That spirit of mockery characteristic of the guaracha was part of the mambo from the beginning.

That spirit of mockery characteristic of the guaracha was part of the mambo from the beginning.

On occassion, slaves in Spanish New Orleans owned slaves, whose labor they could appropriate toward purchasing their own freedom, or whose ownership they could trade as a partial payment on their own freedom.

Music is so essential to the Cuban character that you can't disentangle it from the history of the nation. the history of Cuban music is one of cultural collisions, of voluntary and forced migrations, of religions and revolutions.

Up through and including Lincoln, American politicians nursed a fantasy of repatriating blacks to Africa.

Every farm with slaves was a slave-breeding farm. Raising slaves was mostly a cottage industry.

The basic success of the conga came from ...that basic principle of African music and dance: everybody participates. The conga eradicated the distinction between performer and audience, broke down the wall of the proscenium.