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{{short description|Genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Plena
| image             = Baile De Loiza Aldea.gif
| caption           = Dancing bomba and plena
| bgcolor           =
| stylistic_origins = [[Caribbean]]
| cultural_origins  = [[Puerto Rico]]
| derivatives       =
| subgenrelist      =
| subgenres         =
| fusiongenres      =
| regional_scenes   =
| other_topics      = [[Music of Puerto Rico]]
}}
{{Music of Puerto Rico}}
'''Plena''' is a [[music genre|genre]] of [[music]] and dance native to [[Puerto Rico]].<ref>[http://www.metro.pr/entretener/todo-listo-en-ponce-para-recibir-a-cheo-feliciano/pGXndu!OFHZrImbwgHzI/ ''Todo listo en Ponce para recibir a Cheo Feliciano.''] Inter News Service. 20 April 2014.</ref><ref>[http://welcome.topuertorico.org/culture/music.shtml Welcome to Puerto Rico: Music] - see '' La Bomba''</ref>

==Origins==
The plena genre originated in [[Barrio San Antón]], [[Ponce, Puerto Rico]],<ref>[http://senado.pr.gov/Proyectos%20del%20Senado/pc1392-ta.pdf ''LEY: Para reconocer al Barrio San Antón, del Municipio de Ponce, como lugar de interés histórico y cultural, y designarlo como “Cuna de la Plena”, y para disponer para la coordinación entre el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña y el Municipio de Ponce para implementar lo dispuesto en esta Ley, y para la promoción de los valores históricos y culturales de esta comunidad.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128105832/http://senado.pr.gov/Proyectos%20del%20Senado/pc1392-ta.pdf |date=28 January 2017 }} Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. 16ta. Asamblea 1ra. Sesión. Legislativa Ordinaria. Camara de Representatntes. Projecto de la Camara Numero 1392. 24 March 2009. Accessed 1 April 2018.</ref><ref name="garland">{{cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=2000|isbn=0-8240-4946-2|page=939|title-link=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music}}</ref> around 1900.<ref>''La Plena: Nació en Barrio San Antón.'' [[El Mundo (Puerto Rico)|El Mundo]], 23 November 1971. page 23.</ref> It was influenced by the [[Bomba (Puerto Rico)|bomba]] style of music.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} Originally, sung texts were not associated with the plena, which was rendered by guitar, accordion and pandero, but eventually, in 1907,{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} singing was added. Plena was often called the ''periodico cantado''{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} or "sung newspaper" for the lower classes because it spread messages among people, similar to the [[corrido]]s in [[Mexico]].

== History ==
The plena was a result of the mixing of the culturally diverse popular class, where their workplace, neighborhood, and life experiences met to create an expressive, [[Satire|satirical]] style of music.<ref name="NYT_2019">{{cite news |last1=Modak |first1=Sebastian |title=Visiting Puerto Rico, and Finding the Up Beat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/travel/puerto-rico-places-to-visit.html |work=NYT |date=15 February 2019}}</ref> It became a way for the working class to gain empowerment through [[parody]]. Due to originating in the lower social class, it was regarded by the upper class as "a menace to public order and [[private property]]" and was for many years associated with people of ''la vida alegre'' (the merry life), referring to prostitutes, dancers, alcoholics, and moral degenerates. Singing and dancing of the plena often happened in ''cafetines'', bars that frequently doubled as brothels and where interracial socializing and sexual encounters were free to take place.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Honor, status, and law in modern Latin America|date=2005|publisher=Duke University Press|others=Caulfield, Sueann., Chambers, Sarah C., 1963-, Putnam, Lara.|isbn=0822335751|location=Durham|oclc=57311296}}</ref>

According to singers discussing the use of the plena, they stated it was song with lyrics that related to a current event. For example, if someone drowned or was killed, a plena would be written about it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/digitalarchive/index.php/Detail/objects/7572|title=Centro: Sound: Interview Two with Ovidio Dávila on December 18 1992 [RGC.ODav.1992.12.18.2]|website=centropr.hunter.cuny.edu}}</ref> {{lang|es|Tintorera del Mar}},<ref name="Aparicio 2010 p. 32">{{cite book | last=Aparicio | first=F.R. | title=Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures | publisher=Wesleyan University Press | series=Music Culture | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-8195-6994-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjrHBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 | access-date=20 October 2019 | page=32}}</ref> {{lang|es|Mataron a Elena}}, {{lang|es|El Obispo de Ponce}}, and {{lang|es|Matan a Bumbum}}<ref name="Roy-Féquière 2004 p. 119">{{cite book | last=Roy-Féquière | first=M. | title=Women, Creole Identity, and Intellectual Life in Early Twentieth-century Puerto Rico | publisher=Temple University Press | series=Puerto Rican studies | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-59213-231-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWi4kU9QP-YC&pg=PA119 | access-date=20 October 2019 | page=119}}</ref> were some plenas which became wildly popular.<ref name="Pfeiffenberger 2010">{{cite web | last=Pfeiffenberger | first=Sylvia | title=Jazz finally taps into plena, one of Puerto Rico's overlooked rhythms | website=INDY Week | date=10 February 2010 | url=https://indyweek.com/api/content/526a5739-131b-5c2d-a8ad-f8f6aeb6be71/ | access-date=20 October 2019}}</ref>

The eventual widespread acceptance of the plena can be attributed to the increased number of people joining the [[workforce]], which led to a new demand for public leisure. It was still considered indecent by the upper class, who fought against its rising popularity. In December 1917, an ordinance was passed banning the dances from happening inside the city limits. It took another decade for the plena to gain widespread popularity throughout Puerto Rico and cross [[Race (human classification)|racial]] and [[Culture|cultural]] boundaries. Listening to plena at home and at neighborhood- or municipal-sanctioned celebrations became acceptable and was no longer considered morally tainted by "respectable" white upper class [[Ponceños]]. Eventually, with much whitewashing to make it more palatable to the masses, plena was embraced in earnest as a style of music that united Puerto Ricans. However, with the acceptance of the upper class, what began as a vitally important cultural identifier and personal expression of philosophy, community, and self to the lower class became an entertaining spectacle for the white upper class.<ref name=":0" />

By the 1930s, the plena was accessible to all through the [[radio]] and [[Sound recording and reproduction|record]] industries.<ref name=":0" />

==Genre==
Plena music is generally folkloric in nature.  The music's [[Beat (music)|beat]] and [[rhythm]] are usually played using hand drums called [[pandereta]]s, also known as [[Pandereta plenera|pandero]]s. The music is accompanied by a scrape gourd, the [[guiro]]. [[Panderetas]] resemble [[tambourine]]s but without the jingles. These are handheld drums with stretched animal skins, usually goat skin, covering a round wooden frame. Three different sizes of pandereta are used in plena: the [[Seguidor]] (the largest of the three), the [[Punteador]] (the medium-sized drum), and the [[requinto]]. An advantage of this percussion arrangement is its portability, contributing to the plena's spontaneous appearance at social gatherings. Other instruments commonly heard in plena music are the [[Cuatro (instrument)|cuatro]], the [[maraca]]s, and [[accordions]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Bomba and Plena Artists Offer Live Music in Puerto Rico|url=http://www.lasalitacafe.com/paque-lo-sepas/bomba-plena-artists-offer-live-music-puerto-rico/|publisher=La Salita Cafe|access-date=28 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625040312/http://www.lasalitacafe.com/paque-lo-sepas/bomba-plena-artists-offer-live-music-puerto-rico/|archive-date=25 June 2014}}</ref>

The fundamental melody of the plena, as in all regional Puerto Rican music, has a decided Spanish strain; it is marked in the resemblance between the plena [[Santa María (plena)|Santa María]] and a song composed in the Middle Ages by [[Alfonso the Wise]], King of [[Spain]]. The lyrics of plena songs are usually octosyllabic and [[assonance|assonant]]. Following the universal custom the theme touches upon all phases of life—romance, politics, and current events. Generally, anything which appeals to the imagination of the people, such as the arrival of a personage, a crime, a bank moratorium, or a hurricane, can be the subject of plena music.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

==Spread==
Plena is played throughout [[Puerto Rico]] especially during special occasions such as the Christmas season, and as the musical backdrop for civic [[protests]], due to its traditional use as a vehicle for social commentary. When plena is played the audience often joins in the singing, clapping, and dancing. Plena is also enjoyed by the Puerto Rican diaspora outside of Puerto Rico. Pleneros de la 21, for example, traveled to Hawaii to perform for the Puerto Rican diaspora there which include descendants of [[Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii|Puerto Ricans who immigrated to Hawaii]] from Puerto Rico in the early 20th century.<ref name="Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 2009">{{cite web | title=Los Pleneros de la 21: Afro-Puerto Rican traditions | website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings | date=1 December 2008 | url=https://folkways.si.edu/los-pleneros-de-la-21-afro-puerto-rican-traditions/latin/music/article/smithsonian | access-date=3 October 2020}}</ref>

==Composers==
As a folk genre, there have been many good composers, some well known in their day and into the present. Perhaps one of the genre's most celebrated composers and performers was [[Manuel Jiménez (musician)|Manuel Jiménez]], known as 'El Canario'. Certainly, there were many others, including such greats as [[Ramito]], [[Ismael Rivera]], [[Mon Rivera]] (the junior), and [[Rafael Cortijo]]. In 2006, Tito Matos and [[Los Pleneros de la 21]] received a Grammy nomination for their {{lang|es|Para Todos Ustedes}} plena songs recording.<ref name="Smithsonian - Tito Matos">{{cite web | title=Tito Matos: Puerto Rican plena drummer | website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings | date=1 December 2008 | url=https://folkways.si.edu/tito-matos-puerto-rican-plena-drummer/latin-world/music/article/smithsonian | access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref>

The genre has had a revival recently, as evident by the emergence of many plena bands (such as [[Plena Libre]], [[Viento de agua]] and others) and its use in various songs, such as [[Ricky Martin]]'s recent song "[[Pégate]]" and [[Ivy Queen]]'s "[[Vamos A Celebrar]]".{{fact|date=March 2025}}

In 1953, Puerto Rican writer, [[Luis Palés Matos]] wrote {{lang|es|Plena del Menéalo}} urging the Puerto Rican woman to move it and ends the plena with the line {{lang|es|¡Para que rabie el Tio Sam}} (to make "[[Uncle Sam]]" angry).<ref>{{cite magazine | first=Luis |last=Pales Matos |title=Plena del Menéalo| magazine=Revista Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña #1 octubre-diciembre 1958 | via=Issuu |url=https://issuu.com/coleccionpuertorriquena/docs/revista_icp__1_octubre-diciembre_1958 | language=es | access-date=2020-11-03}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Puerto Rico}}
*[[List of Puerto Ricans]]
*[[Music of Puerto Rico]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Aparicio, Frances R., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ogZgZ6h84eQC "Listening to salsa: gender, Latin popular music, and Puerto Rican cultures"], Wesleyan University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-8195-6308-8}}. Cf. Chapter Two: ''A Sensual Mulatta Called the Plena'', pp.&nbsp;27–44.

{{Music in spanish}}

[[Category:Plena| ]]
[[Category:Music of Puerto Rico]]
[[Category:Ponce, Puerto Rico]]