Celebration of Life RUMBA: A Fundraiser for Yaya Maldonado

Everyone is welcome to this special event in which some of the best Bay Area rumberos will come together to play live in honor of Yaya and his great legacy to the Rumba community and beyond.

ADVANCE: $20 | DOOR: $25

Special Guest: John Santos

Featuring:

• Fito Reynoso
• Jose Luis Seluma Gomez
• Sandy Perez
• Javier Navarrette
• Hector Lugo
• N. Bruce Williams
• Juan Pescao
• Dennis Bain
• Jeffrey Zable
• Trevino Leon
• Butch Haynes
• Orlando Diaz
• Jesus Diaz

About “Yaya” and the Afro-Cuban/Puerto Rican Culture in the Bay Area:

Iluminado “Yaya” Maldonado, also known as Baba Yaya, was a beloved master musician, culture bearer, artist, rumbero and educator who was born in Puerto Rico and lived most of his life between New York and the Bay Area. Among countless other contributions, he established, organized and sustained the Afro-Cuban/Puerto Rican Rumba Jams at La Peña Cultural Center for decades, which are one of the main Rumba gatherings in the East Bay that have preserved this traditional folkloric music along with many other styles of Afro-Cuban religious and secular rhythms, dance, and celebration.

After Baba Yaya moved to the Russian River, he still was able to continue leading the Rumba and teach students in drumming, chanting and dancing. He entrusted and passed the torch to N. Bruce Williams, the Present Cultural Bearer (for maintaining this Rumba legacy at La Peña Cultural Center) and other community members with whom he had shared his love for Rumba and Cuban culture for many years. Even after relocating to the river, he continued to be intimately involved with this cultural work and, actually, before the pandemic Yaya was already planning this special rumba in collaboration with many Bay Area rumberos. As we all can imagine, the event couldn’t happen because of Covid.

Unfortunately, Yaya passed away on March 27th of the present year, so this event is now intended to honor his life and his commitment to the Rumba community, as well as to support his family in these difficult times of grief and necessity. Upholding the essence of what Rumba is and stands for, we are doing this by sharing and celebrating the immense beauty and energy that fill up a space when rumberos are playing together! It will be a moment of profound respect and appreciation to Yaya and to all the ancestors on whose shoulders we stand on today.

Come support this cultural tradition and let’s make sure that Rumba Jams continue to build community in the Bay Area for generations to come! This is the perfect opportunity for you to learn and get involved. Rumba is a unique cultural blend of rhythm, dance, and poetry that, in its earliest forms, served as an outlet for resistance, protest, poetry, dance, and celebration of life in the midst of challenging times in the African Diaspora created by the slave trade in the Caribbean. It’s the perfect frame to celebrate life and support the work of these amazing cultural bearers!

PLEASE NOTE: We will require ID & Proof of Full Vaccination at the door. Booster shots and the use of masks inside will be encouraged but NOT mandatory. See our most updated Covid-19 Policy here.