CLAS K-12 Book Box 2: Black/Afro-Latinx identity

Sugarcane and the growth of slavery: Read more about Cuba's sugarcane on https://www.britannica.com

"What Are the Origins of Salsa Music?

Salsa owes its roots to several forms of Latin music, but son Cubano is at the core of all salsa music.

• Precursor: Son Cubano began in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba's Oriente Province, spawning from folkloric musical styles including cumbia, rhumba, changüí, nengón, kiribá, and regina. By the early 1900s, son Cubano found its way to Havana, and from there it would spread throughout the North American and South American continents.
• Emergence: By the mid-twentieth century, prominent bandleaders, songwriters, and performers like Tito Puente, Frank Grillo (better known as Machito), Héctor Lavoe, Johnny Pacheco, Ray Barretto, and the Cuban-born Celia Cruz developed the genre that would become salsa music America's popular culture.
• Popularity: Throughout the 1960s Pacheco's Fania Records (and the Fania All-Stars) released many of the top salsa recordings; the record label became a touchstone in the history of salsa. The style reached its zenith in the 1970s, when salsa spread from New York back to the Caribbean and Latin America.
• Legacy: While salsa's popularity has waned with time, it has inspired various forms of pop, Latin American jazz, and hip hop. For instance, timba is a present-day Cuban musical genre that combines salsa, funk, and R&B. What's more, famous performers like Marc Anthony, Víctor Manuelle, Gloria Estefan, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colón, and Rubén Blades have helped keep modern salsa songs playing on dance floors from Miami to New York—Anthony even played Héctor Lavoe in a biopic." --via https://www.masterclass.com