From Puerto Rico, con amor

One of the mainstays of traditional Puerto Rican culture is the decima, an improvised 10-line poem accompanied by a five-stringed guitar called a cuatro. Created in Spain and practiced throughout Latin America, the décima was cultivated by Puerto Rico's mountain-dwelling jíbaro people; troubadours roamed the hillsides, singing poems organized around strict rhyme schemes. Today décima practitioners compose their rhymes on the fly and -- accompanied by the cuatro -- sing of love, beauty, and the Puerto Rican countryside.

``The cuatro and décima form the backbone of traditional Puerto Rican art and music," says David Morales, president of El Jolgorio de Massachusetts, a non profit devoted to Latino youth and the group that organized the event.

On Saturday you can get an up-close look at this enduring art form as local Latinos celebrate traditional Puerto Rican art, culture, and music in an event that organizers are calling simply the Puerto Rican Decima. The daylong event, sponsored by Wheelock College and the Berklee College of Music, is a two-part affair: Art exhibits, cultural workshops, and a host of musical activities illustrating the richness of Puerto Rican culture will be held at Wheelock Family Theatre during the day, and on Saturday night musicians will gather at the Berklee Performance Center for a concert devoted to Puerto Rican music.

The Berklee show promises to give local Latinos and music fans alike a spirited evening of decima music. One of the program's highlights is the four-man Grupo Mapeyé -- often referred to as the ``Puerto Rican national orchestra" for its faithful renditions the island's folk music -- which uses indigenous instruments such as the cuatro, the güiro (a hollow gourd with a grooved surface played by scraping with a stick), and bongos to create its authentic sound.

Grupo Mapeyé will be joined by the female cuatro players Luz Celenia Tirado, Emma Colón Zayas, and Lenny-Jeanette Adorno. Tirado is a trailblazing, internationally known singer and songwriter -- one of just a handful of Puerto Rican female artists to make a name for herself -- while Zayas and Adorno are just beginning their strumming careers.

``Traditionally cuatro playing and décima singing is male-dominated," says Morales. ``There has never been a prominent role for women. Only about 20 women do it, but [Tirado, Zayas, and Adorno] are leading the charge."

For a glimpse at how this music and its instruments are made, head to Boston's Wheelock College earlier in the day to explore the art exhibitions and hour long workshops at the Wheelock Family Theatre, where Puerto Rico's most accomplished troubadours, cuatro players, and décima experts -- as well as a variety of folk artists -- will share their expertise.

``Local artist William Cumpiano is the authority on guitar making and the author of the most popular book on guitar making," says Morales. ``Luis Nieves Roman is the premier carver of wooden saints. He's carved for the Vatican, and a Smithsonian exhibit was dedicated to his work."

Children can create gourd art with Graciela Quiñones Rodriguez and make festival masks with Amherst artist Angel Ortiz. Those interested in learning more about the history of Puerto Rican music can watch two films on the subject: ``Nuestro Cuatro: The Puerto Ricans and their Stringed Instruments," and ``La Décima Borinqueña." Local Puerto Rican artists will also be displaying and selling their works.

Morales hopes the event will act as a gateway to the cultural traditions of all Latin America. ``We are reaching out to the larger Latino community in Massachusetts," he says, ``and hoping to share our heritage with the non-Latino community as well."