Audio of an interview with longtime Boston resident and well known folklorist and musician Sixto Tito Ayala. The interview was part of the We are Boston: Stories of Hope, Struggle, and Resilience oral history project created in 2018 by poet and Boston artist-in-residence Daniel Johnson. Ayala details his childhood in Puerto Rico and Boston’s South End neighborhood; his experiences playing Bomba with many artists and groups including Roberto Roehn and the Apollo Sound, Quinto Olivo, and Arturo Somoano Symphony Orchestra; teaching Bomba and other Purerto Rican music to children; his faith, and his belief that music can bring people of all ages, races, and backgrounds together. During the interview Sixto Tito Ayala demonstrates and explains three Bomba rhythms.
