Narrator: Traditions formed in another time and place find new life with New Jersey Heritage Fellows.

[ Women singing in Spanish ] Nelson: This is my passion, interacting with the community and developing community.

Because when we play bomba, like I always tell everyone, we're not there to entertain.

We're there to build community.

It's a give and take.

So we give out our energy by our drumming, our singing, and our dancing, and they, in return, give us their energy by participating with us in the dancing.

[ Cheers and applause ] Evans: So today they're celebrating Mother's Day.

They celebrate every holiday here, even holidays you might not even know about.

But they do a great job.

Everyone comes, sometimes dressed, and they just have a really good time here.

Vyas: We have worked with Nelson Baez and Los Cimarrones for several decades.

He's been a part of our community, a part of the Middlesex County arts community, and we have worked with him in many different venues, in senior centers, in concert halls, in schools, at youth shelters as well.

And he brings in not only his excellence in art, but his passion to show his culture and share it with communities.

Nelson: Bomba is the original music of Puerto Rico.

Like me, I'm a Nuyorican, because I was born in New York City, but we all felt that was our island, no matter what.

You may have never stepped foot on the island, but you grew up with that feeling that that's my home.

Puerto Rico is my home.

[ Women singing in Spanish ] Ruiz: We have our Bomba Academy students practicing.

We meet every Saturday.

We have students of all ages.

Nelson and Magda are absolutely amazing.

They bring a ton of knowledge, right?

They've been doing this for a very long time.

But also, it's kind of like a family.

So if you're not learning it but I did, then I should -- It is my kind of obligation as your family member to help you learn it.

Nelson: So Magda is the heartbeat of this group because she is the co-director of the group, and she's also the person who teaches the dancing.

Magda: Five, six.

Nelson joined a group in Jersey city, and we knew we were going to have problems because he was going to be every weekend going out.

So he told me to join, but I was shy.

But once I learned it, I loved it.

And I became hooked to the drug.

And that broke me from shyness, where now I'm teaching it.

It makes me happy inside.

Nelson: You know, this is really an oral tradition.

It's taught from one practitioner to another and down the line.

Some people may want to become dancers and drummers.

People just want to enjoy the dancing.

So, you know, people have different things.

So to me it was preserving that and also the connection it gave me with the community.

Alvarez: It's a very teamwork-based thing.

I've been doing this for, I think, about two years now.

I went to visit Puerto Rico recently, and it's just filled with so much life and heritage, and I just want to be able to express that and share it with as many people as I can.

Nelson: Good, good.

Ruiz: Bomba is the oldest genre of music that stems out of the island of Puerto Rico.

What is unique about bomba is that the drummer, the lead drummer, follows the dancer, not the other way around.

Generally, when we're dancing, we listen to the music and we follow the rhythm of the music.

In bomba, the lead drummer, which is Nelson here, right, will follow the dancer around the room and whatever his or her moves are, he will adjust his playing to that.

So really, it is the dancer that leads the movement.

Nelson: At times it could be the dancer wants to actually challenge the drummer to see how good you are.

"Are you really able to mark everything I do?"

And it becomes like a challenge, and sometimes it becomes very playful between the dancer and the drummer.

Mora: The one that I did today like my solo, those moves that I did, it was like, you have to tease or trick the drummer into thinking you're going to do one thing, but you're really going to do the other.

So it's basically like a trick.

I think I got him good.

Nelson: It's not about me.

As we bring in new people, younger people, my hope is that they will continue with this so that we can pass the torch on.

[ Group singing in Spanish ] It's like when you drop the stone or the rock in the water and it starts and it just keeps making those circles and they just keep going, going, going.

And, you know, you're just worried about that little drop that you did.

Rodriguez: It can be almost like a very spiritual thing if you are really tuned into it.

And I found that kind of surprising actually the first couple times I did it.

Nelson: For the rest of the time I'm here, it's just singing, dancing, and drumming.

And when that time comes, you know, to the transition, then I can be there in the ancestral role.

You know, just looking down at all of these things and just saying, hey, yeah, you know, that was one of mine and that was one of mine.

And hopefully this continues to just go forward.

[ Group singing in Spanish ]