©2005 by Rebecca Gedney

Music has been a part of this world for thousands of years. It is seen in all parts of the world and is, for many, a universal language. People use it to communicate between cultures, but they seldom stop to think about how other cultures affect their own music. Among those whose contributions are often ignored are Latinos. People from outside Latino cultures do not always see how “their” music could come from a Latin or African style (African music is one source for Latin rhythms), thus depriving Latin and African cultures of their musical contributions. Latin rhythms have always been part of the music world, and these beats are the roots of many musical genres, spanning from classical to contemporary, from jazz to hip-hop and pop. Today’s booming music industry is full of Latino influence, thanks to the women and men who have paved the way.

All forms of music have roots, many of which come from Africa. When slaves were brought to the New World, most brought with them only what was in their minds. Chanting and percussion were used among many African peoples as a form of spirituality and praise.1 When Africans were brought to the Americas, they used chants as a way to escape from reality and converse with their gods. It was one of the few things they had, and it continued to be an enormous part of their daily lives.

Another root of many styles of music is that of the peoples who were originally located in the Americas.2 The members of these peoples were also captured and forced into slavery. Chanting and percussion were also used for praising their gods. Their chants had the same effect on their lives when they were forced into slavery as chants had for the slaves brought from Africa.

These disparate cultures were brought together when both were enslaved, and eventually the cultures began to mesh. Along with the mixing of the cultures came the mixing of their languages and their music. No one can tell when the mixing of musical styles began; however, it is easier to identify some of the later recognized styles. One of the first styles that can be seen is the rumba.3

The rumba is a style of percussion that eventually grew to incorporate voice and more instruments. The original instruments used were drums made from crates used for importing goods.4 These crates were usually reassembled so that they would give different sounds and tones. The rumba began in Havana and around the sugar mills in Cuba. This was the densest area of the slave population, and sometimes slaves were given permission to congregate and play their music.

There are three common forms of the rumba. They are the Colombia, the Yambú, and the Guaguancó.5 The Colombia is typically for men only. It is a way for them to show off their masculinity. This form of dance can be seen in vogueing, and is a way of fighting where no one gets hurt. However, it was not uncommon for men to wear knives and sharp objects around their ankles and wrists so as to claim their space. The Yambú is a slower dance for couples but is not often performed. The nickname for the Yambú is the “old person’s dance,” and the dance is not very entertaining for most people. The third form, the Guaguancó, is the most common. It is also a couple’s dance, but this form tends to be more upbeat and vibrant. The music always starts with a solo voice singing what is called the Diana. The Diana usually consists of made up syllables, and slowly more voices and instruments are added, leading to a full-blown sound. The Diana can also turn into a call-and-response style, which comes from the earlier African and tribal roots.

The rumba continued to be popular with Latino and Afro-Cuban cultures, but in the 1950s, it became more professional. The first group in the music industry that focused on the rumba was Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.6 They were considered the kings of the rumba, but the “Queen of Guaguancó” was known just as well as Los Muñequitos. Celeste Mendoza was born in 1903 in Santiago, Cuba. In 1943, she moved to Havana in order to pursue a career in radio. Not long after that, she began to dance professionally, but in 1956 she went back to her music and began recording. Her career was quite successful until the end of the 1960s. Mendoza went out of the spotlight as rumors of her alcoholism and the murder of her lover spread. In the 1980s she made a comeback, and in the 1990s she began to record again. While recording an album in 1998, she passed away.7 Celeste Mendoza was one of the few women who truly performed the rumba, and she has been recognized for this.

Another talented woman known for her contributions to rumba was Rita Montaner. She was born in 1900 to a white father and an Afro-Cuban mother. When she was young, she went to school to study European opera, and she continued to perform, but later in her career she began to focus on the rumba. She was known for mixing an operatic style with the smoothness of rumba. Her career boomed in Paris in the late 1920s, and in the 1930s, it continued to boom in New York. Her music moved her into radio in the 1940s, making her well known in the home, and then onto television in the 1950s. She died in 1958 from larynx cancer.8 She was a woman who pushed the music into other cultures and helped begin the wider impact of Latin music.

The rumba was the mother of many styles. The next style that came along was the son. Son was started by the Guajiros in the mid-1800s. The Guajiros were mulatto peasant farmers who worked near the sugar mills.9 This style branched off of rumba but had a Spanish song and verse form, which involved more improvisation and more of the call-and-response theme. Like the rumba, the son involved a lot of percussion. The main instruments were the claves, the maracas, the guiros, and the bongos. The earlier versions of these instruments were often made from household items and hollow gourds.10 The stylistic similarities to rumba are very apparent, and the evolution of the music began here.

In the early 1900s, son moved from the sugar mills and farms to the heart of Havana. It was changing from small groups to sextetos and septetos, and then to much larger groups known as conjuntos.11 It became standard for son to be performed in conjuntos and to involve horns and bass. One of the first and most famous conjuntos was La Familia Valera Miranda. La Familia Valera Miranda was unique in the early 1900s because it was led by a woman; Catalina Cutino was the central member until her death at age 100. She was succeeded by Carmen Miranda Valera, the wife of the band’s leader.12 The idea of a female lead continues with this conjunto, and this started a trend.

Another female who sang with family and who led was Celina González. She was born in 1928, and when she got older, she moved to Havana to pursue her career in radio. She was known for singing Cadena Suaritos. Her career on the radio led her to begin composing. She and her husband, Reutilio Domínguez, sang together for many years, but after they split up, she continued to sing as a solo artist. Years later she began to sing with her son, Lázaro Reutilio Domínguez.13 Her strong career gave her the title “Queen of Cuban Country Music,” which she continues to hold.

Bolero is another “child” of rumba, but this style went in a very different direction compared to son. This style is based on French romantic music, Italian opera, and African percussion. The percussion style is very much like that of rumba, but because of the various sources, it has a unique sound. Bolero began in the late 1800s, but in the 1920s and 1930s, it went in two directions. The two styles are a lyrical piano accompaniment focus, and a mixture of bolero and son that was much more upbeat. Bolero-son would develop into bolero-mambo and the cha-cha in the 1950s. The piano style of bolero was very popular in the 1930s and would give off the style called bolero-romance, or filin. Filin was a very popular style because of its romantic and smooth sound.14

Elena Burke was another woman whose music was well known. She was born in 1928 to an upper-class Spanish mother and a father who was an Afro-Cuban baseball player. She started her career by working in radio in the 1940s but began to work with smaller groups in the 1950s. After she got some attention, she went solo. Her career bloomed in Cuba; however, she was not well known outside of the country. Her daughter, Malena Burke, did grow up to be a singer, and she is very well known in Cuba and in Miami.15 One reason for Elena’s career being so hidden is that she was overshadowed by Omara Portuondo.

Omara Portuondo was born in 1930 in Havana, Cuba. She started her career as a dancer. While at school, she hung out with a lot of musicians. They were all very interested in jazz, and this sparked an interest in her. Omara went on to sing jazz with her sister Haydee. The sisters’ music had a mixture of jazz and Afro-Cuban styles. Her unique style of sultry sounds earned her the nickname “La Novia del Filin.” In 1967, Omara went solo and went on to become the headline act at The Tropicana, one of Havana’s hottest spots. Her career continued to prosper, and in 1995 she went on tour in Spain.16 There was a rebirth of Cuban music in the 1990s, and Omara helped encourage this trend.

Bolero was a popular style that spread from Cuba to Miami, New York, and Puerto Rico. It also contributed to other styles of music, especially salsa. There were two movements in salsa, and each has its own qualities. The first style was New Yorksalsa.

New Yorksalsa began in the 1950s but became popular in the early 1960s. The lyrics revolved around life in the barrio and reflected the musical styles that were part of salsa. Son, plena, boogaloo, and guaguancó were all key factors in New Yorksalsa. Son contributed to the storytelling, plena to the lower-class lifestyles, boogaloo to the vivacity of life, and guaguancó to the history. Fania Records did a lot to push salsa. Their clients, such as Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, helped involve the whole community, and their attractiveness pulled in a lot of support from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and spread the trend to Colombia and Venezuela. Even though salsa had a strong Cuban relation, it was never really accepted there. Salsa had quite a few offspring, such as merengue, salsaromantica, and salsaerotica. All of these styles survived except salsaerotica. It was a popular style in the 1980s but became too suggestive and died out in the mid-1990s. The trend of creating new styles continued as Latin hip-hop, jungle, and house music became very popular, particularly with the younger generations.17 While New Yorksalsa was becoming very popular, Miamisalsa was just coming around.

Miamisalsa became popular after the revolution in Cuba, but it really hit it big in the mid-1970s. The trend started when Little Havana began to celebrate Carnival. Every year, Carnival in Little Havana became more and more popular, taking the eye off of Cuba. The first wave of musicians were typically anti-Castroists. The music had that old Cuban flair and style but was modified with rock. This style was reinforced when the Miami Latin Boys, later to be the Miami Sound Machine, emerged. When Gloria Estefan joined the Miami Sound Machine, they excelled in the music business. The group produced many hits that pleased the Miami public, but they also dispersed their music throughout the whole U.S. The Estefans started the Crescent Moon Group, which helped jumpstart the careers of Jon Secada, Israel Lopez, and Albita Rodriguez.18 These artists helped start the crossover trend and appealed to the younger generations. This generation also had the hope that the bond between Cuba and Florida could be reinstated, thus allowing the music to reach everybody.

Celia Cruz helped spread the music. She was born in 1924 in Havana, where she later went to school to become a teacher. When she entered a radio contest to sing a tango song called Nostalgia and won, she was given the opportunity to attend the Havana Conservatory for Music. After finishing school, she went on to work at The Tropicana, but left in 1950 to be the lead singer for Sonora Matancera. She made her recording debut in 1951, and from then on she excelled. When she traveled to Mexico in 1959, she and Sonora Matancera never returned to Cuba. She later moved to New York and worked with Tito Puente. In the 1980s she joined Fania Records, and in 2000 she went to Miami to record for Sony under Emilio Estefan.19 Her presence is known around the world today.

Gloria Estefan was one of the many artists who began to reach the younger generation. While the younger generation had been exposed to salsa, Estefan’s contributions made it more relevant to their lives. When she started with the Miami Sound Machine, the music they produced reached not only Cuban Americans, but also the American public in general. In 1993, Estefan released her CD Mi Tierra, which all ages enjoyed. It had the traditional Cuban rhythms and sounds, but with a modern and pop-like quality. The same applied when she released Abriendo Puertas in 1995 and Alma Caribeña in 2000. Each CD had its own unique style, but all were crowd-pleasers. Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, have contracts with Universal Television Group and Disney that allow them to create movies for the Latina/o market and to share their heritage with the whole community.20

All the women who have been part of Latin music through the years have influenced many people, including each other, but they have helped influence more than just their own culture. They have helped incorporate Latin music styles into all other styles of music.

Musical styles that trace back to African and American indigenous peoples can be seen in music of the past and of today. The typical beginning of a rumba (the solo voice with words that make sense or meaningless syllables) is also seen in modern and contemporary music as well as classical music.21 Take, for example, the collection of pieces in The Latin American Choral Series. Each piece contains the opening solo or unison section, and as the pieces continue, other parts and instruments enter. Throughout the series, many of the offspring of rumba are present, such as the mambo beat, the salsa beat, and others, as well as text that is similar to that of son.22

Latin beats are also readily heard in music that people would not immediately identify as Latin. The entire soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing has Latin-based rhythms, which is the foundation of the movie.23 Another example of this presence is in the song “In Christ Alone,” which is a contemporary Christian song.24 The song contains the call-and-response theme, as well as the Diana-like beginning. Another style of music that contains the rumba and call-and-response style is vocal jazz. Scat came from the nonsense syllables of the rumba, and much of the jazz style is based on call-and-response. Riffs are an improvisational version of call-and-response, where someone sings a basic riff, and then the next person sings a similar version of the previous riff. Latin rhythms have also made it back to Europe. The brief hit in 2002, “Asereje,” by the group Las Ketchup, had a mambo-like style to it and was used in dance clubs for that style of dance.25

Latino culture has contributed much to the music world over the past five hundred years. The mezcla of different musical styles, instruments, and voices has pushed the myriad of Latin beats forward. Our music will not fade away as a relic of the past. We live on by borrowing, crossing borders, honoring our forebears, and celebrating our new musicians and audiences. Examples abound: Linda Ronstadt and Vicki Carr, celebrating their latinidad; Los Illegals, challenging us to recognize our colonial status within the U.S.; Latina/o hip hop artists; and a myriad of others. We and our music are the makers of history. We see that history represented in sound, dance, and images of our music. We have an enormous impact on the contemporary music industry. The strength and power of Latinas and Latinos to recreate ourselves through our music keeps us alive and allows us to thrive.

1. Vernon W. Boggs, Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), 22.
2. Ibid., 24.
3. Philip Sweeney, The Rough Guide to Cuban Music: The History, The Arts, The Best CDs ( London: Rough Guides Ltd., 2001), 25.
4. Ibid., 25.
5. Ibid., 26.
6. Ibid., 27.
7. Ibid., 36.
8. Ibid., 117.
9. Ibid., 46.
10. Ibid., 48.
11. Ibid., 56.
12. Ibid., 60.
13. Ibid., 63.
14. Ibid., 133.
15. Ibid., 139.
16. Ibid., 149.
17. Ibid., 187.
18. Ibid., 190.
19. Ibid., 198.
20. Ibid., 206.
21. Ibid., 25.
22. Carlos Guastavino, “ Indianas,” Score, 1968. Special Collections, RICORDI AMERICANA S.A.E.C., Neil A. Kjos Music Company, San Diego.
23. Dirty Dancing: Original Soundtrack from the Veston Motion Picture, RCA, 1987, Compact Disc.
24. Margaret Becker, Maire Brennan, and Joanne Hogg, “In Christ Alone,” In Christ Alone: New Hymns of Prayer and Worship, Kingsway, 2001, Compact Disc.
25. Las Ketchup, “Asereje,” Las Ketchup, Sony, 2002, Compact Disc.

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