Nuestros Tambores
Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities and The Center for Creative Economy, Inc.
Craft heritage + 70 years
This project documents more than seven decades of design and manufacture of percussion instruments in Puerto Rico. We invite you to explore these great stories. Nuestro Tambores is a project supported by the Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities and the Center for Creative Economy.
www.nuestrotambores.com
2022 OUR DRUMS All rights reserved.
As Artisan we support this project and protect the corresponding rights that apply. We thank the Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities and the Center for Creative Economy, Inc. for making us part of their initiative and project.
Biography
The interest in keeping Puerto Rican music alive and attracting a new strain of musicians is the engine that drives Victor López Valentín to continue creating and restoring drums under his Tambores VL brand.
Born on April 10, 1954, Victor devoted himself to the conga and bongo from a young age. In his third grade school his teachers taught him music through guitar and flute, but it wasn't until he discovered the drums that his passion would really blossom. At the age of 14, he was already playing with different small-town groups in Moca and continued his professional development in music as an adult, playing with orchestras from the western area of Puerto Rico.
“I've been in percussion for 52 years and I've always loved music. Since the 1970s I had the ability to restore my own instrument, ”explained López, who assured that he learned it thanks to some friends.
His abilities to restore instruments are evident in a 1970 “requinto” that he acquired from Danny Rivera's conga player, Sabú Rosado, during a shared stage activity. During a break, Víctor offered to buy the fifth and when Sabú accepted, he went to his house to get the money while Danny Rivera did one of his segments.
“I bought it from him for $90 and kept it until it got a little run down and restored it myself putting all the wood in condition, changing the leather and hardware,” Victor said.
In recent years, the artisan has expanded his knowledge to other branches such as the creation of drums, a skill that he acquired in 2019 after attending a Ricardo López workshop in the town of Loíza.
“I am trying to create a new era of drums… that are to play the rhythms of bomba and maintain the culture… what I have changed are the colors and endings of the drums trying to excite the youth to make it more attractive acquiring a drum and for the tradition to continue”, revealed López.
To make his drums, the craftsman acquires white oak from recycled rum barrels “and we make them. We take its natural size and its aged form and begin to elaborate based on the sizes we need. What we call the “primo” drums or followers, and the “buleadores” are prepared. We also make some small barrels from that material and include the sticks for the “cuás”.
“Most people build their drums in 24 inches. I build them in 25” and within my process I seal them inside and out. This allows me to acquire a better sound. Goat skins are used to finish it and I build the hardware myself, ”added the craftsman about his creation process.
Among his most recent work is manipulating the stave to remove a quarter of an inch and make it finer. “This allows me to make the drums rounder, fit better and be lighter.
López has shared his knowledge with other artisans around the island, most recently with young students from a school in Patillas.
Victor's instruments can be found in the hands of various musicians in different parts of the island and also outside of Puerto Rico, specifically in the states of Connecticut and Florida.
For this artisan there is no greater satisfaction that his work inspires interest in the music of the youth of Puerto Rico and that they continue to create cultural bomb rhythms.
ourdrums
Meet Víctor López, a percussion artisan from Moca, Puerto Rico. He makes and repairs instruments and you can get it through his Facebook page under the name of Tambores VL. and/or www.tambores-vl.mozello.com