19 BRONX WEEKLY May 12, 2019 www.BXTimes.com
FDNY appoints two heroic
Bronx EMS’ to lead bureau
from Page 1
cated and a proven manager
who has ensured the
next generation of EMTs
and Paramedics are
trained and equipped to
provide the highest level
of pre-hospital medical
care,” said Fire Commissioner
Daniel Nigro, who
proudly appointed the
chief.
Meanwhile, Chief Suriel
who was a paramedic
coordinator in the south
Bronx and most recently
a Deputy Assistant Chief
of EMS Operations, will
serve as Chief Bonsignore’s
second-in-command.
The 30-year department
veteran was also
a responder on 9/11 and
spent days at Ground Zero
in recovery efforts.
“In his decades as a
member of EMS, Alvin Suriel
has demonstrated an
unwavering commitment
to excellence as an EMT,
Paramedic, and in multiple
roles as an EMS officer,”
Nigro also said.
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Bronx Music Heritage Center’s
Living Legends Concert
The Bronx Music Heritage
Center will host a
special Living Legends
Concert at Playground 52,
located at 681 Kelly Street,
to honor Benny Ayala for
his career as a pioneering
“plenero” in the Bronx and
for cultivating the next
generation of plena and
bomba musicians.
The event, which will
take place on Saturday,
May 18 at 4 p.m., will
feature guest speakers
Desseree Soto, director
of Casita Rincón Criollo.
plenero Aurelio Rivera,
and Fernando “Ponce”
LaSpina of El Maestro,
Inc. Juan Laporte Boxing
Gym. There will be performances
by local plena
groups Artesanos de la
Plena and Kinto Zonó.
Plena, a folkloric music
and dance genre that
originated in Puerto Rico
in the early 1900’s– is characterized
by its infectious
beat and rhythm, generally
played using hand
drums called panderetas,
also known as panderos.
Bienvenido “Benny” Ayala
has been one of the premier
plena exponents in
the Bronx over the past decades.
He is also one of the
founding members of Casita
Rincón Criollo, the
most famous of the casitas
(or “small houses”) in the
Bronx, which are reminiscent
of the small, brightlycolored
cottages of rural
Puerto Rico.
The Bronx Living Legend
Concert in honor of
Benny Ayala is free and
open to the public.
It has been made possible
thanks to collaboration
with 52 People for Progress
and the NYC Department
of Parks & Recreation.
BMHC programming
is supported, in part, by
the National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York
State Council on the Arts
with the support of Governor
Andrew Cuomo and
the New York State Legislature,
public funds from
the New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs in
partnership with the City
Council, the Lily Auchincloss
Foundation, the Laurie
M. Tisch Illumination
Fund, and the Lincoln Center
Cultural Innovation
Fund, which is generously
supported by The Rockefeller
Foundation and
administered by Lincoln
Center.
Benny Ayala will be performing on Saturday, May 18, at Playground 52.
Photo courtesy of the Bronx Music Heritage Center
/www.BXTimes.com