{"id":4771,"date":"2019-11-11T21:29:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T03:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4771"},"modified":"2019-12-15T19:53:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T01:53:39","slug":"the-latin-american-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/11\/11\/the-latin-american-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Latin American Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does the salsa have in common with the blues? Well according to Tito Puente, it too is just a broad categorization of a minority\u2019s music:<\/span><\/p>\n

The word salsa combines all kinds of music into one, like the mambo, the cha-cha, the merengue, all music with Caribbean origins. When they call it salsa, you don’t actually define what rhythm is. That\u2019s why I don’t particularly care for the word. However, sometimes they call me the \u201cKing of Salsa,\u201d so I\u2019ll go along with it, I won’t dispute it, as long as they don’t call me the \u201cQueen of Salsa.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This quote reminded me of the discussions we\u2019ve had about the idea of \u201cthe blues,\u201d and how throughout the term\u2019s history it has been a broad and vague way of categorizing African American music. Likewise, Puente writes that the term \u201csalsa\u201d refers to an amalgamation of many musics of Caribbean origin, and that it obfuscates the different styles\u2019 unique rhythmic identities. This leads to an at best vague conception of what salsa is among those who are not intimately familiar with it, and a lack of understanding and appreciation for the differences it encompasses \u2014 including differences in rhythm, which is an integral part and differentiator of these styles of music.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this generalization and lack of understanding of minority cultures leads to anything, it\u2019s stereotypes. The other parallel I saw in this quote was that to the double-sided coin of black-face minstrelsy. Puente writes that while he doesn\u2019t \u201cparticularly care for the word [salsa],\u201d he\u2019ll \u201cgo along\u201d with being called the \u201cKing of Salsa.\u201d While against the vague misrepresentation of Caribbean music, he doesn\u2019t complain that it is by this misrepresentation that he is risen up, much like it was through the stereotypes perpetuated by black-face minstrelsy that many African American performers got their start.<\/span><\/p>\n