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Juana Díaz.- Access to learning Puerto Rican music, in all its manifestations, was the driving force behind teacher Virgilio Cruz-Santiago’s workshop. He wanted to create a space where he could teach classes to people for free, regardless of the generational factor.

Thus Taller de Trova y Música Folclórica of Juana Díaz was born. It is a community project aimed at teaching musical instruments, poetry, declamation, singing, dancing and, recently, plastic arts, including drawing, painting and sculpture.

There, the educator has taken pains in sharing his knowledge, with the help of other teachers who have joined over time. All of them with the interest of enriching the culture of Puerto Rico and developing the talents of young and old.

“Right now, I give back what I’ve received. The things we receive we have to pass on. It’s the best way to live,” said Cruz-Santiago, 74.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a child. And it’s why I went to the University of Puerto Rico, where I graduated as a teacher in secondary and elementary education. I was a teacher for a short period of time, but I didn’t like how the system worked, I wasn’t happy with it and got to work very little,” recalled the Juana Díaz native, from Barrio Guayabal.

“Because I had, and still have, the urge to teach within me, I needed to find a way to keep teaching. I already played guitar, then I studied music with the Suárez brothers of Iglesia de los Mitas. Then I studied at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP) and took voice lessons with a teacher from Puerto Rico’s Symphony Orchestra. I studied, I prepared myself, but my apartment was always full of students whom I wanted to share my knowledge with,” he said.

Before emigrating to the United States, Cruz-Santiago founded a community school in the Cuevas sector where he had students for “cuatro, guitar and whom I taught a little Trova.”

“Then, when I moved to the United States, I formally founded a school that operated for nearly 10 years. I got help from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, it’s like the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture here. I met a lot of people who were impressed by the project. We trained musicians, Trova folk singers and did many performances,” he said.

“When I returned (to Juana Díaz), I wanted to do it because I’m a teacher for life. Thank God, music has been my path; (it’s) the instrument I use to be a teacher and what I do for a living. I like to do it. But what gives me immense happiness is this, being a teacher,” he insisted about the project, created in 2011.

Since then, Taller de Trova y Música Folclórica has been an example of unprecedented volunteer work. Before COVID-19 and the earthquakes in the southwest, the semester enrollment reached about 200 students.

“We offer guitar lessons, from level zero to an acceptable level where the student can accompany in all songs. We also offer cuatro workshops, and we have students who we teach how to play and perfect themselves with the instrument. Declamation is also offered through the Colectivo Jacaguax,” he said.

It should be noted that, less than two years ago, the Municipal Government of Juana Díaz gave them the Enrique “Quique” Meleto school in Barrio Pastillito Prieto since they required more space.

This has allowed them to expand their offer of artistic training, free of charge. They now teach other art forms such as painting and sculpture in marble, among others.

“The aim of the workshop is to foster the passion that Puerto Ricans must feel for our folk art in all its manifestations. We have created many musicians, poets, singers, declaimers and now sculptors,” he said.

“This marble thing is a special project. There hasn’t been one before in Puerto Rico; a school in which to teach sculptors, we’ve created it. We recognize our limitations. But a person who’s guided me a lot through this is the sculptor Gladys Nieves in Guayama,” he added.

One of the students is Pedro Pascual Quiñones-Santiago, a professional flute player who played with the Banda Municipal de Ponce for two decades. He’s 77 and has become a close associate.

“Here I’m a cuatro, guitar and Trova student. But I also collaborate here because I’ve seen the passion he has in developing this workshop and keep moving it forward. That motivated me,” he confessed.

“The experience has been venerable because for a musician, the musical horizon expands. It’s almost infinite. Music is something that fills hearts, you never really get to fully know what music is. Every time you wrap yourself up in an instrument or engage in different rhythms, it’s like a new dawn,” he shared.

Currently, Taller de Trova y Música Folclórica has over 40 students, but keeps an open enrollment. For details you can call: 787-298-4876 or 787-630-7356.