Hector Lugo y La Mixta Criolla

Sunday, August 14, 2011 | Castellano Latin Stage | 2pm

La Mixta Criolla performs original music and dance inspired in the folklore and popular music of Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean. The group's repertoire draws on the three major strands of Puerto Rico's musical folklore: the plena, the bomba, and the música brava—or jíbara—of the island's countryside. La Mixta also performs a variety of Afro-Caribbean styles such as salsa, merengue, cumbia, son, bolero, and rumba.

They are a dynamic music and dance ensemble founded by percussionist, singer, and songwriter Hector Lugo. The group’s distinctive sound begins with the Puerto Rican and the Venezuelan cuatros, a Caribbean style of guitar, which descended from North African string instruments that came to the region via Andalucía, Spain. To them come bass, accordion, the driving bomba drums of the panderos of the Plena, along with the Puerto Rican güícharo-bongó tandem of the Música. The group’s performances also feature traditional bomba dancing.  Bomba is characterized by improvisation and the rhythmic conversation between the dancers and the lead drummer.