ROOTING WITHIN

A journey of rooting within through cultural and ancestral connections that build sisterhood, voice, and solidarity  

ENRAIZAR, or Rooting Within, is a project including workshops, performances, and gatherings of young women of color sharing their stories about transitioning into womanhood through the music genre and dance of Bomba.

As women we are often forced early on to ignore or hide the more vulnerable parts of our stories in order to endure a world that dispossesses us of our essence through patriarchal and racist violence.

Through ENRAIZAR, young women of color challenge this by telling stories that show how they go within and embrace their vulnerabilities to become stronger and more confident versions of themselves.

Through the connection with past and present female ancestors, this project allows young women to write their stories as future ancestors in their own terms through Bomba dance, choreography, song, percussion, poetry, and improvisation.

Workshops

Participants engage in various workshops throughout this journey including rooting in self through photography, poetry, songwriting, Bomba (dance, percussion and singing), and creative musical expressions. They learn about key historical figures that inspire them to not only see themselves within the history they are learning about, but also to find their voice and creativity as they connect within. Creative workshop sessions include choreography and music assembly where Bomba music is fundament and root. These workshops also guide and inspire participants to build self-love and confidence as they connect with and learn about each other as a way to truly see themselves within themselves. 

Spring 2026 Performance

As the recipient of the 2024 Gerbode Foundation Dance and Movement Awards Grantee, Shefali Shah and Aguacero are excited to collaborate with CubaCaribe to produce an evening length performance in the spring of 2026 that highlights the transitional experience and journey of young girls to womanhood through Puerto Rican Bomba music and dance. Youth and adult performers (Grupo Aguacero) will dance, sing and speak their stories on their own terms as they root within, attaining confidence from cultural and ancestral voices and tradition. 

The performance is sponsored by CubaCaribe and the Gerbode Foundation.

Educational Trip to Puerto Rico

In February 2026, ENRAIZAR participants will travel to Puerto Rico to continue their educational and self-rooting journey. They will meet and learn from master Bomba teachers and artists, connect with the landscape, and learn from key female cultural leaders and practitioners. 

Help us make this happen by donating

You can donate on the CubaCaribe website.

Make sure to write “Rooting Within” when you complete the form.

PARTICIPANTS

DULARI

This process has forced me to come out of my shell. I am excited about our performance and about our trip to Puerto Rico!

ISELAH

I have learned that I enjoy writing my feelings when it’s hard to talk about them and I have gained a love for journaling. I am excited to see how we grow together as dancers  and as people. This project has reminded me of my love for Bomba. It has reminded me of my roots and where I come from.

LIRIS

Taking time to connect with other girls/women, and taking the time to reflect, sing and dance together while connecting with our creativity, roots, ancestors and our power has been so healing, grounding and empowering. I didn’t realize this would be as important and impactful in my life as it has been.

NAYA

I am learning that I want to practice Bomba more and that I need a lot more of my sisterhood to help me and guide me. I have also learned that hearing people’s stories and thoughts, opens up a new perspective.

NAYELI

I am excited to dance more Bomba so that I can connect with my Puertorican roots. I am excited to get to know my peers better and create deep emotional connections with them. I am learning that when I am in a respectful and loving community, I can be a leader and an example to others.

SERAFINA

This project has helped me grow in the way I relate to people and about my personal strengths in different environments.

XIMENA

I have learned that I can be comfortable in social settings. Having this group of people makes me more comfortable and I am able to express myself more freely. This has helped me grow out of my shell and I love talking to everyone and laughing and having fun. I’m excited about discovering more about show life and the behind the scenes of a big production.

Participants’ photos by Mónika Aldarondo Lugo

“This project has been an incredible opportunity for my daughter to reconnect with her Boricua roots. She deeply values the opportunity to explore her cultural heritage while connecting with a group of young Latinas. Talking, dancing, singing, writing, creating together has been inspiring and meaningful for her and is helping her access cultural pride and self-expression as a young woman. Thank you, Shefali!”

— Susannah Mackintosh

“My daughter Nayeli had not taken Bomba classes when she was little, but she was always watching, listening and observing. The seeds were planted. Now, through this project, she has made a deeper connection with Bomba, her Puerto Rican culture and ancestors on her own. It has been an amazing transformation and I’m so grateful for this opportunity and experience for my daughter. “

— Jo-Annie Seda

“My daughter Iselah has an opportunity to deepen her study of Bomba music and dance by getting to write and choreograph original pieces alongside other young women. She is putting her creative talents into a project that will bring joy and wonder to the broader community and that will have an impact into the future. She has especially enjoyed the relaxing meditative time that gives her the luxury of calming her senses and coming back to her center after a long and intense week of school and dance. We are eternally grateful for this incredible project and each session is a gift!”

— Dr. Frankie Free Ramos

GUEST ARTISTS & WORKSHOP EDUCATORS

Maritxell Carrero

Maritxell Carrero is a multidisciplinary artist whose love for Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba fuels her work as a performer, producer, and cultural advocate—dedicated to nurturing artistic expression and uplifting the voices of fellow creators. Based in Los Angeles, she teaches and performs Bomba as a cantaora and is the founder of Taller Kurubina, a cultural space active since 2016. She has been a part of the Bomba community for over a decade, performing with groups such as Atabey & Cunyáand collaborating with Aguacero, Bomba Liberté, Peace Inside Out, Areyto Borincano, Ifé, Boricua y de Mayagüez, Qualia, and others across California and Puerto Rico.

She co-founded Carrero Creatives and produced Calle de la Resistencia, a docu-drama-musical now streaming on Amazon Prime. Her acting credits include Seven, Esperanza, and Peter Sellars’ The Indian Queen, which won five Golden Mask Awards in 2015 and toured internationally at the English National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Maritxell has served as a cultural consultant for the Grammy® Awards, Apple, Pepsi, Verizon, and Amazon, and has been featured in national campaigns for AT&T, Toyota, Modelo, and Western Union. She currently serves as Company Manager for CONTRA-TIEMPO, continuing to blend art, culture, and advocacy through her work. You can listen to her original bomba fusion music on Spotify.

Jade Power Sotomayor

Dr. Jade Power-Sotomayor is a Cali-Rican educator, scholar and performer who works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC San Diego. Moving from Puerto Rico to California as a young person, she came into full conciencia through her experiences in collaborative artistic projects that sought to bring attention to how elite powers target and feed on the most vulnerable in our society. Today, her research and writerly interests span across Puerto Rican cultural studies, Latinx/Latine theatre and performance, dance studies, nightlife cultures, epistemologies of the body, land-based performances, feminist of color critique, bilingualism, race and language, and intercultural performance in the Caribbean diaspora. Her writing and publications have been recognized with multiple awards across various professional organizations. Her first single-authored book ¡Habla! Speaking Bodies Dancing Our América is forthcoming from NYU Press. In addition to decades of experience on the stage, she is also a dramaturg and co-directs and performs with the San Diego-based group Bomba Liberté. 

Yairamaren Maldonado

Yairamaren Maldonado completed a Ph.D. in Latin American and Caribbean Literature and New Media at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a published writer with over 15 years of experience co-creating community-based storytelling with hundreds of folks, mostly women, in California, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She is also the founder and executive director of Escritura Pública, a non-profit dedicated to uplifting BIPOC women’s voices through storytelling, the literary arts, and wellness. Her second book Ciencia ficción en el mirador / Sci-fi at the Mirador was published by Ediciones del Flamboyán in 2022, her third book, Bioluminiscencia, will be published with La Criba editorial in 2025, and she regularly publishes on her Substack newsletter Escritura Imperfecta. She is also the author of multiple academic research articles and book chapters, and has served as the editor of several academic and creative writing volumes, including the recently published volume Historias para todas (2025), a compilation of the stories and poetry of more than 30 Puerto Rican women from all walks of life.  

Mónika Aldarondo Lugo

Mónika Aldarondo Lugo is a San Francisco Bay Area-based Branding and Portrait Photographer. She creates bold visual storytelling to amplify impactful small businesses through her studio, Laancla Creative. Mónika trained in journalism and arts education. She worked with young people and adults as an arts educator for over a decade. She also founded a national community for Latina photographers, Our Latina Lens. You can see her work and connect with her at laancla.com.

Ayla Davila

Ayla Davila is a Bay Area native of Guatemalan descent and an accomplished musician. A Berklee College of Music graduate, she is a seasoned bassist, composer, arranger, and instrumentalist, recognized as one of the most talented bass players in the Bay Area. As a founding member of notable bands like Los Cenzontles, La Mixta Criolla, and Carne Cruda, Ayla has made a significant impact on the local music scene. Her versatility and expertise have also led her to tour and collaborate with renowned Latin bands, including Mario y Su Timbeko, La Moderna Tradición, and Jesús Díaz y su Qba.

Hector Lugo

Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, songwriter, and educator. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989 to pursue graduate studies in sociology at UC Berkeley. Lugo has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists such as Bobby Céspedes and Conjunto Céspedes, Louie Romero and Grupo Mazacote, Modesto Cepeda and Cimiento the Puerto Rico, Luis “Chichito” Cepeda and the Los Cepeda Ensemble, Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project, Larry Vuckovich, the John Santos Sextet, Salsa legend Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Los Pleneros de la 21, Cuban son ensemble Pellejo Seco, Chuchito Valdés, Mono Blanco, Edgardo Cambón y Candela, and Zimbabwean traditional dance troupe The Chinyakare Ensemble, to name a few. Lugo is the founder and director of the Latin-Roots band La Mixta Criolla, producing its debut album AfroTaíno (RoundWhirled records, 2011), and a founding member of the bomba ensemble Grupo Aguacero. Lugo has designed, managed, and implemented educational and cultural arts programs in collaboration with SFJAZZ, the San Francisco Symphony, Stern Grove Festival, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Oakland Youth Chorus, San Francisco Community Music Center, and the San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland Unified School Districts. He has also developed classes and workshops for children and youth at community centers such as La Peña Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club, Youth Art Exchange, and Loco Bloco, among others. He is the founder and co-director of the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop which since its creation in 2000 has promoted the appreciation, study, and performance of Puerto Rican folkloric music through regular classes and workshops, master classes with visiting artists, concerts, class recitals, and music festivals. He is the founder and co-director of Las Quenepas Youth Ensemble, dedicated to the study and performance of traditional Puerto Rican bomba and plena music and dance, and has coordinated and led study trips to Puerto Rico for groups of children and youth from the Bay Area.

Marina Romani

Web Design Collaborator

Dr. Marina Romani is a multimedia writer and artist, editor, translator, educator, and performer of Western classical music and Puerto Rican music. She holds a PhD in Italian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies from UC Berkeley. She is a lecturer in the Sociology Department at UC Berkeley, teaching upper-division courses in sociology of culture and cross-cultural communications. Marina taught courses on language, cinema, literature, music, writing and research, and critical thinking at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She developed and taught original curricula that integrate culture and language teaching with music and artistic performance. She presented her original research at international conferences in Europe and in the US (Yale, NYU, University of Southern California, King’s College London, UCLA, among others). She was the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center, the Berkeley Language Center, among others.

As a singer, Marina has performed with Aguacero in concerts supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Commission, and at venues such as Brava Theater, Dance Mission Theater, Stanford University, CubaCaribe Festival (2015 and 2016), MACLA Cultural Center in San Jose, California Environmental Justice Alliance, La Peña Cultural Center.