Tribu del Sol is a Dominican pop-rock band formed in September 1997 by a group of friends with, as they put it, one common need: to make good music. Laura Rivera sings, Rafa Payán plays guitar and produces, Papolo Pumarol plays drums.

Buscando una Razón

The first record went on sale on 8 October 1998 on Aljibe Records, and it did something Dominican rock records almost never do: it reached people who were not already in the scene.

Búscame is the song. El Caribe put it among the twenty best in the history of local rock and said what it actually did — it introduced the country to one of the sweetest voices it had. Por Ti and the title track came off the same record.

Billboard’s Latin editor picked the album among his records of 1998, which for a Dominican rock band on a small local label is an unusual place to land.

A woman at the front

Rivera is described in every account as the band’s iconic figure, and that is not only about the singing. Dominican rock in the nineties was overwhelmingly male, on stage and in the audience, and a three-piece led by a woman was a rarity that the scene noticed.

The arrangement behind her is spare — guitar, drums, voice — which leaves the voice exposed. That is a deliberate risk and it is why the record still works.

Staying together

They have kept playing. In 2017 they shared a Hard Rock Live bill with Toque Profundo and Aljadaqui, two of the other bands that carried Dominican rock through the same decades.

In October 2023 the three of them gathered their collaborators at the Teatro La Fiesta of the Hotel Jaragua to mark twenty-five years. Amor Infinito, Quisiera Ser and Te Has Olvidado are among the rest of the catalogue.

Rivera also acts. In a country where a rock band is rarely anybody’s only job, that is the normal shape of a long career rather than a sideline.