Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater’s strictly limited run of Harlem Hellfighters On A Latin Beat starts next week and runs October 3-26 at The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. As the U.S. prepares to enter World War I, a group of 17 Puerto Rican musicians are recruited to join the famously all-Black 369th Infantry, bringing together iconic musical artists like James Reese Europe, Rafael Hernández, Rafael Duchesne, and others.

Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat was conceived and directed by U.S. Artists Award and Doris Duke Artist Award winner Rosalba Rolón, with musical direction by Desmar Guevara. Extraordinary valor and musicianship made the all-black 369th Infantry of the New York Army National Guard —aka Harlem Hellfighters— the most celebrated regiment of the First World War era. Now firmly established as a point of pride in African American history, it is less known that its ranks also included 17 illustrious musician-soldiers from Puerto Rico.