FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #109 From Cultural Shock To Cultural Seed: How Semilla Cultural Builds Community Through Puerto Rican Bomba
What if movement could speak first and the music answered back? That’s the electric core of Bomba, the Afro‑Puerto Rican tradition that turns emotion into sound through a live dialogue between dancer and drummer. We sit down with Semilla Cultural’s founder, Isha Renta Lopez, to trace how a scientist from Puerto Rico rebuilt community in Virginia—one packed basement workshop, one class, and one drumbeat at a time.
Isha shares the journey from Howard University’s meteorology labs to leading a 12‑year nonprofit rooted in cultural education, performance, and lectures across Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia. You’ll step inside a Bomba class: hand drums and maraca, call‑and‑response singing, rhythms with distinct steps, and the startling moment when the drummer follows the dancer’s improvisation. We explore Bomba’s 300‑year history, its origins among enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico, and the way each rhythm carries a specific feeling—joyous, grounded, or fierce. It’s a workout, a lesson, and therapy wrapped into one loud, welcoming circle.
The conversation also spotlights Isha’s children’s book, Sofia And Her Bomba Drum. Sparked by a simple comment—“just a girl and her drum”—the story gives kids an entry point into tradition while pushing past limiting expectations about who gets to drum. Set against landmarks like Ponce’s Parque de Bombas, the book connects heritage, place, and courage, and now lives online, at events, and in local libraries. Along the way you’ll hear how students find confidence, release stress, and discover belonging through Bomba’s live, improvisational energy.
Curious to feel it for yourself? Classes run monthly in Fredericksburg and Maryland, with schedules on Semilla Cultural’s website and plenty of room for first‑timers. If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more neighbors can find their rhythm with us.
Isha Renta Lopez
Semilla Cultural
info@semillacultural.org
+1 540-693-0024
Follow on IG: @semillacultural and @isharenta
Richmond, VA · Fredericksburg, VA · Washington D.C.
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a very special guest joining me today. We've got Isha Renta Lopez, and she is with Semilla Cultural. Isha welcome to the podcast.
Speaker:Hi Dori, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited about this. What you're doing is really special, and so I want to learn more about you and about your business. So let's start there. Share with us a little bit about your business.
Speaker:So Semilla Cultural translates to Cultural Seed, and it's an organization that actually January 3rd, so just a few days ago, we turned 12 years old. We're based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but we actually cover the Northern Virginia and broader Virginia region. And we are dedicated to the celebration and sharing of Puerto Rican traditions in the region. I moved to Virginia in 2009 and actually 2006. And before that, I moved to Maryland in 2004 directly from Puerto Rico. And I think the cultural shock from coming to the Caribbean with a different language and different traditions and not finding my people and my traditions and then learning one of the traditions here in the region of Bomba from Puerto Rico. Not in Puerto Rico where I grew up, but over here, got me to, you know, the idea of developing this educational organization. We are a nonprofit, 501 C3 organization. We are doing mainly uh focus on education, we focus on uh performing, we do lectures. So everything that's education and getting people to embrace the Puerto Rican traditions, bringing a little bit of home to other Puerto Ricans and also sharing it with the broader community.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Well, congratulations on 12 years. That's a really big deal.
Speaker:It is. It is crazy for me to say that number.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. I love it. So you shared a little bit about uh, you know, you came here and and that's you know kind of what inspired you. But tell me, let's dive a little bit deeper into that. Tell me a little bit about your background.
Speaker:So, born and raised in Puerto Rico, I growing there, I was impacted by hurricanes and you had the threatened threat of hurricanes. And I moved actually to Maryland because I was going to Howard University to study atmospheric sciences slash meteorology. And uh that's what brought me to the region. It just coming to do my graduate studies. Uh however, the um having moving here, having that cultural shock, then that's when I realized I was like, you know, it's not only the educational part that I came in here, but there's a part of me that's missing from home. And, you know, my my roommate who at the time joined the Puerto Rican organization, they started doing this traditional bomba, which involves drumming, dancing, and singing. Um, and I joined that group later on. And that from there, I loved it. The group, I moved to Fredericksburg. That's in 2009. And then when I moved to Fredericksburg, I couldn't participate as part of that organization as often as I could when I lived in Northern Virginia. And uh I was like, well, if I cannot go to Bomba, why can Bomba come to me? And uh October 2013, I did a pilot workshop in my basement where I invited a bunch of friends and I was like, let's see if there's enough interest, if this will be something that people will like. And from that uh basement workshop of dance and percussion, my basement was packed. I think I had more than 30 people coming. It was just friends, and by word of mouth, it got shared. And when I saw the amount of people that showed up, and then I put there, if you're thinking about doing this more seriously, please sign up here. And enough people sign up. And I was okay. And then from there, you know, just submitting all official paperwork, coming up with the name, logos, and everything else that comes with the business. Um, and from there, the organization just being focused on that educational part. Um so I came here for studies. I then started working in my field of meteorology, been working in that. Um, but on the side, then I do this organizational part of education, the educating the community on the traditions of Puerto Rico, and I've been doing that for the past 12 years.
Speaker 2:Amazing, amazing. I'm so impressed by you. Thank you. I love it. So let's dive a little bit deeper into Bomba, because that is new to me. So what could what would someone, what could they expect coming to one of your programs?
Speaker:So you're gonna have loud drumming. Our drums are very loud, and so there's always live drumming um in my programs. So in our uh, for example, in a dance class, which is the main one that I teach, um, we bomba has many rhythms. Um, the drums are hand drums, so you have to hit them with your fingers and your hand. It's not with sticks. And uh there's also maraca. The singing is called response. Um, so when we do our classes, I usually give them the first class, an introduction of the history of bomba, which has more than 300 years of history, uh, that was practiced by the enslaved Africans that live in Puerto Rico, so it's Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance. Um, every rhythm in Bomba has a basic step. So when we go through the, you know, uh progressive class, then we teach in each class a different rhythm and different basic steps and different movements. What I think is one of the things that make bombba stand out the most is the fact that when you are dancing, the lead drummer, so we have to have at least two drummers. One of them is one that keeps their bass music along with the maraca and the pair of sticks called the quas that hit another wooden barrel. But the lead drummer has to follow the dancer's movements simultaneously. So the dancer is improvising, and the lead drummer has to anticipate those movements almost at the, you know, at that moment and make them sound. So you, as a dancer, become a musician by moving. And you know, in my classes, I just teach what are you know the foundation, that basic, uh, the base of that dance, basic step, but also what are the movements that the lead drummer traditionally uh marks in the drum. Uh, usually at the end of the class, we do a gathering together where people practice what they learn and like in the live organic bomba setting, because bomba is very organic and very improvised. Uh, we teach them songs. Um, and it's kind of like a workout sometimes because some rhythms are very upbeat, some rhythms are more lower, like and each rhythm also makes you feel different things. So I like also to connect my students with the emotions, right? What do we feel? What does this um rhythm make you feel? So it's a very um uh I would say uh it connects with your emotions, but also you you work out physically and emotionally. I would I would put it like that.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. You're getting the fun, you're getting the therapeutic part of it, and then you're also getting a physical workout. So that's all in one. All in one. That's amazing.
Speaker:We also do, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I just said I love it. I need to come and try it.
Speaker:You need you need where classes are starting in February in Fredericksburg, so make sure to show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I love it. And I see a book in the background. Tell me all about that.
Speaker:Yeah, so uh after the pandemic and retaking the educational programs, I had a stronger response to the children's class before the pandemic. And as I'm teaching kids, I realized that there were not a lot of resources for kids about the tradition of Bomba. And um around the pandemic, I I attended an online book writing workshop. And uh just because, you know, pandemic, not a lot to do, so I was like, okay, let's try this and see what happens. At the same time, from my science side, I was highlighted in a children's book about scientists, and um, so those two things happen about the same time. Um so when I started teaching kids uh bomba, and I'm realizing there's lack of resources, uh, I was like, you know, if they don't exist, you just have to create them. And um, one day I posted a picture of me in social media practicing my bomba drum. And a friend commented, uh, you're just a girl and your drum. And that comment alone just sparked this idea of, oh my God, I have to write a book about a girl that drums. And that's when Sofiia and her bomba drum uh came, you know, the idea, the concept came. And um, I sat down one day and uh in one sitting, I just put the whole story down. Uh, the story is about, you know, um a joyful celebration of bomba and how a girl uh the her curiosity drives her to push the societal expectations of women and girls not usually drumming to get her to actually sit down to drum. So the story, as the reader goes through it, learns with Sofia about bomba. Um, so it's a beautiful, beautiful story, also that it goes along with the societal expectations sometimes of women and girls, and the women and girls challenging the stereotypes and expectations. So it's a very beautiful story. The images are amazing. I actually have a copy here, and I can maybe show you a few of those images.
Speaker 2:Beautiful.
Speaker:So you see Sofia there looking at the bomba instruments. Actually, my one of my favorite images is this one that's based in my hometown in Ponce, Puerto Rico. And that is actually uh the red and black building really exists. It's a book, it's a parque de bombas, which is in downtown plaza of my hometown. So I really wanted to make this story to connect to the Puerto Rican community, but also anybody that's not Puerto Rican to learn about where we are, how does this tradition translate to me? People just get connected by the story in different ways, and it's been a joy, a joyful uh journey for me as a writer and seeing how now there's a resource and hopefully the first of many.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I love what you do so much. It's so important. You are connecting a community, but you're also uh bringing to life a culture that a lot of people don't know much about. And I mean, you're just you're both of fresh air. You really are. Yes, I love it. And you're um you're a a testament to someone who is, you know, following their passions and and you followed that um, you know, that that spark of, you know, I think I should write a book, and you took action on it and you followed through and you did it. So um it's very inspirational what you're doing.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for kind words. It's it's you know, I think when you my I have this saying that I say, when you do things out of your heart, blessings come your way. And and I have just, you know, follow through, go with the flow. I say a lot the phrase of going with the flow. And I just I've been going with the flow, right? I I move into this region to pursue a career in science, and but the cultural shock is pulling me another way. So I still have my love for science, but you know, this other part is something that I really love, and I love how the community also responds to it. And it's something that is fulfilling, not only, you know, it's not about the money, it's really about soul food. And I think that's what really makes a difference here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your cultural shock has turned into something very meaningful that has not only helped you, but is helping so many others.
Speaker:It's definitely, I hear testaments of my students, people that have joined my performing group, because some of the students we do we put them in the performance group. And um, and hear how bomb has impacted their lives. Uh, sometimes I just can't hold my tears because it's really significant the amount of impact that this tradition, like we were saying earlier, is not only physical, emotionally, but it's a therapy. And it really is, and it has transformed me, and I know it has transformed a lot of people.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that. So tell us all about how people can connect with you and join a program, buy your book. Where can people find you?
Speaker:So we are on social media, Semilla Cultural. I have actually the website right here. You can visit our website and um you can see there the upcoming programs. Actually, we just uh last week we updated the programs for the new Fredericksburg series. We do classes every month. Um, one month in Maryland and one month in Fredericksburg. I mean, sorry, it's monthly in both locations, but we do it one time in Maryland, one time in Fredericksburg. Um, and uh so we do it in a dance studio down there in Fredericksburg, and they can just follow the classes and they can pick whatever um location uh is better for them. And then the book is available online in a bunch of online retailers, and also I in the semilla cultural events that we host, we usually carry copies of the book as well. Um, some selected libraries um do have them for sale, and the downtown Fredericksburg Library does have it. So if you want to go and rent it for a few weeks and read it for your kids, um the book is there available as well.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Amazing. Isha, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing all of these wonderful gifts with us.
Speaker:Thank you for having me. Thank you for having this opportunity to share with you what we do.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses that are featured on the show, go to fxneighborspodcast.com.