Editing Plena (section)

== History ==
The plena was a result of the mixing of the culturally diverse popular class, where their workplace, neighborhood, and life experiences met to create an expressive, [[Satire|satirical]] style of music.<ref name="NYT_2019">{{cite news |last1=Modak |first1=Sebastian |title=Visiting Puerto Rico, and Finding the Up Beat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/travel/puerto-rico-places-to-visit.html |work=NYT |date=15 February 2019}}</ref> It became a way for the working class to gain empowerment through [[parody]]. Due to originating in the lower social class, it was regarded by the upper class as "a menace to public order and [[private property]]" and was for many years associated with people of ''la vida alegre'' (the merry life), referring to prostitutes, dancers, alcoholics, and moral degenerates. Singing and dancing of the plena often happened in ''cafetines'', bars that frequently doubled as brothels and where interracial socializing and sexual encounters were free to take place.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Honor, status, and law in modern Latin America|date=2005|publisher=Duke University Press|others=Caulfield, Sueann., Chambers, Sarah C., 1963-, Putnam, Lara.|isbn=0822335751|location=Durham|oclc=57311296}}</ref>

According to singers discussing the use of the plena, they stated it was song with lyrics that related to a current event. For example, if someone drowned or was killed, a plena would be written about it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/digitalarchive/index.php/Detail/objects/7572|title=Centro: Sound: Interview Two with Ovidio Dávila on December 18 1992 [RGC.ODav.1992.12.18.2]|website=centropr.hunter.cuny.edu}}</ref> {{lang|es|Tintorera del Mar}},<ref name="Aparicio 2010 p. 32">{{cite book | last=Aparicio | first=F.R. | title=Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures | publisher=Wesleyan University Press | series=Music Culture | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-8195-6994-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjrHBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 | access-date=20 October 2019 | page=32}}</ref> {{lang|es|Mataron a Elena}}, {{lang|es|El Obispo de Ponce}}, and {{lang|es|Matan a Bumbum}}<ref name="Roy-Féquière 2004 p. 119">{{cite book | last=Roy-Féquière | first=M. | title=Women, Creole Identity, and Intellectual Life in Early Twentieth-century Puerto Rico | publisher=Temple University Press | series=Puerto Rican studies | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-59213-231-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWi4kU9QP-YC&pg=PA119 | access-date=20 October 2019 | page=119}}</ref> were some plenas which became wildly popular.<ref name="Pfeiffenberger 2010">{{cite web | last=Pfeiffenberger | first=Sylvia | title=Jazz finally taps into plena, one of Puerto Rico's overlooked rhythms | website=INDY Week | date=10 February 2010 | url=https://indyweek.com/api/content/526a5739-131b-5c2d-a8ad-f8f6aeb6be71/ | access-date=20 October 2019}}</ref>

The eventual widespread acceptance of the plena can be attributed to the increased number of people joining the [[workforce]], which led to a new demand for public leisure. It was still considered indecent by the upper class, who fought against its rising popularity. In December 1917, an ordinance was passed banning the dances from happening inside the city limits. It took another decade for the plena to gain widespread popularity throughout Puerto Rico and cross [[Race (human classification)|racial]] and [[Culture|cultural]] boundaries. Listening to plena at home and at neighborhood- or municipal-sanctioned celebrations became acceptable and was no longer considered morally tainted by "respectable" white upper class [[Ponceños]]. Eventually, with much whitewashing to make it more palatable to the masses, plena was embraced in earnest as a style of music that united Puerto Ricans. However, with the acceptance of the upper class, what began as a vitally important cultural identifier and personal expression of philosophy, community, and self to the lower class became an entertaining spectacle for the white upper class.<ref name=":0" />

By the 1930s, the plena was accessible to all through the [[radio]] and [[Sound recording and reproduction|record]] industries.<ref name=":0" />