About Us

Ericka Collado 

​Dr. Collado holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Master’s degree in Urban Education with a specialization in World Languages and Spanish, and a Doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership. She is currently a Spanish teacher at The Dwight-Englewood School and an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, where she facilitates courses in world language methodology and educational technology research. Dr. Collado is a published author in world language acquisition and educational technology, particularly robots, who also enjoys presenting at professional conferences. Moved by a commitment to serve others, she is a certified Reiki healer who incorporates approaches based on emotional intelligence and spirituality in her professional practice. A life-long learner, she is a student of Puerto Rican Bomba history, dance, and drumming. 
Instagram @DoctoraMisi
Email: [email protected]

Chris Rodríguez

 Chris is a New Jersey-based Boricua percussionist, bassist, and educator. He served as a high school English teacher for six years, advocating for racial equity and culturally responsive education for students of color. In collaboration with his students, he created poetry and music clubs that served as spaces of care, exploration, self-expression, and community. At the end of 2020, Chris transitioned out of the public school system and is currently creating grassroots, communal spaces for decolonized education, by exploring a few key questions. What are the psychological legacies of colonial education that still affect adults today and which get passed down to youth? How can we teach history from a decolonized perspective without getting caught up in Euro-American constructs of knowledge? And finally, how can we imagine intergenerational educational spaces where youth, adults, and elders are connected, to their minds, to their hearts, to their bodies, and their spirits? This is where Bomba comes in. Through the tambor, Chris practices Bomba not to perform but to remember and recreate these essential connections.
​Instagram @ThatBomberoByTheHudson
Email: [email protected]

Nanette Hernández

Nanette Hernández is a founding partner of Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center, a nonprofit organization established in 1997 to preserve the Afro-Puerto Rican Dance and Drum traditions known as Bomba and Plena through performance and education. Segunda Quimbamba is a premier Bomba and Plena professional ensemble, currently consisting of 17 members between the ages of 7 through 70 years old, that performs throughout New Jersey and New York, as well as internationally. Nanette is the principal dancer of the group. SQFC was also the publisher of Güiro y Maraca, a journal of the Bomba and Plena music and diaspora community that cofounder and musical director Juan Cartagena wrote from 1997 to 2007. As director of development and education, Nanette has taught Bomba and Plena dance for more than 20 years, establishing and growing an education program for the center and within New Jersey public schools in Jersey City, Newark, and Trenton with support from the arts education champions of Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania and Dance New Jersey.
Instagram @SegundaQuimbamba
Email: [email protected]