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Salsa and Migration

Salsa has developed and transformed throughout the United States and the world. Yet, salsa’s global presence begins with the history of people from Cuba and Puerto Rico before they migrated to the United States. Long before it arose in New York City and became an influential style of music around the world, salsa music has its seeds in African rhythms and traditions that came to the Caribbean through the slave trade. Centuries of enslavement caused many cultural changes in Cuba, including the music that led to salsa. Then, migration between Cuba, Puerto Rico, and New York City set the stage for musical interactions and encounters that became salsa we enjoy today.

Ten afro latino men posing for a picture in suits.
Conjunto de Arsenio Rodríguez. Standing, left to right: Carmelo Álvarez, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, René Scull, Arsenio Rodríguez, Antolín "Papa Kila" Suárez, Félix Chappottín, Carlos Ramírez. Crouching, left to right: Félix Alfonso, Lázaro Prieto, Lilí Martínez.

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Enslavement and Forced Migration

European colonization of the Western hemisphere began in 1492 and led to the enslavement of over 12 million Africans and the genocide of 56 million Native Americans. Cuba was under Spanish control by 1515. Cuba eventually became a center for Spanish imperial fleets, and enslaved people were found in every occupation, as Havana became the third largest city in the Americas. Slavery increased substantially beginning in 1762 when the British occupied Cuba and opened the island to British slave traders. In 1808, Cuba became the center of the Caribbean slave trade. With an economy built on enslavement, Cuba was the world’s largest sugar exporter by the 1820s.

Though Latin American wars for independence waged from 1810 to 1825 and abolition in the United States led to the end of legal chattel slavery in 1865, slavery endured in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Although slavery began to be dismantled in Cuba in 1868 with the onset of the Ten Years’ War, final abolition did not occur until 1886. Slavery was abolished in 1873 in Puerto Rico, with enforced apprenticeship until 1876.

Salsa is built on Afro Caribbean musical practices, as Black communities maintained and transformed African traditions over generations of enslavement. The majority of enslaved people in Cuba came from West Africa and West Central Africa. They brought their culture with them, including Yoruba and Bantu traditions that fused with European ones. African cultural practices such as these and emergent Caribbean fusions like Santería included dance and music, which continued to be transformed over the years, eventually into what we call salsa. For example in Puerto Rico, the musical style of bomba that influenced salsa originated from West African music such as the Martinican vidée. In this way, the story of salsa begins with the forced migration of enslaved people from Africa. After the abolition of slavery, different struggles for control of the islands shaped migration patterns among Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States, leading to the series of musical and cultural interactions that would shape salsa.

Cuban Crises: The Musical Effects of Revolution

In the 1920s, when many Cuban and Puerto Ricans moved to New York City, Cuban music already had a significant hold on Latin music. Cuban music had influenced the creation of music in New York and Puerto Rico since the turn of the century. In New York, Cuban migrant communities were made up of laborers looking for work and living in Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Bronx. Jazz scenes thriving in New York influenced Latin migrant musicians living in the city, and some, like Afro Cuban jazz clarinetist Mario Bauzá, stayed permanently to continue developing their music.

In 1929, many Cuban migrants came fleeing the economic and political effects of Gerardo Machado’s government, or were exiled for their activism against him. Some migrants organized against Machado in New York, including at Cuban and Puerto Rican social clubs that would host musical performances. Cubans began settling in New York instead of moving back to Cuba.

Yet, communities were not always connected—some social clubs were not racially integrated and were not accepting of Afro Cuban members. Important Afro Cuban Latin jazz singers like Graciela Pérez Gutiérrez struggled to perform at clubs due to racial discrimination. However, the Club Cubano Inter-americano (CCI), founded in 1946 down the street from New York Landmarks including the Regent Theater and Graham Court Apartments was among the first New York social spaces that were racially integrated. Honoring and celebrating Afro Cuban people and traditions, including music, were an important part of the CCI’s role as a place in New York City.

In 1952, Fulgencio Batista took over the government of Cuba and began a military dictatorship. After seven years of struggle, Fidel Castro accomplished a revolution in 1959. He became the leader of Cuba’s communist government. Many Cubans came to the United States after the revolution. In the 1960s and 70s, over half a million Cubans immigrated to various places in the US, including in Florida and Louisiana.

Communist policies made it very difficult for musicians to prosper in Cuba since they were paid less, many venues were closed, and the radio, television, and recording industries were owned only by the government. The US embargo on Cuba also made it more difficult for musical exchanges to occur between the two countries. As their musical infrastructure was weakened, Cuban musicians could no longer be as influential from their own country as they had been before.

While some musicians like Los Van Van or Irakere continued to perform in Cuba, others like Celia Cruz and Arsenio Rodriguez, made New York City their new musical home. Musicians of Afro Latin music continued to be inspired by Cuban music and musicians during this time, but it was Puerto Rican communities that transformed salsa music after the Cuban revolution.

Puerto Rico and the Colonial Legacy

The decline of direct Cuban musical influence in the 1960s and 70s and the decades-long circular migration patterns of Puerto Rican musicians to New York City meant that New York became the place where Puerto Ricans developed the fusion that became salsa.

In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in the United States acquiring several territories previously under the control of the Spanish empire, including Puerto Rico. Yet Puerto Ricans were not United States citizens. When the Jones-Shafroth Act passed in 1917, Puerto Ricans became United States citizens and could migrate without restrictions. They moved primarily to New York City, hoping to find better opportunities for themselves and their families.

Puerto Rican migrants to New York largely lived in East Harlem, also known as El Barrio, and became the majority demographic in the area. Puerto Ricans made up almost half of all Latinos in New York City by the 1940s. In the 1950s and 60s, many Puerto Ricans who migrated to New York City came for factory labor. Many faced discrimination, police brutality, lack of employment and education, and gentrification, so organizations such as the Young Lords advocated for their communities. In the 1970s, salsa was a part of such political movements.

It was not always easy to develop music only in Puerto Rico. Opportunities to share and listen to music at live performances, on the radio, and through recorded albums were greater in New York. Additionally, strong communities had formed in New York where music was key to the struggle for equality. Yet, maintaining a relationship with Puerto Rico was important for many pioneering salseros.

Many grew up or lived in Puerto Rico, including musicians Héctor Lavoe and Ismael Rivera, arrangers like Papo Lucca, composers like Tite Curet Alonso, and several of the Fania All Stars. Although New York City may have been the place where salsa became most visible to the world, it was developed between New York and Puerto Rico as musicians experimented with the styles and tastes that became salsa.

From all-women bands in Colombia to communities in Chicago, salsa is everywhere. Salsa communities have formed beyond the Americas, too, in places like Ghana, London, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and beyond. People from across Latin America—and from other ethnic backgrounds—come together to experience and adapt salsa to their migrant or local communities. As Panamanian salsero Rubén Blades says: “La música Salsa es un folclor urbano a nivel internacional” (Salsa music is urban folklore at the international level). Salsa is a global phenomenon with many distinct histories and communities.

This article was researched and written by Hermán Luis Chávez, NCPE Intern, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

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Last updated: August 21, 2023