerto Rico, but throughout Latin America. The
conquistadores were interested mainly in conquest and plunder and so regarded the
natives a hindrance to their ambitions. It was convenient for them to regard the Taínos
and their kin as a subhuman species. Thus it would be easier to take their property and
work them, often to death. The missionaries, on the other hand, needed to regard the
Taínos as human beings, possessing souls, and therefore candidates for conversion to the
Holy Catholic faith. Without this, their efforts had no purpose. In 1537, the Pope sided
with the missionaries and declared that the Native Americans were human beings and
eligible for all the benefits and protection that status implied.18
Instruction took place for most of the sixteenth century in small classes held at the
churches on an irregular basis. They were probably something like contemporary
catechetical classes in which priests gave the students instruction necessary for adult
baptism and confirmation into the Church. It was not until 1582 that a formal school
opened on the Island. It was a grammar school at the hospital in San Juan. This was the
only school on the Island for many years.19
Franciscans were the religious order with the best record for schooling in Latin
America. Their work in Mexico and elsewhere is legendary. Many of the first bishops of
Puerto Rico were Franciscans, but the order did not establish a significant presence on the
Island until 1590. In that year Franciscans started a community in Aguada, which they
called San Francisco de la Aguada. They built a church, which the natives
18Pope
Paul III, “Indians are Men” (1537), in Gibson, The Spanish Tradition in America, 104–105.
19Campo
Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia en Puerto Rico, 27–35, 221–224, 287. The Dominicans were noted preachers.
They did not have so much of an interest in education as did the Franciscans, which may help explain why education
did not develop as quickly in Puerto Rico and on Hispaniola where the Dominicans held sway as it did in Mexico,
where the Franciscans were more influential.
13
Figure Three
Governors of Puerto Rico in the Sixteenth Century*
Governor’s Name
Dates of
Service
Years in
Service
Juan Ponce de León
Juan Cerón
Rodrigo de Moscoso
Cristóbal de Mendoza
Sancho Velásquez
Antonio de Gama
Pedro Moreno
Alonso Manso**
Francisco Manuel de Lando
Vasco de Tietra
Alcaldes ordinarios***
Jerónimo Lebrón
Iñigo López Cervantes de Loaysa
Antonio de la Vega
Luis de Vallejo
Alonso de Estévez
Diego de Carasa
Francisco Bahamonde de Lugo
Francisco de Sólis
Francisco de Ovando y Mexia
Juan de Céspedes
Diego Menéndez de Valdés
Pedro Suárez Coronel
Antonio de Mosquera
Alonso de Mercado
1508–09, 1510–112
1509–10, 1511–122
1512–131
15130
1514–195
1519–21, 1528–293
1521–22, 1524–285
1522–242
1530–366
1536–371
1537–447
15440
1545–461
1546–504
1550–555
15550
1555–6411
1564–695
1568–757
1575–794
1580–81 1
1582–9311
1593–974
1597–981
1599–023
Number of Governors = 24 (not counting the Alcaldes Ordinarios, 1537–44)
Average number of years in service = 3.96
(not counting the Alcaldes ordinarios, 1537–44)
14
*Tomás Sarranía Roncero, Gobernadores de Puerto Rico (Governors of Puerto Rico) (San Juan,
PR: Publicaciones Puertorriqueños, Inc., 1993), 6–32. See also Abbad y Lasierra, Historia geográfica civil
y natural, 261.
**Manso was also Bishop of Puerto Rico at this time.
***Ordinary leaders or mayors. For a period of seven years, the mayors of San Juan and San
Germán were in charge of their districts, The two city councils each elected seven mayors for one-year
terms during this time.
destroyed soon after its construction, and thereafter the community progressed slowly.
The Franciscans did not have a church or a monastery in the capital city until 1645.20
The Island continued to develop as the sixteenth century progressed. Queen Isabel
established the first postal service there in 1514. Spanish money began circulating on the
Island in 1521. Settlers established Arecibo in 1556, and a religious community founded
San Blas de Illescas (now Coamo) in 1580. Twenty-four governors served the Island
from 1509–1602 for an average term of nearly four years each. Only two, Diego de
Carasa (1555–64) and Diego Menéndez de Valdés (1582–93), served for more than six
years. (See Figure Three.)21
Puerto Rico suffered many disruptions in the sixteenth century due to landings,
invasions, and incursions from hostile powers. French Corsairs attacked the west coast in
1528. Officials ordered La Fortaleza (The Fortress) built for San Juan’s defense in
1533–1540. The British under Sir Richard Grenville and Richard Lane landed at
Mosquetal and Cabo Rojo in 1585. Ongoing attacks prompted the building of San Felipe
del Morro. Sir Frances Drake (c. 1540–1596) invaded San Juan in 1595, but was not
20Campo
21Abbad
Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 214.
y Lasierra, Historia geográfica civil y natural, 261; and Marvel and Moreno, La arquitectura de templos,
82–86, 92–97.
15
successful. George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605) attacked and held
San Juan captive with 4,000 men, June–November 1598.22
While Clifford held the city, he had his chaplain, the Reverand Doctor John
Layfield, write a report of San Juan as it existed in 1598. Among other things, Layfield
reported that the Cathedral was comparable in sixze and appearance to many in England,
and that it had a beautiful organ. He reported that the Dominican monastery had a fine
library, and that the city had a convent and a hospital.23
Meanwhile, across the Island, San Germán was founded on the southwestern
coast, in 1512. French corsairs attacked the settlement in 1528, 1538, and 1554. For
protection the people eventually moved their city inland to its present location in 1572.
Rodrigo Ortiz Vélez was the town’s first Mayor. San Germán quickly became the second
major city in Puerto Rico after San Juan. The third settlement, Coamo, was founded in
1579, and it, too, had a strong Catholic tradition which was manifest in its unique festival
to San Blas (Saint Blaise, patron of throat sufferers).24
African Influences in the Sixteenth Century
The first African slaves arrive on the Island in 1513. The peculiar institution
lasted in Puerto Rico until 1873. Because of their longer contact with Europeans,
Africans had developed immunity to European communicable diseases and had become
familiar with European languages, religions, and culture. This gave them some political
22Rogozinski,
A Brief History of the Caribbean, 38, 40.
23Gilberto
R. Cabrera, Puerto Rico y su historia intima, 1500–1996 (Puerto Rico and Her Intimate History,
1500–1996), 2 vols (San Juan, PR: La Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia y el Centro de Estudios Avanzados de
Puerto Rico y el Caribe, 1997), I: 208–209.
24Scarano,Puerto
Rico: Cinco siglos de historia, 199–200; Marvel and Morenoa, La arquitextura de templos, 82–87,
122–125, 148–151; and Teodor Vidal, San Blas en la tradición puertorriqueña (Saint Blaise in the Puerto Rican
Tradition) (San Juan, PR: Ediciones Alba, 1986), 19–20.
16
and economic advantages over the Taínos. The African population grew as the Taíno
population in Puerto Rico gradually declined.25
African influences on Puerto Rican music are clearest in the bomba. Africans in
the coastal lowlands developed this form which bears some resemblance to the Cuban
conga and the American bamboula. The bomba features drum accompaniments and
responsorial (antiphonal, i.e. call-and-response) singing. The musicians improvise song
texts: the leader invents and the chorus repeats, or the leader sings a line and the chorus
sings a refrain. Other dances in this vein are the bamulé, belén, candungo, candungué,
cucalambé, cuembé (quembé), cunyá, curliquinqué, gracimá, guateque, holandés,
kalindá, leró, mariandá, mariangola, sicá, and yubá. Other more recent principally
Spanish forms, like the plena and baguiné, also show African influences. Puerto Ricans
did not learn African music or African musical techniques and styles in a school, either
religious or secular. This kind of music education took place in private homes and in
public community venues, as often it does still today.26
Music and Music Education in Puerto Rico in the Seventeenth Century
Music education in seventeenth century Puerto Rico did well to maintain the
status quo. It was a century of stagnation in many respects. Fray Martín Vásquez de Arce
was the Bishop from 1602 to 1609. Like many others who served in this position before
and after him, he was not able to attract much attention from his superiors, either in Santo
Domingo or in Madrid. Twenty-one other bishops served the Island from 1602–99, and
average term of a little over three years. The longest tenure was that of Fray Francisco de
25Rogozinski,
26Thompson,
A Brief History of the Caribbean, 124, 178.
“Puerto Rico.”
17
Padilla, who served for eleven years from 1684–95. This rapid turnover suggests that the
position was not one of great prestige in New Spain. Either bishops were so old at the
time of their appointment, they served only a few years before dying or returning to
Spain. Some were fortunate to serve only a few years before moving on to a higher post,
often elsewhere in Latin America.27 (See Figure Four.)
Figure Four
Bishops of Puerto Rico in the Seventeenth Century
27Campo
Bishop’s Name
Dates of
Service
Fray Martín Vásquez de Arce
Fray Alonso de Monrroy
Fray Francisco de Cabrera
Fray Pedro Solier
Fray Domingo Cano
Don Bernardo de Balbuena
Don Juan López de la Mata
Don Juan Alonso de Solís y Mendoza
Fray Damián Lopez de Haro
Fray Hernando Lobo del Castillo
Fran Francisco Naranjo
Don Francisco Arnaldo de Issasi
Don Manuel de Molinero
Fray Benito de Rivas
Fray Bartolomé García de Escañuela
Don Santiago León Garavito
Don Marcos Aristas de Sobremonte
Fray Alonso Guerrero
Fray Diego Basanta
Fray Francisco de Padilla
Fray Bartolomé García
Fray Jerónimo Valdés
1602–097
1610**0
1611–143
1614–195
1619**0
1619–278
1630–355
1636–417
1644–484
1649–512
1652**0
1657–614
1663**0
1663–685
1670–766
1676**0
1678–812
1683**0
1683**0
1684–9511
1695**0
1695**0
Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 321–22.
Years in
Service
18
Number of Bishops = 22
Average number of years in service = 3.14
Longest time in service: Fray Francisco de Padilla (1684–95), 11 years
*Campo Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 321–22.
**Resigned soon after being nominated and confirmed or refused to accept the position.
The distance from ultimate authority in Madrid was great, and the political and
economic value of the Island did not seem to be significant to Philip III (r.
1598–1621),Philip IV (r. 1621–65), and Charles II (r., 1665–1700). Governors of the
Island turned over nearly as frequently as the bishops. Twenty-five men served in the
position during the century for an average term of a little more than four years. Only one,
Gabriel de Rojas Páramo (1606–14), served for more than seven years. Evidence of
Spain’s lack of concern for Puerto Rican affairs came in 1661, when Governor Pérez de
Guzmán wrote to the King that “eleven years have passed since the last ship came to this
Island.”28 (See Figure Five.)
A great insult to Puerto Rico’s sovereignty came in 1625, when the Dutch, led by
Boudewijn Hendrickszoon, invaded the Island. They did considerable damage to San
Juan, especially to the Cathedral. Many records were lost in this incident, and that has
28Francesco
Cordasco and Eugene Bucchioni, eds., The Puerto Ricans, 1493–1973: A Chronology and Fact Book
(Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1973), 1. See also Sarranía Roncero, Gobernadores de Puerto Rico, 32–59.
19
made subsequent efforts to resurrect the Island’s past more difficult. Civil
stagnation and foreign invasions were probably as significant as the lack of an active
church in keeping music education in a conservative stance throughout the century.29
On the plus side, San Juan citizens began building the Alcadía (City Hall) in
1604, a task they did not fully complete until 1789. Other cities on the Island were
experiencing growth and development. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, San
Germán was becoming a rival to San Juan; the Porta Coeli church opened there in 1606.
The Dominicans also built a convent in San Germán around the turn of the century.30
Figure Five
Governors of Puerto Rico in the Seventeenth Century*
Governor’s Name
Dates of
Service
Alonso de Mercado
Sancho Ochoa de Castro
Gabriel de Rojas Páramo
Felipe de Beaumont y Navarra
Juan de Vargas y Asejas
Juan de Haro y Sanvítores
Cristóbal Mexía de Bocanegra
Enríquez de Sotomayor
Iñigo de la Mota Sarmiento
Agustín de Silva y Figueroa
Juan de Bolaños
Fernando de la Riva Agüero y Setién
Diego de Aguilera y Gamboa
José Novoa y Moscoso
Juan Pérez de Guzmán
Jerónimo de Velasco
Gaspar de Arteaga
Diego de Robladillo y Velasco
1599–16023
1602–086
1606–148
1614–206
1620–255
1625–316
16310
1631–354
1635–416
16410
1642–431
1643–507
1650–566
1656–615
1661–643
1664–706
1670–744
1674–751
29Rogozinski,
30Campo
Years in
Service
A Brief History of the Caribbean, 42, 61.
Lacasa, Notas generales sobre la historia eclesiastica, 55; and Marvel and Moreno, La arquitectura de
templos, 122–125.
20
Alonso de Campos y Espinosa
Juan de Robles Lorenzana
Gaspar Martínez de Andino
Gaspar de Arredondo u Valle
Juan Fernández Franco de Medina
Antonio de Robles Silva
Gaspar de Arredondo
1675–783
1678–835
1683–907
1690–955
1695–983
1698–991
1699–17001
Number of Governors = 25
Average number of years in service = 4.04
Longest time in service: Gabriel de Rojas Páramo (1606–14), eight years
*Sarranía Roncero, Gobernadores de Puerto Rico, 32–59. See also Abbad y Lasierra, Historia
geográfica civil y natural, 261–262.
The citizens of Loíza Aldea built the San Patricio church in 1635. Toward the end
of the century Puerto Ricans built the Catedrál de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on the
southern coast in 1670. A community grew up around the church, and it became the port
city of Ponce in 1692.31
Little direct evidence remains of music education in any of these locations. Many
developing towns around the Island were first parishes. Communities grew up around
31Marvel
and Moreno, La arquitextura de los templos, 116–119.
21
churches and eventually became villages. The churches undoubtedly offered religious
instruction, even if only on an ad hoc basis. It is most unlikely that these would have
ignored music instruction, as the mass routinely required singing. Priest and friars trained
in Europe were probably competent to teach at least the rudiments of chant to their
students.
The Franciscans built a small chapel in the western part of San Juan in 1645. The
built a more permanent church there in 1653 and a monastery, which they completed in
1670. The present Church of St. Francis on Calle San Francisco in San juan was built in
1756. The Carmelite Sisters opened a convent in San Juan in 1651. They had modest
accommodations and were still in operation when Abbad y Lasierra wrote his history in
1782. He says nothing about any instruction in the convent, though classes were quite
probably part of their routine.32
The one clear piece of evidence regarding music instruction in Puerto Rico during
the seventeenth century is in the documents of the San Juan Synod of 1645. Convened by
the Bishop Damián López de Haro, the Synod met in the capital city from April 30 to
May 6, 1645. Coming one hundred years after the Council of Trent (1545–63) began, and
twenty-three years after the Provincial Council of Santo Domingo (1622–23), the San
Juan Synod of 1645 advanced the work of both these predecessor meetings. The one
musician among the seven who presided at the Synod was Pedro Moreno Villamayor,
choirmaster of the San Juan Cathedral.33
32Monge
Rivera, San Juan de Puerto Rico, 21, 22; and Campo Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 228–240; Abbad y
Lasierra, Historia geográfica civil y natural, 101; Cabrera, Puerto Rico y su historia intima, I: 310–311, 320–321,
335–336; and Reynal, Diccionario de hombres y mujeres, 16, 116. The Convent is now a hotel, across the street from
the Cathedral.
33Mario
A. Rodríguez León, “Introducción,” (Introduction) to Sínodo de San Juan de Puerto Rico de 1645 (Synod of
San Juan in Puerto Rico of 1645) (Madrid: Catalina de Barrio y Angulo, 1645; reprint edition, Salamanca, Spain:
Centro de Estudios Históricos del CSIC, Instituto de Historia de la Teología Española de la Universidad Pontificia,
1986), ix–xxviii; Cabrera, Puerto Rico y su Historia Intima, I: 326–327; and Reynal, Diccionario de hombres y
mujeres, 118–119.
22
The seventeenth century was a fallow time in Puerto Rico. The Spanish crown
was not much interested in the Island as it became increasingly interested in Hispaniola,
Mexico City and the emerging states in South America and as its position as a world
power declined. Catholic Church authorities and missionaries also looked elsewhere for
opportunities. Natives, Africans, and European-Americans on the Island studied music in
the two schools at San Juan and San Germán, and they passed on their mestizo musical
culture in social circumstances outside the Church and with little or no support from the
civil government.
Music and Music Education in Puerto Rico in the Eighteenth Century
The eighteenth century witnessed more growth, as both religious and secular
authorities began to recognize the needs of the Puerto Rican people and exert leadership
on their behalf. Twenty men served as bishop of the Island (for an average term of three
years, eight months). Fray Manuel Jiménez Pérez served the longest, eleven years from
1770–81.34 (See Figure Six.)
In 1712, the Bishop, Fray Pedro de la Concepción Urtiaga, wrote to Philip V of
Spain asking for financial support. In that letter he petitioned the king to support a
language teacher who also served as the instructor in plain chant in the Colegio
Figure Six
Bishops of Puerto Rico in the Eighteenth Century
34Campo
Bishop’s Name
Dates of
Service
Fray Domingo Pérez Urbano
1700**0
Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 322.
Years in
Service
23
Fray Pedro de la Concepción y Urtiaga
Fray Raimundo Caballero
Fray Fernando de Valdivia y Mendoza
Fray Sebastián Lorenzo Pizarro
Fray Francisco Pérez Lozano
Fray Francisco Plácido de Béjar y Segura
Francisco Javier Gómez de Cervantes
Francisco Julián de Antolino
Francisco Javier de Játiva
José Martínez de Porras
Andrés de Arce y Miranda
Pedro Martínez de Oneca
Antonio Sánchez
Mariano Martí
José Duarte y Burón
Fray Manuel Jiménez Pérez
Felipe José de Trespalacios y Verdeha
Francisco de la Ciuerda y García
Fray Juan Bautista de Gengotita y Bengoa
1706–127
17160
1719–256
1728–368
1738–413
1743–452
1745–48***3
1748–52 4
1752**0
1752**0
1754**0
1756–60 4
1760–61***1
1761–67 6
1768** 0
1770–81 11
1783–89 6
1789–94 5
1795–1802 7
Number of Bishops = 20
Average number of years in service = 3.65
Longest time in service: Fray Manuel Jiménez Pérez (1770–81), 11 years
*Campo Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 322.
**Resigned soon after being nominated and confirmed or refused to accept the position.
24
***Resigned.
Seminario in San Juan. Nothing came of this request until Ferdinand VII approved
construction of a seminary in San Juan in 182835
From 1746–59, Ferdinand VI enacted a series of land reforms that contributed to
increased population increase settlement of the interior of the Island. Mayagüez on the
west coast was founded as a religious community (Nuestra Señora de Candelaria) in
1760. In 1765, the population of the Island was about 45,000, of whom about 5,000 were
slaves, 2,000 Taínos, and 38,000 others (mestizos, mulattos, and European-Americans).
Thirty-one men served the Island as Governor in the eighteenth century; the average term
was a little over three years and four months. Only Francisco Danío Granados (1708–13,
1718–24) and Matías de Abadía (1731–43) served for more than nine years.
Interestingly, many of the twenty-nine governors who served from 1700–1804 were
military officers.36 (See Figure Seven.)
The Island continued to develop, as the San Juan Cathedral added the Cristo
Chapel in 1733, and the Casa de los Contrafuertes (House of Butresses) took shape early
in the century. Río Piedras (now home to the University of Puerto Rico and the Casals
Festival) was founded 1714, and the Casas del Callejón began about this time. The
Catédral de San Germán de Auzerre church built in San Germán in 1739, and the town of
Utuado began that same year. Fort San Cristóbal was built in 1772, but that did not deter
the British attack under General Ralph Abercromby (1734–1801) of 1797.
Abercromby’s one month siege failed. In celebration, Bishop Gengotita officiated
at a Te Deum in the Cathedral. By 1800, the island’s population had mushroomed to
35Campo
Lacasa, Historia de la iglesia, 282; Campo Lacasa, Notas gnerales sobre la historia eclesiastica, 91–93; and
Cabrera, Puerto Rico y su historia intima, I: 482–483.
36Sarranía
Roncero, Gobernadores de Puerto Rico, 59–87.
25
155,000.37
Figure Seven
Governors of Puerto Rico in the Eighteenth Century*
Governor’s Name
Dates of
Service
Years in
Service
Gabriel Gutiérrez de Riva
1700–033
Diego Jiménez de Villarán
17030
Gaspar de Olivares and Andrés Montañez de Lugo**
17030
Francisco Sánchez Calderón
1703–052
Pedro de Arroyo y Guerrero
1705–061
Francisco Calderón de la Barca and
Fernando de Castilla y Valdés**
17030
Juan López de Morla
1706–082
Francisco Danío Granados
1708–13, 1718–2411
Juan de Reivera
1714–162
José Carreño
17160
Alberto Bertodano
1716–182
Francisco Granados
1716–20 4
José Antonio de Mendizábal y Azcue
1724–317
Matías de Abadía
1731–4312
Domingo Pérez de Hanclares
17430
Juan José Colomo
1743–507
Agustín de Pareja
1750–511
Esteban Bravo de Rivero
1751–53, 1757–59,
17604
Felipe Ramírez de Estenós
1753–574
Antonio Guazo Calderón
1759–601
Ambrosio de Benavides
1760–666
Marcos de Vergara
1766–682
José Tentor
1768–691
Miguel de Muesas
1769–767
José Dufresne
1776–837
Juan Dabán
1783–896
Miguel Antonio de Ustáriz
1789–923
Francisco Torralbo
1792–953
37Campo
Lacasa, Notas generales sobre la historia eclesiastica, 27; and (Wagenheim and Wagenheim, The Puerto
Ricans, 53.
26
Ramón de Castro y Guttiérrez
1795–18049
Number of Governors = 31
Average number of years in service = 3.39
Longest time in service: Matías de Abadía (1731–43): twelve years
*Sarranía Roncero, Gobernadores de Puerto Rico, 59–87. See also Abbad y Lasierra, Historia
geográfica civil y natural, 262–263. Fran Iñigo’s account ends in 1783.
**Shared the governorship.
existed in Puerto Rico: one in San Juan and one in San Germán. O’Reilly says nothing
about music instruction in either place. O’Reilly also noted that the Cathedral in San Juan
had seventeen priests and fourteen brothers in 1765, and that there were twenty-six
priests serving in other churches on the Island. In that same year, there were ten priests at
the Franciscan monastery and fifteen at the Dominican monastery; the Carmelite Convent
in San Juan had fifteen sisters and three novices.38
In 1770, four schools existed in Puerto Rico: one each in San Juan, San Germán,
Bayamón, and Guaynabo, all under the auspices of the Church. In that same year,
Governor Miguel de Muesas and Bishop Mariano Martí formed a plan for general basic
education on the Island. Their plans called for opening schools with qualified teachers in
towns that had none. This was a call for action with neither political authority nor
funding. While it did not lead to immediate improvements in Puerto Rican education, it
did point the way to future developments.39
Slightly more information is extant about the musical activities of Puerto Ricans
in the eighteenth century, thanks to the careful observations and faithful reporting of
Abbad y Lasierra. The friar reported in 1782 that
The favorite diversion of these isleños [islanders] is dancing: They organize a dance for no other
38Alejandro
O’Reylly, “Memoria de D. Alejandro O’Reylly, Sobre la Isla de Puerto Rico, Año 1765” (Don Alejandro
O’Reylly’s Memorandum about the Island of Puerto Rico in the Year 1765), in Wagenheim and Wagenheim, The
Puerto Ricans, 31; and Cabrera, Puerto Rico y su historia intima, I: 601.
39Cabrera,
Puerto Rico y su historia intima, I: 675–677.
27
reason than to pass the time. . . . When someone gives a dance, the news travels throughout the
territory, and hundreds of persons come from everywhere, without being invited. Since the houses
are small, most guests stay outside until they wish to dance. To begin the dance, the guests stand at
the foot of the stairs with their timbrels, gourds, maracas, and small guitars; and sing a song
honoring the owner of the house. When the owner appears at the entrance, he welcomes the guests,
and urges them to come up; then they embrace and exchange greetings, as though they had not seen
each other for years. The women sit on benches or hammocks; the men remain standing, or crouch
down upon their heels. . . .
They come out to dance one by one, or two by two; when a man invites a woman to dance, if she has
no slippers—and most of time do not—she borrows a pair, and begins to dance around the parlor
with exceptional speed. . . . The man who dances remains in a corner of the parlor, his sombrero
tipped sideways on his head, holding his cutlass behind his back; he does not move from this spot,
but raises and lowers his feet with much speed and force . . . . When a man wishes to show affection
for a woman who is dancing, he removes his hat and puts it on her head. Sometimes she has so many
that she must carry them in her hands and under her arms; when she tires of dancing, she returns the
hats to the men, each of whom gives her half a real; this is called dar la gala [giving the prize]. If
one of the bystanders wishes to dance with a woman who is already dancing with someone else, he
must ask for the man’s permission. This has caused some strong feuds, and, since all of them believe
that might makes right, the dance usually ends in a clash of knives.
During the dance, a few slave women serve bowls of breadstuffs with milk and honey, bottles of
aguardiente [brandy], and cigars. Those who grow tired go to sleep in the hammocks, or enter the
inner room to rest . . . . Others retire to their homes and return the next day, because these dances
tend to last for a whole week. . . .
These dances are more common at Easter time, or before Carnestolandas [Ash Wednesday], or at
the time of a wedding, whose celebration begins two months previous. The birth or death of a child
is also celebrated with a dance, which lasts until the guests can no longer stand the foul odor of the
corpse40
The Fray Iñigo said nothing about how the participants learned the songs or the dances or
how the instrumentalists learned their parts.
The biography of José Campeche (1751–1809), who later gained international
recognition as a painter, shows that he studied the oboe in San Juan and played for a time
at the Cathedral. A native-born Puerto Rican of African descent, Campeche studied with
a brother-in-law, Domingo de Andino who was the Cathedral organist, and was on the
Cathedral music staff in 1783. Though he gave up his position on the staff as he became
more interested in painting, Campeche continued to perform with his brothers. The
Campeche brothers were called chirimías (oboists), and they played for special
40Fray
Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra, Historia geográfica, civil y política (Mardid, 1788), translated in Wagenheim and
Wagenheim, The Puerto Ricans, 35–36.
28
occasions, such as military parades, civic celebrations, and scranental processions with
the clergy of the Cathedral.41
Summary and Conclusions
Little direct evidence of music education in Puerto Rico before 1800 survives,
especially traditional documentary evidence: texts, documents, and the like. Music
education history must, therefore, rely largely on conjecture, inference, and surmise. The
era began with high hopes as the Spaniards first entered the region in 1492. Despite
Columbus landing on Puerto Rico in 1493, Santo Domingo on Nearby Hispaniola
became the administrative capital. Within twenty-five years, Mexico City had become the
capital of New Spain. The lion’s share of Spain’s declining resources went to the
mainland. Support left over for the Caribbean island colonies was meager. The same can
be said for the concern of Church authorities. Both secular and religious leaders regarded
the country as something of a backwater and so gave it little and kept scant notices of
developments there. Particularly devastating to historians were the numerous attacks and
sieges of the Island by European powers, several of which resulted in the loss of
important documents.
Nevertheless, Puerto Rico is an important and interesting place. Its people have a
history which is worthy of attention, even though that history probably differs
considerably from the conventional American story of music teaching and learning
beginning over a century later in Massachusetts. If it is not possible to ascertain Puerto
Rico’s early music education history through conventional historical methods employing
documentary evidence, it may be necessary to investigate this period borrowing
41Emblems
of His City: José Campeche and San Juan (New York: El Museo del Barrio, 1997), 7.
29
techniques from anthropologists and ethnomusicologists.
Alan Merriam has defined music teaching as those things a student should know
and be able to do in music. He has noted that the processes of music learning include
enculturation, socialization, education, and schooling, and that methods, techniques, and
agents of music learning are important factors to consider. Citing John Gillan, Merriam
observed that music learning is a cultural phenomena and that culture provides the
conditions for learning, systematically elicits appropriate responses, provides
reinforcements through its products or agents, and has self-perpetuating tendencies.
These principles offer the best hope for understanding the multicultural nature of music
education in Puerto Rico as an important part of Taíno, African, Spanish, and other
European immigrant cultures.42
42Alan
P. Merriam, “Learning,” in The Anthropology of Music (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964),
145–163. See also John Gillan, The Ways of Men (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948), 248–249.