Rhythms of Race: Cuban Musicians and the Making of Latino New York City and Miami, 1940-1960

Envisioning Cuba

by Christina D. Abreu

Among the nearly 90,000 Cubans who settled in New York City and Miami in the 1940s and 1950s were numerous musicians and entertainers, black and white, who did more than fill dance halls with the rhythms of the rumba, mambo, and cha cha cha. In her history of music and race in midcentury America, Christina D. Abreu argues that these musicians, through their work in music festivals, nightclubs, social clubs, and television and film productions, played central roles in the development of Cuban, Afro-Cuban, Latino, and Afro-Latino identities and communities. Abreu draws from previously untapped oral histories, cultural materials, and Spanish-language media to uncover the lives and broader social and cultural significance of these vibrant performers.

Keeping in view the wider context of the domestic and international entertainment industries, Abreu underscores how the racially diverse musicians in her study were also migrants and laborers. Her focus on the Cuban presence in New York City and Miami before the Cuban Revolution of 1959 offers a much needed critique of the post-1959 bias in Cuban American studies as well as insights into important connections between Cuban migration and other twentieth-century Latino migrations.

322 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2015

Reviews

[Gorfo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Music is perhaps one of the most commonly recognized aspects of Cuban culture. This book does a good job of documenting the popularization of Cuban sons in the American mainstream as well as the marginalization of afro-cubans that occurred simultaneously within this assimilation. It also delves into the way that Afro-Cubans were exploited for cultural capital and capital gain. A good read if you're interested in knowing the origins of rumba and want to garner a better understanding of what is authentic and what's made for tourists.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating but very niche. Makes an excellent companion to Juan Flores' Salsa Rising (a much more lively telling of a later period in this history).

[sparrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

why was the conclusion all about marco rubio

[Mills College Library]

780.89 A162 2015