Plena and the Negotiation of National Identity in Puerto Rico

The plena functions as an important marker of Puerto Rican identity in musical and other aesthetic forms produced both on and off the island. Through a reading of plena within a broader intellectual frame that includes its presence in literature and popular art, this essay examines its long association with pervasive questions of origins and autonomy in the construction of lo puertorrique o. In the national imaginary, the plena provides a space in which two particular elements of Puerto Rican identity are continuously addressed: its racial character and its cultural specificity in the face of U.S. political and social pressures.