The Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña (English: Museum of Puerto Rican Music) is a museum in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

, that showcases the development of

Puerto Rican music The music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have included European, Indigenous, and African influences, although many aspects of P ...

, with displays of

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

, Spanish, and

African music Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The ...

al instruments that were played in the romantic

danza Danza is a musical genre that originated in Ponce, a city in southern Puerto Rico. It is a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century ballroom dance genre slightly similar to the waltz. Both the danza and its cousin the contradanza are sequence danc ...

genre, the favorite music of 19th-century Puerto Rican high society, as well as the more African-inspired bomba and

plena Plena is a genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico. Origins The plena genre originated in Barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico, around 1900. It was influenced by the bomba style of music. Originally, sung texts were not associated wit ...

styles. Also on display are

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

of composers and performers. The Museum traces the rich musical history of Puerto Rico through memorabilia of prominent musicians and displays of the musical instruments associated with the three genres of music that originated in this Caribbean island. The building that houses the museum is known as Casa Serrallés and it was the former downtown residence (as opposed to his hilltop Castillo Serrallés structure) of Juan Eugenio Serrallés and his family, owners of

Destilería Serrallés Destilería Serrallés is a rum producer located in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and best known for its Don Q rum brand. The company is Puerto Rico's oldest family-owned company and has revenues of over 100 million dollars. In 2011, it was responsible f ...

and makers of the

Don Q Don Q is a Puerto Rican rum, distilled, manufactured, bottled, and distributed by Destilería Serrallés from its corporate facility in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Don Q, "Puerto Rico's best-known rum", is the top-selling rum in Puerto Rico, where ov ...

rum.

History

In 1986, the Ponce Municipal Government purchased the Castillo Serrallés to turn it into the Museum of Puerto Rican Music. However, the idea of turning Castillo Serrallés into a music museum was subsequently discarded. In 1991 the first headquarters of the Museo de la Musica Puertorriqueña were located at 70 Cristina Street in what is now the Centro Cultural de Ponce.''Centro Cultural Carmen Solá Vda. de Pereira.''
Government of the Municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Ponce, Ciudad Señorial: Atracciones Turisticas. Retrieved 5 July 2012. The pastel villa building was built by a well known architect named

Juan Bertoli Calderoni Juan Bertoli Calderoni (sometimes spelled ''Juan Bertoly Calderoni'') was a nineteenth-century French architect from Bastia, Corsica, and long-time resident of Ponce, Puerto Rico, where he designed various prominent structures including Tea ...

, who also built many other buildings throughout Puerto Rico.''Ponce – Museum of Puerto Rican Music (Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña).''
PlanetWare. Retrieved 26 February 2012. It was designed in the neo-classic architectural style, specifically a French style architecture. In 1996, the

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture ( es, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), or ICP, for short, is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preser ...

(ICP) moved the Music Museum to its current location at Isabel and Salud streets. The current structure, acquired by the ICP, was built as the residence of the Serrallés-Nevárez family. Félix Juan Serrallés, who married Francisca Nevárez, was a prominent local industrialist, and himself the grandson of prominent businessman

Juan Serrallés ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

, the founder of the

rum company. This house on Calle Isabel was the Serallés family's everyday downtown Ponce residence, as compared to their hilltop Serralles Castle residence. The back yard of the property still preserves an outdoors bar-like area complete with the Destileria Serrallés and

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

logo. Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña is not to be confused with Museo de la Música, in

Guaynabo, Puerto Rico Guaynabo (, ) is a city, suburb of San Juan and municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas, south of Cataño, east of Bayamón, and west of San Juan. Guaynabo is spr ...

, also known as Museo de la Música Rafael Ithier, an $18 million museum project by the Guaynabo municipal government which failed to open and was abandoned in March 2020.

Museum

The building was restored in 1990 by the

Institute of Puerto Rican Culture The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture ( es, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), or ICP, for short, is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preser ...

with the goal of paying tribute to the works of Puerto Rican musicians in the most honorable way possible. The building is easily spotted as it is housed in a pastel-colored

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

, intentionally meant to attract visitors. The museum exhibitions are presented in both Spanish and English. The museum building is located at the southeast corner of Isabel and Salud streets. The museum is "designed to produce the necessary visual and auditory impact on the audience so as to maximize the potential to draw the actual value of the unique Puerto Rican music". The distinctive Puerto Rican music is often exported to other islands in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. It is also widely played throughout other parts of the world, especially in the United States. The displays show how Puerto Rican music started and how it has developed over the years. Some of the instruments displayed are the güicharo or

güiro The güiro () is a Puerto Rican percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro ...

, which is a

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and ''Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the earli ...

that has been hollowed out, and variants of the original six-string Spanish guitar-like instruments the

requinto The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument. Thus, there are ''requinto'' guitars, drums, and several wind instruments. Wind instruments ''Requinto'' was 19th-century Sp ...

and

bordonua The Bordonua (Bordonúa) is a large, deep body (sound-boxes are usually deep) bass guitar which is native to Puerto Rico. They are made using several different shapes and sizes. The Bordonúa is the least common of the three stringed instrum ...

. On 15 September 2004, the

Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico ( es, Asamblea Legislativa de Puerto Rico) is the territorial legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, responsible for the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The Assembly is a bic ...

approved Law 307 where by the ICP continued to maintain ownership of the Museo de la Musica property (as well as ownership of

Casa de la Masacre The ''Museo de la Masacre de Ponce'' (the Ponce Massacre Museum) is a human rights museum and historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It depicts the history and events surrounding the Ponce massacre, which occurred in broad daylight on Palm Su ...

de Ponce,

Casa Wiechers-Villaronga Casa Wiechers-Villaronga is a Classical Revival style mansion in Ponce, Puerto Rico designed and built in the early twentieth century. The house was acquired and restored by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and now operates as the Museo de ...

and Casa Armstrong-Poventud), but the municipal government was to become responsible for the security, preservation and maintenance of the structure.

Honors

In June 2012, the

Senate of Puerto Rico The Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Senado de Puerto Rico) is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control th ...

approved ''Resolución Conjunta del Senado 957'' (Joint Senate Resolution 957) to rename the Museo de Música Puertorriqueña as ''Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña

Ruth Fernández Ruth Fernández (23 May 1919 – 9 January 2012) was a Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate. According to the "Comisiones Nacionales para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario" ''(National Commission for the Celebrati ...

'' in honor of the singer.''Inmortalizarán a La Negra de Ponce .''
Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce Puerto Rico. Year 30, Issue 1491. (27 June 2012) Page 12. Retrieved 27 June 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musica Puertorriquena Museums in Ponce, Puerto Rico Museums established in 1990 Historic house museums in Puerto Rico History museums in Puerto Rico Latino museums Music museums Museo de la Musica Puertorriquena Tourist attractions in Ponce, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican music Music museums in insular areas of the United States

History

Museum

Honors

See also

References