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OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A new mural was unveiled in downtown Kissimmee that highlights Puerto Rican heritage and Bomba music.<\/p>\n
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<\/center> Artist Edwin Sep\u00falveda, known as Don Rimx, is from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Throughout his entire art career, he said preserving culture and tradition through his art has been one of his main focal points.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been putting together some ideas to represent more deeply in how our culture or our African Caribbean heritage influenced us,\u201d Don Rimx said. \u201cFor me, it’s important to go back to the motherland in order to taste the reality of that continent.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s taken trips personally to visit portions of Africa and traces its influence back to his own upbringing in San Juan.<\/p>\n His new mural, \u201cUnited in Rhythm,\u201d paints a picture of what Bomba music creates from one generation to the next. In it, he shows La Mascara de Vejigante acting as the sun, the Cepada family, who are known for bringing Bomba y Plena music to life, instruments, movement, and more.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m just making an illustration of what’s happening in real life. Like all these people, they’ve been working really hard in order to keep this culture alive and is something that we have to really be proud of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Don Rimx continued, \u201cSince the youngest to the oldest, it\u2019s like a drum circle that is made of all the community and how the community got together and how the community brings all the spirituality, all this respect for the culture and all that happened when we (are) playing and we (are) sharing and we (are) connecting to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n The “United in Rhythm” mural in downtown Kissimmee. (Spectrum News\/Jordan Mead)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/center><\/p>\n He shared that the influence of Afro-Caribbean rhythms like Bomba has made an impact on his own life personally. Don Rimx said he hopes his new mural brings this to life for both Puerto Ricans living in Central Florida and he said he hopes people with other cultures and backgrounds can learn from his work.<\/p>\n \u201cSo Kissimmee is a pot of culture. We live together, sharing culture with a lot of other Latin people. They got influenced through the African heritage,\u201d Don Rimx said. “So, for me, doing this piece in Kissimmee is really important because it’s a reflection of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnited in Rhythm\u201d is one of 30 murals that\u2019s part of Osceola Art\u2019s ARTisNOW Public Murals Project. Several projects, including one by artist Nico, are still ongoing.<\/p>\n
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