by Paul F. Clifford

There is a lot of misinformation on the internet about the story behind Mambo, Cha Cha and Salsa. Most notably that the music and dances originated in Cuba and migrated to New York and then to the rest of the world. In a lot of ways this is true but the story of the creation of the music and the dances is a little more complicated than this simplistic history.

An often omitted point, is the impact of Peurto Rican migration to New York throughout the 20th century (particularly in the 1940s and 1950s) and the Cuban migration (especially in the the 1960s) and the merging of their homeland music with the jazz of the Afro-Americans which contributed significantly to the development of Salsa music and the making of it popular throughout the world. The roots of much of the music might be traced back to Cuba but as a form of popular dance and music the Mambo, Cha Cha and Salsa are North American innovations born from Latin migration to North America (particularly New York) and an inter-mixing of musical styles from many parts of the world (especially jazz).

The history of Latin music and dance which became popular throughout Europe and the Americas in the 20th century dates back to the 18th century. However, in Cuba these musics underwent a transformation in the 19th century which made them unique and although there may have been contributions from other parts of the Caribbean, Cuba is seen as its birth place.

By the middle of the 19th century Cuba had become the cultural center of the Hispanic world and the most economically prosperous of the Spanish colonies. Within this context several events contributed significantly to the development of a uniquely Hispanic style of music - the British occupation of Cuba (1762-63) which led the Spanish government to remove the restrictions it enforced to prevent it's colonies from freely trading and associating amoungst themselves; the Haitian slave uprising (1791-1804) which caused the French and Spanish plantation owners on the island of Hispanola to flee to Cuba; the establishment of sugar plantations by the emigres; the increased need for slaves (86% of slaves were imported after 1790); the traditional willingness of the West Africans to sell their enemies into slavery; the 1812 uprising to overthrow slavery in Cuba, the abolition of slavery in Cuba in 1886 and finally the USA's military occupation of Cuba from 1898 to 1904.

However, the most significant event that allowed the music and dance to develop occurred at the beginning of the 19th century when the Spanish authorities allowed the slaves to establish "Cabillolos" (councils) which initially were based on groups by "African nation". This allowed the slaves to preserve and merge their traditions with the Spanish and French influences they encountered! From this time forward the music and dance has been developed, redeveloped and innovated upon giving us Danzon, then Son and then Mambo, Cha Cha and today Salsa.

Mambo, the music, as we know it dates to about 1938 when Oresta Lopez composed a danzon he called the "Mambo". He combined danzon with African rhythms from the street. The dancing itself came out of rehearsals where couples improvised steps to the new beat. In the 1950s, Mambo was popularised as a specific musical genre when Perez Prado began to market his music under the name "mambo" - he was the first and many others followed. Prado took his music to New York via Mexico and basically commercialised the music by changing it to suit his "white" audience. If you listen to Prado's music and compare it to other Cuban artists of the day you'll find it contains a lot of influences outside of the Cuban tradition and to my mind is lacking something - emotion. Still, it must be recognised that it was he who first popularised the music in North America and Europe. Prev - Next >>

Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 August 2006 )

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