In Cuban Music, Maya Roy points out that Cuba has produced countless musical rhythms that have become popular worldwide in their original or adapted forms, from “rhumba” to conga lines, from chacha to mambo # 5. He also poses a good question: why have such rhythms transcended the island while others Cuban musical creations remain rather obscure to foreign audiences (for example, trova, guaguancó, son montuno, and charanga)? (ix). Furthermore, I wonder, what happened to the genres that did become internationally popular once they left the island and converged with other cultures? Cuban musical forms emerged from the transplanting of African musical traditions to Cuba and their merging with Spanish, thus giving birth to entirely new phenomena, a process defined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz as “transculturation” (1995 [1947]). In an extension of the same process, newer musical formations have risen from the subsequent transculturation of Cuban music abroad.
Roy also highlights the importance of African roots in Cuban music. On page 29, she sates: “This polyrhythmic and poliphonic language, which is specifically African, is found, with some modifications and in varying degrees, in all of Cuban folk music.” As we have already seen was also the case in Brazil and the Dominican Republic, as these Latin American countries gained independence and began reaffirming a national identity “everything African was considered by the dominant elite to be lowly, vulgar, and uncultured” (30). She goes on to describe how, also in Cuba, these traditions nonetheless survived among the oppressed, through oral transmission, despite repression.
Roy tells of genres as beloved by Cubans of our times as son which were once considered lower class type of music. During the early 1900s when son was played by non-professional musicians to enliven neighborhood parties, judicial chronicles were replete with sentences of “the practice of immoral dances with African instruments” (Blanco, 1992, p. 16 as cited on page 120). However slowly, nonetheless, the local bourgeoisie started to be attracted to son, and eventually fully embraced it. In fact, Roy talks about the contemporary apparent glorification of a golden era of son and bolero perhaps best represented by the 1990s Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon. The phenomenon begun with a recording, filmed performance, and documentary made with veteran Cuban musicians, and named after a legendary dancing and music members club of the 1940s and ‘50s. Roy qualifies the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon as the exocitization of an idealized golden era that was not so golden but rather tinged with racism and inequality, but that happens to satisfy the foreign nostalgia for the retro and the picturesque (194).
Of all the Cuban rhythms I could possibly explore, I have chosen Rumba, because it is a perfect example of 1) a dance with strong African roots that climbed the social acceptance scale to become official national folklore and internationally popular; and 2) a genre (whether the rhythm or the term) that was taken up by other cultures that transformed it into their own transcultured phenomenon.
Rhumba hopping: de rumba en rumba
The term Rumba is used to refer to a family of percussive rhythms of Afro-Cuban origin. Rumba includes a series of music and dance forms that combined the musical traditions Spanish colonizers and African slaves brought to Cuba. Rumba is often described as the most African of Cuban folkloric music and dance genres. However, unlike other African-rooted genres, Rumba is completely secular, with no religious connections. The noun “rumba” also means “party” in Spanish. Additionally, Rumba has been used, particularly by Europeans and Americans, as an umbrella term for Latin rhythms, much like “salsa”. The term spread in the 1930s and 1940s to refer to the fast paced music coming from cuba, particularly after the classic the Peanut Vendor was released in the U.S. described as a Rhumba – probably because it was an easier term for Americans to understand than son.
Cuban Rumbas
Rumba developed in the Cuban provinces of Habana and Matanzas, as well as other cities and rural areas with large African communities. It is dated back to the late 19th century. It was considered by the upper class of Spanish descent to be dangerous and vulgar, and it was often censored. Traditional Cuban Ruma songs often begin with ‘dianas’, melodic meaningless syllables sang by a soloist, often a male singer. Then, he begins to ‘decimar’, improvising ten-line stanzas about the reason for the gathering. Other singers sing the somewhat fixed lyrics of traditional songs. More modern Cuban Rumba also contains elements from jazz and hip hop, and continues to be a popular street dance, especially among Afro-cuban neighborhoods. Unlike its internationalized counterparts, it is an exclusively percussive music style, with no melodic instruments, except the singers’ voices. Nowadays in Cuba, it is also performed by folklore dance troupes.
There are three types of Cuban Rumba: Yambú, Columbia, and Guagancó. Rumba Yambú is the oldest form, with a slower pace preferred by older generations. It is danced by both genders, independently or together. Columba is a faster type of Rumba, accompanied by a 6/8 rhythm. It is traditionally danced by men, who challenge the drummer to imititate their movements, which are often syncopated, difficult, or even acrobatic. There is also an on-going competition among consecutive solo dancer who display their strength and ability through their movements, which now a days are influenced by hip hop. Finally, Guagancó is the fastest and more rhythmically complex of the three types. The percussion features three drums with different pitches and playing different rhythms, and often also palitos (two sticks hit on the side of a drum). The lead singer also often accompanies with clave sticks. After the beginning lyrics followed by a call and response, the dancing begins. Guaguancó is danced by a couple. The flirtatious dynamic of the dance feature movements through which the woman both entices and keeps distance from the man, who is looking for an opportunity to perform a hip movement towards the woman called ‘vacunao’. Sometimes the sexually symbolic ‘vacunao’ can also be a movement of the leg, arm, or a handkerchief. Guaguancó is the most internationally popular type of Cuban Rumba, performed in the U.S. by popular artists, such as Gloria Stefan and Celia Cruz, in her hit ‘Químbara’.
There and back: Rumba Flamenca
Rumba Flamenca or Flamenco Rumba emerged from the influence of Cuban Rumba brought back to Spain on Flamenco music. It is often played with guitars, hand clapping, castanets, and sometimes a cajón, instead of drums and claves. It has been internationally popularized by artists such as Paco de Lucía, Tomatito, and The Gypsy Kings.
Recycled Terms: Ballroom Rumba
In international ballroom dance competitions, Rumba is the slowest of the hip-swaying Latin dances. However, the music it is performed to is actually Cuban bolero-son at about 120 beats per minute. The inaccurate terminology is perhaps due to the marketing advantage of the term rumba. The movements derive from 1940s and and 1950s La Habana dance moves, layered with more complex competition figures (Lavelle 1983).
Blanco, Jesús. 80 años del son y soneros en el Caribe 1909-1989. Caracas: Fondo Editorial Tropykos, 1992.
Roy, Maya. Cuban Music. Translated by denise asfar and Gabriel asfar. Markus Wiener PUblihers. Princento, NJ 2002 ( 1998)
Orovio, Helio. Cuban music from A to Z. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.
Daniel, Yvonne. Rumba: dance and social change in contemporary Cuba. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Lavelle, Doris. Latin & American dances. London: Pitman Publishing,1983.
Ortize, Fernando, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, trans. Harriet de Onís. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995 (New York: Knopf, 1947).
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