©2005 by Stephanie Pfaff

Power is gendered. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the music industry, and Latin music is no exception. Latinasalsa musicians construct their musical performances on the boundaries of a male-dominated music industry. Sometimes this means that their talents remain on the fringes. Other times, Latinasalseras use the borderland they occupy to challenge the status quo of the industry and to break through creative boundaries. In her book, Listening to Salsa, Frances R. Aparicio offers insights into why there are gender inequalities within the salsa music industry:

. . . the unfortunate fact remains regarding the subject position of the male: he is in control of the musical discourse and of its production, composition, and distribution. By virtue of this inequality within the music industry, music interventions still perpetuate a masculinist discourse of the female and the feminine.

Why are female salsa performers rarely recognized for their talents? Investigating female, working-class salsa performers and the salsa music industry provides a closer look into how the culture is male-dominated. Although female salsa performers are a large part of the salsa music industry, they often find that they do not receive the same recognition as their male counterparts.

“Salsa is an idea, a concept, the result of a way of approaching music from the Latin American cultural perspective.”2 This quote from an interview with Willie Colón illustrates how salsa music includes a variety of meanings. Salsa is political and personal. Salsa provides Latinas/os the opportunity of self-expression, an opportunity that may not always be available in other forms of public speech. Salsa gives Latino/as living daily with discrimination an avenue of expression and a venue for representing their own vision of the world. Its vigorous beats and spirited tones transformed Latin music in the United States and influenced a wide variety of other musical styles. Salsa is the music of the working classes and is a form of recuperation for the body and for the soul after the work week.

One of the salsa music industry’s finest record labels, Fania, was created by Johnny Pacheco and Jerry Masucci in 1964. Johnny Pacheco first performed with Gilberto Valdez when he came to New York City from the Dominican Republic. He eventually formed his own band, and shortly thereafter he met Masucci, an Italian-American lawyer. The record label Pacheco and Masucci created “would become synonymous with the best salsa players,”3 already establishing that the recording industry was headed by males—males who would determine who the best salsa players were in society. Salsa was “undoubtedly the first Latin music style where production values were of paramount importance” because the promotion of the industry was dictated by those who had the most financial backing for the industry—Pacheco and Masucci.4 With these two men heading the salsa music industry, they were in control of who would be marketed, and of what would be produced. In fact, “very few women, with the exception of Celia Cruz, have been associated with the development of salsa and with the music industry that produces it.”5 By denying Latinas the opportunity to be part of the music industry, men are not taking into consideration the valuable insight and ideas that women can bring to the industry.

The “Fania Empire,” considered the golden age of salsa, lasted from 1971 to 1978.6 During this time, Pacheco and Masucci put together “all-star shows containing members of its best groups” such as Willie Colón, Hector Lavoe, and Ray Barretto.7 It is apparent that female salsa performers were not mentioned in the list of these top performers, even though women such as Celia Cruz were performing in the same time period. These “all star” shows prevailed at some of the most popular clubs in New York City. Women were missing out on recognition of their musical talents by not being part of these performances. This lack of acknowledgment and respect from the very start played a large role in how women would struggle to attain the same musical recognition as their male counterparts.

After the golden age of salsa, characterized by “cultural nationalism and masculine discourse,” came to an end, salsa romántica emerged.8 This new style of salsa that focused on love ballads was considered a softer form of traditional salsa music: “Lyrics shifted from predominantly collective, decolonizing reaffirmations of the community to a repertoire of romantic ballads that articulated individual, heterosexual subjectivities.”9 Women salsa musicians are most often associated with this shift in repertoire. The contributions of many Latinasalsa performers were not recognized until the softer tones and smoother rhythms of salsa romántica emerged. It is not a coincidence that the social binary of men and hard salsa, and women and soft salsa, emerged after this shift in music. It seems that the salsa music industry compromised and gave women credit for their musical contributions, but only when less radical and political lyrics were in style. In other words, “salsa romántica was equated with women’s voices and was rendered depoliticized.”10

One of the reasons men may have dominated, and continue to control, the salsa music industry is the emphasis on power and control that society has dictated. Men are told to be strong, to take action, and it is these societal messages that continue to push them into this machismo way of thinking. In his book on Hispanic culture, Rafael Falcón states that “as young boys grow into adulthood, they experience the myth that the true mark of masculinity is to demonstrate courage, virility, and male domination,” and it is this myth of machismo that leads men to believe that they must subordinate women in order to be viewed as men in society.11

The salsa music industry was clearly “dominated by l’machismo” from the very start because Pacheco and Masucci were interested in pursuing their own ideas of what they considered creative and expressive forms of music. 12 And, since they were performers themselves, they had their own styles of music and their own personal preferences. Charley Gerard and Marty Sheller comment in Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music, that “Fania had an interest in controlling the direction of the music it helped . . . distribute worldwide so successfully. As a result, artists were discouraged from straying from the sounds they were known for.”13 In other words, if Fania did not approve of your style, you would not be promoted. Stifling the variety of performances and dictating who could perform what made gaining recognition an even greater challenge for female salsa performers.

Because the industry is composed of mostly male producers, Latinasalsa performers struggle to gain acknowledgment. The salsa industry “continue[s] to ignore female participation”14 and neglects the impressive talent that performers such as Celia Cruz and Lupe Victoria Yoli Raymond, or La Lupe, offer to the music industry. If the salsa industry only promotes and recognizes male performers, then it is not appealing to its entire audience. In order for the industry to continue to be successful, it needs to appeal to all types of individuals—men and women. Recognizing Latinasalsa performers will expand the audience for the salsa music industry and will continue to appeal to a variety of listeners.

Men in the music industry do not give Latinasalsa performers proper credit because this freedom of expression threatens men’s view of women as submissive. Mainstream media tended to and still tends to promote male musicians, while reducing “women to a passive and submissive status.”15 When female salsa musicians present themselves and their opinions, they are challenging societal assumptions about women’s passive role. For example, in 1962 La Lupe was considered “ Cuba’s most controversial, sexually explicit singer” because of her uncultivated performances and her rebellious lyrics.16 La Lupe went outside stereotypical gender boundaries in her performances and expressed sexual, erotic desires through her words and her gestures. She went against patriarchal standards, and she recognized that many male salsa musicians were casting females in a negative light. In a sense, she called their bluff and challenged inaccurate depictions of women as the “wicked ones.”17 This going against cultural norms illustrates women gaining a voice and a presence in society as a whole. When women demonstrate that they are not afraid to speak up and to show their true feelings, men feel threatened because they are no longer the only ones expressing radical viewpoints and opinions.

Latinasalsa performers also often dress in a hypersexualized way because the male-dominated music industry defines how female performers should dress in order to be successful in the industry. For example, a photo of Celia Cruz embracing La India in a concert shows a woman in a brightly colored outfit with her hair curled and her face made up.18 Cruz may dress this way because she prefers to wear this type of clothing when she performs, but her audience also expects a woman to accentuate her womanliness and her female characteristics, such as her lips and hips. Putting on bright make-up and colorful dresses emphasizes these characteristics. Another example of female salsa musicians emphasizing their womanly features is a picture from Ballet de la Salsa in the early 1970s. The women in this picture are dressed in very short skirts, low-cut tops, and high heels.19 It may be argued that they are dressed this way because they are performing, but these women are also dressed this way because emphasizing their female features (that is, their legs and breasts), will present them as more appealing to their male audience. Societal standards for a woman emphasize dramatizing her female features and her overall femininity. The male-dominated salsa music industry has emphasized to female musicians that this style of dress and showy presentation will promise them the most recognition, even though acknowledgement equal to men is rarely attained.

Not only are women held to a subordinate status in male salsa music, but they are also often the object of insult and scorn. Hernando Calvo Ospina comments not only on how women are rarely mentioned in salsa music, but also on how their recognition is often cast in a negative light: “There are very few studies on the role of women musicians in the Caribbean–in sharp contrast to the incredible number of songs devoted to women, whether ugly, pretty, mulatto, blonde, ‘good,’ or ‘evil’ in the way they love.”20 Women in many male salsa performers’ songs are seen as temptresses who bring seduction and deceit. An example of a song that presents woman as temptress is La Engañadora (The Deceiver) by Enrique Jorrín: “She was voluptuous, shapely, charming; and well, just magnificent; But the truth always comes out eventually; Often without even checking; Those women who try and deceive us are so silly; But I can’t say you didn’t warn me!”21 Lyrics such as these illustrate the embodiment of misogynist values that many men express in their songs. Male lyrics often comment that a man should have known better than to fall for a woman’s deceptive ways instead of giving in to her seduction. This paints women in a subordinate light and makes them appear as objects, rather than as individuals in society. These negative connotations also cast a dark shadow over female performers because society assumes that these descriptions of women in men’s songs are accurate, since men have more power to control what society believes.

Although many women have not received the credit they deserve, Celia Cruz is a female salsa performer who is not afraid of expressing her political viewpoints, and she has gained much respect in the music industry. Cruz has faced great adversities in the industry because of her strong points of view, but she has demonstrated her ability to connect with the audience and to reflect the opinions of other Latinas. It is said that this dynamic female performer has “the visual impact of a Hotel Tropicana show dancer,”22 and that “onstage she can whip up a storm capable of blowing everyone and everything away.”23 She uses her body and her voice to create a social space where she can express herself. Cruz’s ability to assert herself in the music industry has led to her great popularity and to respect among her fellow musicians and her audiences.

Salsa reflects many, often contradictory, attitudes: “a desire to forge roots in Cuban music, an interest in adopting the musical lexicons of jazz and rock, and an often politically motivated wish to create a pan-Latin American music.”24 It is this multitude of attitudes and expressions that creates an industry full of creative opinions and various points of view. Latinasalsa performers deserve proper recognition for their musical talents and for their contributions to the music industry. By deemphasizing their contributions, men are stifling the added variety and creativity that women have to offer to the salsa music industry. And when women are recognized in the music industry, it needs to be done in a positive way, with recognition that women are as talented as their male counterparts. How music is used is culturally constructed. It is only when this cultural construction of music is equalized between the genders that women will receive the respect and the recognition they deserve for their contributions to the salsa music industry.

1. Frances R. Aparicio, Listening to Salsa (Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England, 1998), 171.
2. Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Faces of Salsa ( Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2003), 31.
3. Ed Morales, The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond ( Cambridge: Perseus Books Group, 2003), 61.
4. Charley Gerard and Marty Sheller, Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music (Tempe, AZ: White Cliffs Media, Inc., 1998), 28.
5. Lise Waxer, Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meaning in Latin Popular Music ( New York: Routledge, 2002), 137.
6. Morales, The Latin Beat, 83.
7. Ibid., 64.
8. Waxer, Situating Salsa, 137.
9. Ibid., 139.
10. Ibid., 137.
11. Rafael Falcón, Salsa: A Taste of Hispanic Culture (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1998), 50.
12. Jerry Marre, Latin Music of New York and Puerto Rico (Harcourt Films, 1998), videocassette.
13. Gerard and Sheller, Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music, 28.
14. Waxer, Situating Salsa, 135.
15. Falcón, Salsa: A Taste of Hispanic Culture, 50.
16. Sue Steward, Musica! The Rhythm of Latin America (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999), 66.
17. Aparicio, Listening to Salsa, 180.
18. Waxer, Situating Salsa, 153.
19. Lise A. Waxer, The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia ( Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2002), 100.
20. Hernando Calvo Ospina, Salsa! Havana Heat, Bronx Beat (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1992), 89-90.
21. Steward, Musica!, 35.
22. Morales, The Latin Beat, 73.
23. Ospina, Salsa! Havana Heat, Bronx Beat, 93.
24. Gerard and Sheller, Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music, 20.

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