Buscabulla x La Doña

 

Like generations of Puerto Ricans before them, Raquel Berríos and Luis Alfredo Del Valle of experimental pop duo Buscabulla (slang for “troublemaker”) moved to the mainland United States to hustle for their dreams, but a longing for their island ran deep, never escaping their thoughts during the decade they resided there. It was in New York City that the Buscabulla sound was forged, elevated bedroom productions and unique juxtaposition of stylistic highs and lows: Raquel’s textured, high-pitched vocals counterpointed by Luis Alfredo’s poignant bassline; minimalist melodies that evoke throwback salsa and R&B; and whispery re-imaginings of catchphrases from 90s reggaeton and every-day island vernacular. Buscabulla’s first two releases, EP I (2014), co-produced by Dev Hynes, and EP II (2017), garnered attention and a growing international hunger for the band. However, despite their growing successes, in early 2018, in the wake of Hurricane María having wreaked havoc on an island already immersed in economic disarray, Raquel and Luis Alfredo’s longing for their native home became too much to ignore, and they made the decision to move back to Puerto Rico. It was in this context and during this transition that Buscabulla wrote their first album, Regresa, which explored the emotional impact of returning to a devastated home. Regresa was released on May 8, 2020 on Ribbon Music with additional production by Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift). It includes collaborations with Nick Hakim, legendary Puerto Rican singer Nydia Caro and Helado Negro. In 2022, they collaborated with Bad Bunny on the song “Andrea” from his album Un Verano Sin Ti.

La Doña
La Doña is a solo artist, music educator, activist and cultural worker from San Francisco, CA. Born Cecilia Cassandra Peña-Govea, she began her career at age seven playing trumpet, strings and percussion in her family’s conjunto.  She is a student, teacher and preservationist of Latinx traditional arts like corrido, bolero, cumbia, and mariachi.  In her compositions, she combines these ancestral traditions with contemporary diasporic musics like reggaeton, hip-hop and jazz. La Doña’s live performances are grounded in ceremony and social mobilization; she and her audiences sing, dance, cry and chant together, for collective healing and political action.

La Doña’s roles as a teaching artist within San Francisco and Oakland Unified School Districts via SFJazz and Community Music Center inspire and inform her work as a composer, arranger, and band-leader. As a young, queer Latina, La Doña is concerned with representing stories not often told in the mainstream music industry, and providing amplification and audience to other young artists of color.