erto Rican plena developed more or less as a sung newspaper. Pleneros would travel the island, bringing the news of the day to the public through song. Plena has more European elements than the other popular rural music of Puerto Rico, bomba. Emanuel Dufrasne, leader of a top contemporary plena group, Paracumbe, believes that the plena's origins are a result of the fusion of forms brought to Puerto Rico by immigrants from Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad with bomba rhythms and incorporating these on a variety of new instruments, such as the guiro and the cuatro (a small guitar) and later accordions. While the plena that is more commonly heard today is the sort typified by salsa-plena fusion bands such as Plena Libre and New York's Libre, Paracumbe's rootsy plenas are a direct link to the genre's origins in West Africa.

Contributed by: Dan Rosenberg