Lake Havasu City, three
hours driving time from
Phoenix, a little more than
two hours south of Las Vegas,
and four to five hours from
the Los Angeles region,
attracts 750,000 visitors a
year thanks to its dry, desert
weather, 300-plus sunny days
a year, a range of restaurants
and lodging, and a boatload of
special events. It’s also home
to the London Bridge,
relocated to this desert city
stone by stone in 1971.
—David Wilson
Puerto Rico’s Music
Museum
ALTHOUGH IT IS overshadowed
in both stature and sheer size
by the internationally known
Museo de Arte de Ponce, the
Museo de la Música
Puertorriqueña—also located
in Puerto Rico’s second
largest city—should not be
overlooked. Those who wish
to gain insight into the
Caribbean island’s cherished
traditions of music, from preColumbian times to the
present, will be richly
rewarded by the sights and
4
AMÉRICAS
sounds of the museum’s
exhibits. The theme-based
displays include an extensive
collection of period musical
instruments, historic photos,
music manuscripts and
posters, and audio and video
features.
Located in Ponce’s historic
downtown, the museum is
housed in an early 20th
century structure that offers
a glimpse of the elegant
lifestyle of a bygone era. The
neoclassical mansion was
built in 1912 and was
designed by a local architect
for Félix Juan Serrallés, the
grandson of the founder of
the Serrallés Rum Distillery.
The building was restored
and the museum installed in
1990 and, since then, every
interior space from parlors to
the formal dining room has
been used to document
different periods of Puerto
Rico’s music history.
The room dedicated to the
island’s indigenous Taíno
culture lays the foundation of
Puerto Rican musical history
with an exhibit that features a
variety of rudimentary
instruments including flutes
made of bamboo and palm
and a large drum fashioned
out of a tree trunk. This was
Puerto Rico before it was
colonized by the Spanish and
©MARK HOLSTON (2)
Housed in a restored neoclassic
mansion in Ponce, the Museo de
la Música Puertorriqueña, above
and below, contains a variety of
Spanish, African, and Indian
musical instruments on display,
as well as exhibits on beloved
Puerto Rican musicians
prior to the
arrival of
African slaves,
events that
changed the
musical
history of the
island forever.
The courtly
customs of
high society in
the mid 19th
century are
recognized in the danza
display, which includes such
European instruments as the
violin, cello, and French horn.
The museum also pays
homage to Puerto Rico’s
world class, but not well
known, classical composers,
musicians, and conductors,
and to its notable tradition of
opera singing.
Fans of more contemporary
Puerto Rican music styles,
including the Afro-Rican
bomba and plena genres as
well as salsa, will find a wide
range of memorabilia to
expand their knowledge of
some of the island’s best
known musicians, singers,
and composers. Not
surprisingly, Ponce’s native
son Enrique Arsenio Lucca
Quiñónez, better known as
Papo Lucca, a pianist,
composer, arranger, and
leader of the famed salsa
band Sonora Ponceña, gets an
extra measure of recognition.
Of particular interest is the
museum’s extensive
collection of cuatros, the
small guitar that has become
a symbol of the island’s folk
music after enlivening Puerto
Rico’s music scene for over
four centuries. The most
prized cuatros are those
made by the late Carmelo
Martel Luciano, an
accomplished artisan whose
hand-crafted instruments are
considered masterpieces of
folk art. Among his most
notable creations are cuatros
in the shape of a rooster, a
duck, a fish, and the map of
Puerto Rico. All feature
highly complex designs, a
profusion of color, and
microscopic detail.
After a tour of the museum,
guide Ángel Luis Dávila may
ask patrons if they want to
put their new knowledge to
work and try their hand at
tapping out tropical rhythms
on congas, bongos, or claves.
Located at the intersection of
Calle Isabel and Calle Salud,
the museum is open Tuesday
through Sunday.
—Mark Holston