We know that the Décima poetry of the Puerto Rican jíbaro springs from medieval Spanish roots. So the pioneers of our traditional music appeared on the scene far earlier than 1900. But from the earliest times to this day, our troubadours sang their songs with lyrics that rhymed according to the rules of that ancient poetic form -known also as the Décima Espinela because it was named after one of its most important proponents, the Spanish poet Vicente Martínez de Espinel (1551?-1624).
      Today, very little information has survived about these early jíbaro artists. Nevertheless, brief anecdotes about them survive in books such as El Gíbaro (1849) and El Aguinaldo Puertorriqueño (1843).
      Long before it was captured on the radio, the troubador tradition was preserved on recordings. The Cuatro Project has found evidence of Puerto Rican artists playing and singing décimas, aguinaldos ["gifts," a traditional poem/song genre, simpler than the décima, and often, but not always, associated with Christmas themes], seises [an ancient Puerto Rican song and dance genre] and controversias ["controversies," where two singers, most often a man and a woman, square off at each other with playful, rhymed insults], accompanied by a cuatro, bordonúa, tiple and güiro -- before 1916. (1)
      By 1914, the anthropologist J. Alden Mason traveled across the island of Puerto Rico and made around a hundred and ninety recordings of Puerto Rican traditional music. Among his selections one can find décimas, aguinaldos, aguinaldos cagüeños, bombas and guarachas. Among the artists he recorded were Gregorio Ponce de Leon, Juan Sanabria, Antonio Montero, Archangel Hidalgo, Baldones Angulo, Jose Arrocha, Jose Mayole, Jacinto Diaz, Tomás Fernández and Clotilde Calderon. 

  Fragment of a recording made in 1915 by J. Alden Mason in Puerto Rico of the aguinaldo Feliz Año Nuevo, sung by Gregorio Ponce de Leon and Juan Sanabria
     

       In 1916, the Víctor recording company visited Puerto Rico and recorded several musicians, none of whom were troubadors. Nonetheless, among these recorded songs we can find some essentially jíbaro themes.

The year 1922 saw the inauguration of one of the first radio stations in the Caribbean, WKAQ, which helped difuse our traditional music across the Island. During that period José Vilar and the Trio Borinquen could be heard and would record a large number of décimas and aguinaldos.
      In 1929, the famous group known as Los Jardineros [The Gardeners] recorded many aguinaldos and seises. This group relied on the the "Magician of the Cuatro," Heriberto Torres. The other performers listed are referred to as Gilito and Angelito. We also have the great Manuel "Canario" Jiménez' group performing décimas along with Américo Meana y José Vilar.

Listen to Los Jardineros (with the great 4-string cuatro player Heriberto Torres) in Antiguo Seis Borinqueño (1929) (fragment). Gilito y Angelito are the singers.

THE ROUND TABLE
      Among the great radio and recording pioneers of the genre we find certain distinguished troubadors and improvisors from the area of Fajardo--some whose professional apogee actually occurs during the forties and others as late as the fifties--but their long-lived history within the genre nonetheless confers unto them the title of Pioneer. For years, this group kept up the tradition of the "La Mesa Redonda," or the Round Table. According to singer Joaquin Mouliert, these masters often met in Fajardo on weekends, often around a round table. Each week one of the improvisers selected a topic (what today is know as pie forzado [forced foot]) around which those seated had to improvise décimas. The group judged the performances and each one had to improvise several verses until only two remained and then the winner was selected. The last Mesa Redonda took place in 1962 at the home of Joaquín Mouliert. Present were Luis Miranda, Pedro Rios and Pepe Maldonado, among others.

A member of the old guard of improvisers and poets. A member of the Round Table. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Mouliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.
Born during the Spanish administration of the Island, he was considered a titan of the décima, notwithstanding his meager schooling. But he would answer those who would ask him about his education, "what do the nightingales know about grammar and music?"
He also wrote two books that are classics: El Aguinaldo and Al Son de mi Tiple Doliente [To the Tune of my Tiple Doliente] and a short comedy called El Negrito Celedonio. He composed décimas and aguinaldos over a period of more than seventy years.

The following notes are quoted from the Puerto Rican Instutute of Culture musical review Resonancias, No.8, Dec. 2004:

In 1963 Ángel Pacheco Alvarado published a book of décimas: El Tiple Puertorriqueño in which he gathers together what he himself calls  "rústic espinelas". Maybe that's the reason that he defines his efforts in the composition of décimas in the following way:

The following notes are quoted from the Puerto Rican Instutute of Culture musical review Resonancias, No. 8, Dec. 2004:

But, who is the first troubador at the beginnings of the twentieth century who's name we know? It was a Caguas native named Perfecto Álvarez, who served as a tutor to other future troubadors and improvisers in that region. Let's see how the self-taught versifier sings about his homeland:

Plácido Figueroa (1909-197?)

The following commentary is quoted and translated from Resonancias, the journal of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, No.8, December 2004:

In his broadside Los Trovadores [The Troubadors] Plácido Figueroa Rodríguez reveals his flair for the singing and the composition of  décimas; on those pages he includes various elegies on other admired troubadors, such as Pacheco Alvarado and the never-forgotten Iluminado Félix, to whom he directs these verses:

 Plácido Figueroa also wrote the beautiful décima Nuestra Sangre made famous by the singer Ramito. We've dedicated an entire page to  Nuestra Sangre here.

Jesús Díaz
El Conde

Born in the town of Guayama. A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the forties and a member of the old guard of improvisers and poets. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

Pepe Meléndez El Cojo [The lame one]

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Ceiba. Named by Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs. Known as El Cojo -the lame one--due to his having lost a leg.

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Guayama. Named by Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Barceloneta. He was a member of the old guard of improvisers and historic poets. He was engaged to work as a troubador for the Puerto Rican government in 1929 and wrote two books containing décimas. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Mouliert as one of the most distinguished singer of traditional Puerto Rican songs.

Gabriel Rivera Goyo

Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished among the singers of traditional music. Born Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished traditional singers. A native of the barrio Beatriz of Caguas. Respected as a décima poet by his peers, the greatest poet-improvisers of his times, for his a natural artistic style that flowed freely in every thought, in every poetic stanza of his poetry.

Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished among the singers of traditional music. Born Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished traditional singers. A native of the barrio Beatriz of Caguas. Respected as a décima poet by his peers, the greatest poet-improvisers of his times, for his a natural artistic style that flowed freely in every thought, in every poetic stanza of his poetry.

Born in the town of Fajardo. A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the forties. A member of the old guard of improvisers and poets.
Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

Francisco Roque
(1894-1992)

The following commentary is translated from Resonancias, the journal of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, No.8, December 2004:

Décima poet from the early twentieth century, whose work is collected in the booklet Desde un rincón de mi tierra [From a corner of my land]. He was a man tied to the agricultural tasks of the mountains of Naranjito, town of his birth, and is responsible for the national prestige gained by great singers of the décima who sang his compositions.