The Friends of the Nashua Public Library have been highlighting the city’s diverse cultures through their “Passport to the World” program. Most recently, the library highlighted the resistance of Puerto Rican culture with dominoes, food, story time, and even a Bad Bunny look-alike contest.
About 4,000 Nashua residents are from the U.S. territory, according to census data.
As part of the event, children made red hibiscus maga flowers out of construction paper and pipe cleaners. Organizer Jasmine Torres-Allen explained that the flower is a symbol of Puerto Rican identity.
“It’s actually also another symbol of resistance and resilience because hurricanes happen,” she explained. “This flower in particular is resistant, and so we use it as our symbol of resiliency.”
Musician Jorge Santiago-Arce hosted the Afro-Caribbean music workshop. He has been doing this workshop in libraries, schools and other venues since 1987. He explained that it explores the music of different African cultures that met as they were enslaved as agricultural workers. The music, too, is a symbol of resilience.
“This is about geopolitics, politics, and this is about immigration,” he said. “This is about the good results, the good things about immigration, the encounter of cultures, the interaction of different cultures.”
The workshop itself included 47 instruments – including a chequeré percussion gourd, clave sticks, a tumbá drum and a cowbell
Audience member Carmen Lewis learned how to play the cowbell. She’s from Ponce, Puerto Rico by way of Massachusetts and came to the library’s event to spend time with her family in Nashua. She said that learning about the African influences of her heritage made her feel proud of her roots.
“I enjoyed playing the cowbell,” she said, in Spanish. “I didn’t know that I could hold a rhythm.”
Musician Jorge Santiago-Arce says that’s the point of his workshops. He’s also from Ponce – which is known as the birthplace of traditional Puerto Rican rhythms like bomba, plena and danza.
He said music comes through the blood. This means everyone – from a toddler to a grandma – can join in.
“The message that I’m trying to convey is that it doesn’t matter where you come from, we have something to learn from each other,” he said. “We have something to share from each other.”