[4] But he soon encountered a rich, community-based circuit of musicians in Harlem and the South Bronx who played older traditional styles of Cuban rumba and Puerto Rican jibaro, bomba, and plena music.

[9] In addition to Gutiérrez and Arvelo, early members included singer/percussionists Pablo “Gallito” Ortiz, Sammy Tanco, Nelly Tanco, Francisco “Paquito” Rivera, José Rivera, Alberto “Tito” Cepeda, and Benjamin Flores; dancer Eugenia Ramos; and cuatro player Edgardo Miranda and keyboardist Carlos Suárez.

[8] Los Pleneros de la 21 specialize in Afro-Puerto Rican styles of music that originated in coastal towns like Ponce and Mayagüez where large communities of enslaved Africans and their descendants worked in the sugarcane mills.

By the time Los Pleneros recorded their first album in 1989, they were using the cuatro (a ten-stringed guitar) and melodica for chordal accompaniment and melodic breaks.

Smithsonian Folkways scholar Raquel Rivera has noted that while traditional street bomba and plena have remained at the core of their musical style, Los Pleneros del la 21 draws on more contemporary influences from of jazz, salsa, and rap.

[8] In terms of repertoire, Los Pleneros 21 performs traditional bombas and plenas as well as songs composed by Marcial Reyes Arvelo, Angel Louis Torruellas, Raphael Cepeda, Juan Gutiérrez, and other group members.

the drumming, incendiary, complex, and precise, made the room rock.”[25] Watrous gave a favorable review to the group’s 1996 Somos Boricuas album, commenting: “The melodies are gorgeous and the tunes perfectly arranged, precise rhythms making way for singing or a drum section.”[26] The group’s 2005 release, Para Todos Ustedes  (Smithsonian Folkways Records), received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional World Music Album.