What H a p p e d to the Rumba?

Afro-Cuban Dance Music as Popular Culture

Robin M o o s Musk and Ritual

Dr. Gerard B6bgw 11. May 1991

At forty, history begins to fiil M Bith mtsundersrandirgs.. .False awakenings coastitnte one's real life. A tacit mb, p, at fow, when the elegmcal Don Azphzn lets dmp on a 78: 'Those green e p senne as a W In whose quiet =ten I looked at myself one dap;' but you know perfectly well tbat there is neither Azpiazu nor green eyes.. .That gnl does not exist, mr any such grl, but only lumps of dirt, the five thousand irrsects, the petkats destmpd by the h- of sumhem W. AJfonso Caldes6n (1970:1?6)

Those who amid the bad ma? m thmgs fall on their fsce in the mow. Pablo Neruda (in Rice and Schevel1991:l)

He is not laughed at who hoghs at himself first Xavier Cagat (194:181)

of the more pmblemtic aspects of studying commaid music is the difficully of ~ s c n i it

particnlar meanings, and of deermining the extent to which it reflects the sentiments and values of

social groups listening to or performing it The trm-socjal and lrans-cnltml mtm of popular

c u h u ~ , the m u n ~ contexts, behavio~~, audiences, with which it tends to be associated, and the

lack of adequate theoretical tools, until men@, with aahich ro analyze it, have doubtelss all

contnbuled 83 a compicuons absence of pop* caltme stadies among music hmrians.

Surprisingly, the wry diffkdty of stndghng the popukked e x p m s h arts is pencewed by Bamm

andBriggstobeoweof~mostimpommmforiwestigatiog~m T h e y b e ~ t b e ~

of the esthetic development and dissemination of popular arts m vaxions conem fn be owe of the <

mnst promising means of kaming about cnlme mntact and difference.

Vhe iwestiffatian of the internlaled proceses of entextmlization, d e w n t e d t i o n (decente-), - and nmntextudizatian (recentering) [of the commercial arts] opens a way doPrard col?mmiq histcfIks of perfolmmce.. . [and] toward ill-ting the hger sysemetic slrumm m which perfo- play a amsdtuitivc roie.. .(1990:80)

Tenns such as 'entextualizationn and "dedextudizatian" refer to the mmperoas ways in whkh.the

same expressive act may be dtml& or perceptually fmmd, and thereby impart entirely wew

rrtarrrings to lisemrs. My project IepIwents an atampt to study one example of the m a

c o m m e m t i o n of a genre, and to deerstand vhat sort of change3 m sound, congext, perfommum

khavior, and ideolngd recentering m!?~ it)= a result S y d i d l y , I examine the Cuban

follrtolic, b8Rroom, and burlesque xumbas of the 193Qs, and c m r i z e ' the aesthetic relatiomhip of

each form Bo the others. Ninedeenth centmy foM& mmb k descxi'bed, and then contrasted with ttct & d 7

babmmand bmiesque g e m ~~ the& gnaM mlmaianal p o p w t y m the early taentieth

century. I bope to demonstrate the cant ao which the mmmercirrliztion of burlesque and baRmom

rum& and the decline of related folkloric genres tapifies the overall development of musics m Cuba

in the 1920s and 30s, and bow the devdopment of rn- genres at that 6me tended be shaped

by the perceptions and values of elite Cuban society.

What is a Rumba?

It is clear that the genre associated with the tern "rumba' has experienced an Encredible d e p e of

stybw diversification and change m m n t decades. From being associated prima39 with a body of

Afro-Cuban foIk music and dance of modest o@ns (i e. urban slums, plantation settlements, etc.) m

the mid and late nineteenth cennuy, arrd with p m c u h styles of rhythm^^ ~ o m p ~ n t , poetry,

dance, and pantomime, it had by the 19303 m t only infilmmi the hrgh society bahmm, but also the

burlqne theater, the mtematioraal popular musk market, the bourgeois salon in the fonn of

kegboard sheet masic, the nightclub and cabaret show, and had affec$d go some extent and fased

quaRy dranmtic social and d e w changes of eaxly txmtkth centmy Cnba Syncretic mnsics

such as the commrcial rumba dmhped m the context of slaw emancipation (late 1880s), and a /--/-A; L d

subsequent pmcess of urban cultural "mncmq" on an unprecedenbed d. -c.‘ it / k g .

It must be emphasized fmm the outset that tbe definition of the term "rumba" may gmtly

depend= upon the histnrical period, geogmphk region, d ?mrriAl slmtum in which it is found.

BorboIla (198088) associa&s rum& m ~ r e with a parPcnlar style of dancing than music makmg.

Lehis (1960:'B) emphasizes that th! phcase "kt's rumba" ( ~ s r m z . ~ ) , as heard in the street

parlance in Cuba of the 1950s, anded to bave only the IIlost genrlal mociations with musical

pedannance, and muJd lead to vhdly any sort of music or dance-relaged activity. Carpentier

(1946:124) states flatly that "rumba" has been used to desuibe so much, and m so many s-ays, that

ifis specific mean@ has been almost entirely b t He go^ on suggest that rumba be comidered moa

a des~iplion of 'ambience ' ( s&n&S?m) than of a pmda r stpk of dance music1 . For our purposes,

it is important to recognize the ambiguity of the m, and 83 distinguish between taro primary sub-

types of mba "Foikoric rumba" will nfer to music and dance foms of lower c h s Cuban blacks

which closely resemble &an-derived genres m &nce an the island for several hundr~d years

"Comn~rical rumba" refers t~ burlesque and ballmom mnsics either shoarcased as nightclub

en tertainment m Cnban loraies since the mid nineteenth century or recorded and marketed

mtemtionaIly fmm the 1930s onward.

Folkloric Rumba

In g e 9 , the typical folkloric rumba ensemble inclndes a kad vocalist, cbom of singers,

danryl.rs, and at least three other muicians playjng p m instnmrenls. P e r f m m m ~ ?mi to

occur m relatively informal settings m h as neighborhood streets, parks, meeting balis, or prime

hioraes. Vadous instnnnents can be used (see Gerard 198961), but in recent times it has apparently

become most m m n t~ play on a threedm set of conga or mnga-like baml drums, a pair of

claws, and sticks (phtw). Other instnxments freqaently irrcoqaaepd into the ensemble include

boxes of miens som, which may compliment or snbstitn$ for drums, and a pair of spoons played

againstanymnvenientsmface(seeGornezV.,lW,for~W). T b e u s e o f b o x e s a p ~ t l y

dam from the la^ nineteenth century, when the canstnsction and perf- of n-mny Afro-Cuban

instmments were offidly prohibited by the Cuban g o v e m n t (Roberts 1972:49)2.

lgtt Mwm (1991:3) fw a W of nincttta iilltnmt rumba d g t m r r s vhh accompmying nfmm#s to their use in the Utratwt. Ihwtomttorbiakdthrttrm"rumb*"*ndlndb~o~sib~,both~rbadd~tato m w h l r c t i v i t y , r a ~ h m AfnKubnsmctrqinawchtbcsurit nyt .Wow'T~," 'Tutk~," udsofwth b c g r a n A h P . A m u i t i a r h n g ~ B * ~ r ~ ~ ~ ~ r s s o d i t c a ~ i ~ o l ~ m l r t m u n i m g s b y lruh&umAmcriK 2- p q e 5.

Rumba gwgmnaj, perhaps the most i m p m t folkloric sub-genre of the twentieth century in

t e r n of its inftaence on lam forms of Afro-Cuban darrce music, dmbped m the Hrwana area

(Gomez V. 196450) and is closely related to earlier dance genres snch as the &dtzl and _y?.& In

choreographic terms, all three genres are chaamrized by mele-female mtemchn. Dux& begms

dnring: the IWIQ or vem; the male dancer makes repeated prrwes by his partner, with the ultimate

aim of aoncbing his pelvic a m to hers m a quick and m q e c % i thrast The female, for her part,

attempts to avoid being touched in this manner by utilizmg; an ePasive move cdled k7&1 Gmgmnc6

perfommnce can be thus be chamterized as a community music and dance event involving; humorous

and mildly em& competition between male and felrmale dancers.

One aspect of tmn-of-the-century social and poiitical life m Cuba which must be l&en into

amount in order to understand the development of folklok rumbas m the twentieth century is the

extent to which legal sanctiom were used repea* by anthari.ties to suppress many tmditiorml fom

of music and dartce. Roberts (197295) is om of m r a l authon ta comment on the endency of

Cuban officials to prohibit the performance of what were perceived at the time do be h b m u s

Africm musical reentions. Martinez R. cites a document ariteen in the 18903 ahich describes the

arrest and prosecntion of Cuban blacks "for having, without authorization, played b o x d m and

danced &@a nnnbll~ on the street" (1977a2). Gremt mentions (1939:47) that comparsa

emernbks, and indeed the celebmtion of camivd m its entirety, w m banned inbexmittently from t3ie

early teem until the late 1930s. Leaf (19483), Grenet (1939:44), and Coudmder (1942228),

describe the even herrer legal opposition to the performance of &PA cemncmy, and relad h m s

of d m h m l music and dance. The supplressian of traditiional Afro-Cuban exp& cubre

continued until at least the 19409. Even the unssmiq AID seem ?a ham been the object of

sanction on occasion (Om# 1% 1 392).

One of the more revealmg comments about the suppnession of tmditioml forms of Afro-Cnban

music mmes from the writirgs of professional photographer Earl Leaf. It seems ID haw been snch a

simph observatinn that many academic ten failed lo ratire ax mention it

Strangely enough, most of the legislation and police regulation dimledagainstthe Westlndianartfom [mtheau iymmkth century] applies to the nhgoos and folk dances, or musk, and not to the wanton dances of the c a h t or the bordelloa (Leaf 19488).

There were, of course, official misons given for the perpetuakn of m h an apparently

irtmnsistent policy ahich would outlaw lmihnal "obscene" music4 and p t

burlesque genres. Anthorifk believed, with some jmifhtion, that many

celebratio tended to led to unruly or rebellious behavior. By pmhibiting p u p s of b k k s from ? gathering to make music m their o m neighborhoods, they effeetbdy guarded against such

eventualities. Additionally, officials in the Catholic chmh considered Africandekd re-n

blasphemous, and participation in such ceremony a sin. Their awmpts to put an end tl, San$& arere

repmenbed as being m the best m t e m of all. VdbaWer om may think of the policy of antho&ies in

Cuba at .this time, and h m r well mlended their actions, the result of their efforts a7as to support

what Leaf refers to as "the maini~rmce of [a] white culW s n p r e w ' on the island (19488). In

effect, only music that white elites could remncile vith their own world view and aesthetic

preferences managed to amid o f f i c e m .

Ballmom Music m Tmn-of-the-Century Cuba

In order to appreciag the musical differences between folkloric and ballnoom rumba, & e n to a

mrded excerpt @. 25) of "Sibmy," the commexisl rmnb hit of 1931 by Enresta Lecnona.

"Siboneyu was o m w r b n as a tone poem for keyboard, and 1- makaed inteWrmlly m

dancemasicfoxm. ~ p p n l a r w I s i o n i s ~ m m y ~ l o o t h e r t y p e s o f E m p e a n d 7

North Ame* ballroom dance music of the 19303, such as the fox trot, wah, mrrznrka, and so

forth. The instrumentation of the ensemble, with i& predominance of Empean derived instmnen*,

bean relatiDn to any Afm-Cuban fokbxk t&itiDn; vblin and -Idion, for irrrtartce, have

miy been inmrpora&d ineo m n the most pmgressim nrban son and salsa group of more m n t

demies. Saxophones and muted b m s immmen?s, although known in Cuba, ere mbcoduced into

the Caribbean largely through the spread of jazz and other North American music genres there.

Stmcturally, "Slbaney" IS conceived m relatively bIoad lmns, with long symmethl melodim

broken mm complimentary cadences and pew in the mdibn of Ewpean art music W n , for

ex@ to final sixaeen memm section fabeIled *chorusu on the transcription). The hammnic

stmtwe of the piece is complex, and contrasts markedly BTith the lack of any harmony (in the

WesIm sense) or hamxmk ingtnrments in the # ensemble. The saiPch in 'Siboney" from

major tP minor modes in section "c", and the subsequent r e m to the minor, seem O link the piece

stybtmlly Oo eadier Cuban bailroom genres snch as the h&wa and -0, rather than either the

son or folkloric rumba1 . The same could be said of the simple isorhythmic pattern carried by the

bass in section "b." "Siboney" is Uhly axranged and carefully nomted, another factor linking it to

notated European art masics rather than those of the black Cnhan lower classes.

In a chmogaphic sense, it is difficItlt to krmv exactly how ballmom rumbas ven? i nbep led m

early century Cuba, or whether such interpretattom cbanged over time. Although Urfe and others

mention the limited but sigrdbnt effect of African-ded dance aesthetics on balhroom traditions

among Cnban elites, the descriptions of baltroam dance provided by Leon (1974274) wuld seem to

link such dance much more definitively with European style mwement than that of Afro-Cuban

genres. A majority of literatun on ballroom dance movements associated with the rumba m the

United ScaW similarly suggests that rumbas danced abroad bore little choreographic resemblance to

folkloric dame of the sa~ne name.

Whatever the for intern m Pmnbasn and other afro-Cnban syncretic musics of the

1930s on the part of intematbaal audiences and Cuban hlgh society, it is clear that such masic was

o n l p ~ p ~ a n t h e p ~ ~ e x i g t i n g c h o ~ h i c a n d a e s t h e t i c ~ o f ~ c n l t m e g r o r p i s 6

andlor social stragl apprnpxhthg it for their own use, and rat in its origmal fonn. Cuban elites, and

other ballroam m b a afiinados of the early mntieth century, were a p p a ~ n t l g rminm-estd in the

expxmim cultme of lower class black Cubarrs as it eexisoed, and insaead shaped it to conform to

European d e b . The n a b t i o n of the extent t~ which ballroam rumba differs from its folkloric

I F W ~ . M + - M - ~ ~ ~ oferrlympop-trngor +ti=~-mi~rk-t i~aolthis sott, s t t T~XK, ~ossi 's aim, Ma Plus Wrar T a m with tk ml C#iYTk mktm. Park: Pathi rrhtst #Fsx W2. Gnwt (1939) laA Lcon [1974) hch provide trutlaihd eloll~pks of fbiS sm of music (6 well.

munteqmrt, and resembles insdpad Ewpean dance m e , M s one bo consider how the musical

prefererrces of Cuban elites and inBenrational audiences might ham a f f d the development and

Wcunmnce of AfmCnban popular music m a more general sense.

Now that we have some idea of the musical, choreographic, and social tmditions assaciat& with

the folkloric and ballroom rumba of the early mtieth centmy, we are ready to discuss the music of

the burlesque theater, which m many ways p d e s the clearest example of the processes by which

afro-Cuban genres srmch as the rumba were gwdnally mmfcumed and appropriabed by higher mid

his of Cuban society. By all accounts, the Cnban burlesque theater was a rill established tradition

even in the eaxly ninedeenth century (see e.g.Lekis 196059). Both Friedenthal(l91295) and Stearns

(1968:13) make reference bo the !kt that wathmg blacks dance, and even staging competitions

among them, vas a favorite pastime of the Cuban upper classes at that time. UIfe mentions that

pieces cakd "tango" and "mmbaJa whatever their actual rehtion to the folkloric versmns of these

musics, had heen incorporaEd into prodnctions of the vmacnb theater by the 1890s. Bs ballroom

rumba only became fashionabk in Cuba, the United States, and Europe in the early 19303, one is

forced to conclude that wa- bdesque show rumbas WEIS the f b t way m which Cuban el&

became exposed bJ music of the lower classes in any consistent fashion. The inten-mtionally \

popntarized baRmorn rumba may represent more a Bwpeamed" versim of cabaret dance than an

aesthetic rewom of Afro-Cuban folkloric arts1 . 3

Earl Leaf's L z b ~ ~ R - 4 ~ (I=), although dating fmm a period shghtly 1-r than that which

we ham been discussing until mw, pIotrides one of the most tborough visual and mitten accounts of

cabaret-related masical activitp m Cuba It descxik same of the typical costurm asmiat& with

burlesque music and dance, inclndmg rumbas, and mmys a sense of the sortrr of venues m vhich

thep were performed. The pho9ographs m && &-17!@im show men m sequin-covered dnss

skks and ruffled white shirrs intelracting with -ti& clad wmen m &as ways. AhJmugh both

the ccmms and choreography of c a h t rumba as d e s c r i i by Leaf bear some &tion to

nineteenth century Afro-Chban folkloric cdtm, thep have c M y been &red m order lo fit within a

new context, and to suit the tastes entirely different sorts of andiem. Unfortunately, the author's

commentary includes few specific references 83 musk, other than to than to describe the excitement it

often generated dmirg dance sequences, and so mention that percussive inshnxrnenes played an

important role. On the basis of these statements, however, and also the fear photographs of honlry

ton. dance bands ( e.g. 194823) included m Leafs book, one can conclude that the music

accompanying burlesque rumba dancing in the eady twentieth century was most similar to that of

urban -.aw pups popular dnring the same period, mher than,folkloric rumba ensembles or ballmom

dance bands. This would e x p h why smral wen respected authors, such as Carpentier (1946: 128)

and Manuel (1 988 26) state that that the son, and rat Empean-style dance, should be considered the

stphtic antecedent of commercialized rumba

Among other factors, economic determinants may have been primarily mponslile for the

dwebpment and maintenance of the bmfesque rumba mto the twentieth century. Bs Lekis notes,

re- on her experience with cabaret show:

Far from being a matter for pelsecntion, the nighthxb dance, no mt$r haw obscene or sexual, is an economic asset [for blacks and whim]-one which attwcts tomim...~lf the tonrjst want Q-I see rumba 'on f m feet,' ae it he m, so 3ong m he pnys (196060)

The pfirase "rumba on fm feet appmdy refers to chumgraph9 of an we* sexual nature

imrobmg sqmthng or gym- on the fktwr. LGon s m h i y emphasizes ttE impoIFrma of

i n c o n the mdysis of econwmic factors intD emy study of popular Cuban musics:

Cuban music.. .has heen subjected to a pmces of [aesthetic] devebpmnt determined pmmdy by economic conditions vhich haw conniuted Q-I the emergem of om nation. As a consequence of class struggle, om musk has been driven by a mtarork of inmml contradiction (1 974:30).

As Lekis and Leon imply, the perpetuation and spread of burlesque rumba shows can only have

occmred because m r greater numben of specearn vea meres?& in paying bo waeh them This

sort of comrnenrarg brings to mind our earlier discnssinn about the legal srrppression of Afro-Cuban

folkloric musks, and the remarks of Earl Leaf on the selective nature-of such supressioa One

notices an ironic discrepancy between the official policy of Cuban efides at this time, ie. their

ostemile desire to discourage the performance of lewd" or "barbamus" m W pmtices, arrd what

wmally occured as a result of such a policy. Sacred and secular folkloric musics, the most tangiile

embodiment of miitbnal kfro-Cuban beliefs and cultme, tended mually to disappear. Burlesque

and vaudeville m e , on the other hand, continued to flomish.

As the majority of popular rumba shows in Cuba were performed for diverse audiences m

nightclnbs and honkymks, one assmnes that burlesque rumba developed precisely m order 1D caw

to the desires mi expectations of club patrons, and bore Iitde relation m an ideological or contextual

sense co mlier f o W ~ mmics. Burlesque rumba seems to represent an attempt on the part of bwer

class Cubans to shwcsse their music and dance in a manrter a W v e to elites. Black performers

were forced as a mnlt of govemment policy do begm thinkmg about their own traditions in Ewpean

t e r n Only m this way could they f d a legally acceptable mode of arbtic expmsion and support

themselves within the exislmg economic system

TheEmooeanfaceaf- . . rumba

It must be recogruzed that both ballroom and bmdesqm rumbas of the 19309, althongh 1

aes theb l ly in fod co same e m t by folkbxk and ppnlar Afro-Cuban genres, conform heavily

tD the asthetic preferences of elie Cuban society. The extent of contextual and behavioral

recemring of commercialized rumba, described h r , indicates vhat a profound inhence the

ideology of elitm have had on folkaolic g e m . I bave come to dimgwsh between baIlroom and

baieqrn mbas pximudy in that the ballroom padry seem tl rep-nt what

thought follsloric andlor buxlesqnr m.nba "should be' ( ie hov it might be dunged it in

become more %spectable" in Empean tern), abe- the burlesque show represents, albeit in

disa3raed fonn, vrhat middle class Cuban believed folkEoxic music and dance were actually like. In '

this sense, bdmom rumba might be cansidered a direct bomgeais adaptation of afro-Cuban musics

of the 19303, whereas cabaret rumba could be charmexized mow as a parady of such musics. I have

tried to repment some of the relatmrdup between fdkhic, ltdlmom, and cabaret rumbas m the Up

diagmm on page 24.

There is irdfii ient time here 80 d e s a i at length the effect of om ism m Cuba on the musical

developments we have been examining. Soffice it to say that Hamm from the tmn of the century

until the early 1950s tended increasingly to become the beachside playpund of wealthy trapelen

from the United States and Empe. Basil W a n , in his glib travel diary from the 19203, mentions

that at that time rmm that five hnndred thousand A r ~ ~ h n s a year visited Cuba, and that their

nmnben continued t~ gmw each year. The bendency for North Americans and other tomists ID travel

to Cuba m order to drink, gamble, whore, etc., was nndoubtedly reinforced as a d t of the

erascbnent of pmhibitbnist legislation m the United StaW, and because of the travel restrictions

imposed on American citizens during; the first World War. The expectations of foreign tnvelers, and

their intenst in the exotic and s e m pleasures of Cuba, must have ammbuted to and accelerated the

process of musical cornme*tion there. One should not forget, however, that these pmceses

had been apparent are11 before tourism became a major Cuban indtmy

h e inhemting aspect of the cornme- of the rumba 'PThiCh IBS not y t been described,

and which unde~scores the extent 80 which pop- ,Um-Cuban musics of this period aere

subject 80 the cemorhg e f f m of elite aesthetics, is the fact &at most repnsentalives of the xumba 7

abmad m the 1930s vere Caucasian, and frequently not m n of Cuban descent Paul Whiteman,

Henry King, and other North American bandleaders a & k d a degree af popularity and firmncial

success m the United States which would have been impossible for black artists at the time. Xavier

Cugat, Don kpiazu, E i c Madrignew, Vincent Lopez, Ergenio Noble, and most other popnlar

nrmtim of this period tended to ham virtimally no fbsthad experience with the musical traditions of

poor blacks in Havana, and to become well bars bandhien by playing a canfused jumble of

Latin-American ballroom musics related vaguely 80 the mgo, bolem, nraxixe, and other earfy centmy

dances not neces&ly Cuban m 0-1. E m burlesque rumba of the 19303 and 40s came

f q m t l y po be p e r f d m Cuban kcales by vhi% dancers mtber than bbcks.

The careers of Frank and Volanda Beloz, dmmg partners in New Vork of the 19303, provide

yet mtber example of white non-Cnbm repmeriting Bhat pras pmpxted be tc8ditiorml Afro-

Cuban music. H o h i a was an Italian and Frank half Spantsh, half Dndch. The fact that these so-

j~k>' of ~~, md the d- shows they staged, became repmentathv of M n ~ X b a n expmsive

YY 'J~ c ~ m b o & L . ( I I ~ h ~ b s ~ ~ m d t h e r m d d h m l ~ t @ t h e d ~ o f e U n m n ~ m a n d 4 a misuniersmding present at that time. AS ~ ~ b e r t z (IYBP) emphasizes, CI m m (II

cabaret rumba must be chmcterized as "longer on exoticism than musical authenticity, " or, perhaps

mare aamabply, longer on naive boqeois fan- than realism. Roberts continues, s0ggestu-g that

popular media of the early mentieth century have tended @ %inforce an image of Latin music as

'fun,' light-weight, and essentially trirrial" (1979.M).

Fanrastical depictions of 'WE other" m popuhized rumbas of the 193% can be nmgnked most

c h i y m song dem. The majority of these bear m relation 80 an9 aspect of Afro-Cuban life, and

and more often than not @ be racist and offeasive. Consider this excerpt from the English fyncs to

"Mama Inez," as published m 1931 by the Ed& B. Marks Corpomthn, and billed as "An

American AdapaaQn of the Greatest of all cuban Rmnbasn.2

Ha* dance m a crude way T h e ~ i n a l e w d way And though yondance hanude aray E v e ~ ~ l ~ r u ? lweS gour vorlderful spa, oh Mama k.. .3

l8et Pcnno (1488:42) for raon extensh Wmg of ~OEB tniStS 2 ~ h coaalctc due= to tbis ~ h e c m y bc f o d in tAt " s m " &n of tAt bibliogrrphy un&r Elisco G-t. In all ftiratss to th American pdlishrrs, it s h o d k noted much sh#t m e pdlished in Cuh and other Sp*oish- ~ J r i a g colmtrics, conhind lyrics q d y offtnsivc ipl mrtprwnwive of hditbml dfmCub*a urpnssivc cdm. Tk m a y of % h a IW" is rqvted by UUIfC to bt that d a -tenth C(MUIY pbsahoa song a ~ ~ ~ i a t e d with svgw b m m q which GrrPct ttnatully coplirightd wdw his om armt (1984:179. N d u s to say, Gnact's fgrks hve n o t h i n g t ~ d o w i t h ~ ~ . 4

3 ~ ~ r t ~ n q in t d y a w - y pop^ mwic to rry*rsmt no~-~cstrm d m in an u ~ ~ t r j s t i c or inst- m*nncrhrr *niaturstingcortatqmt xntAtworf:ot L l m g ~ I W d P d c ~ m s t s SILEB~S PjWSso,&tisst,and h&. 8achUdP*istdtobrocaa&raftbrirptnsnrqsrmd~onBJatd[rL*nut,foriastrrrcc, ~ ~ a ~ ~ ~ o f w ~ t ~ i n s w h u t ~ m ~ . m 8 i g t n o u s ~ . & t h [ 1 9 9 0 ) t o r a mote wmphtc aiscus~n of this topic.

Some anthers ham cupmi that commeIcialized rumba of the 19303 should be viewed m the

context of a slow trend m both Cuba and the United Ssates bo.saards greater ethnic in-tion,

irmming appreciation of c n l w differem, and as fombgdovhg the ever W t e r acceptance of

popular Afro-Axmican musics throoghont Europe aod the b m k a s m errsuing years. As one

example of the ostensiily pctsitive effects of commercial Mm-Latin music on inlanational audiences

m the 19309, consider Robert's mmments about Dan Azpbm's band and its celebralr?d pop- m

New York.

There w, of course, nothing new about Cuban tmres lmmmng pop* in highly kale- wnions. Azpiam's strccess wss important because his band's style was far more Latin than Amerkam wea used to; it raised the level of ~~ a n - of the Latin idiom srmss the country (1979:78).

As &piam's group wm the f b t balmom dance band m either tbe Uniaed Stam or Cuba to

m-te black and white performers (Perazzn 1988.66), it is possible that the success of his

ensemble may have furbred the cause of meid equality to some extent One might argue, h o m r ,

that a somewhat enhanced aesthetic appreciation for lower c k Cnban music on the part of

in&mtional audiences must be evaluated in terms of the increasing economic expfoiiation of Afro-

Cuban magicians by whi& irtdustry in the mid twentieth centmy, and also m light of the persistence

of segegation and m c h in Cuban society.

The M a x of EadB Cenbm Poonlar Masic

T h e p o p n l a r c n l t n r e o f r h e 1 9 2 0 s a n d 3 0 9 j s ~ t o m e ~ l l ~ e i t ~ b o r e f l e c t t h e

begmmrgs of sgmfbnt cbange m the co~lscio- of society in the United Stades, Cuba, and

elsevhere. Popnlar dance mi salon music p a r to these decades in both countries resembles that of

nineteenth centmy bomgeois Europe. Whether one considen the songs of Stephen Poster, for

example, the popularized awzk and &AM dances of Cuba and Brazil, or most other types of

fin-de-&Ee popular song, the stylistic Mcahuhy from aThich they are de-d tends to o m more to

Schnbert Mer and light Italian opew than the music of any q h a l or ethnic group in the

Americas. In the 19309, howem, we see for the first time the dechmg prominence of Empeau art

song as the sole &el for popular music, and a greater q d f M accep6arrce on all social h d s of the

popular masic and dance fonns of blacks. This 'acceptance" can be v i e d , paradoxicaRy, both as

an increasing sensitivity m cultml tiiffennix &as the cooptation of an o p p o d o d aesthetic. The

history of popular music in both the Unieed States and Cuba in this cenmrjl seerrts lo be dmmte&ed

by a struggle an the part of m h u s ethnic groups to their own trrsaes and pl.ectices m the face

The extent to which the music of the bdhmm rumba npments a aaive arrd mmanticized

"hmdcening back 8 j the good old days" of nineteenth century Empe is c e m clear, but so is the

extent to which its (admitaedly rmnirnal) concessions 8 j Afm-Cuban aesthetics presage the a t i i :

changes m corn m popular music m ensuing decades. In many respects, the career of Xavier -at

typifies that of many Latin American bandleaders of the line, and demonmates &mion betareen

nineteenth centmy bomgeois Emopean and tmntieth centmy popular Cuban aesthetics which

characte* the ballrwm rumba. By his own dmission, the first twenty fwe p a n of Cngat's life

were devoted exchtsively 81 the peperfonnance of Western art masic. He leamed to play the violin in a

respected liberal arts school m Havana, and later studied under famous artists m Gexmany ad the

United States. Tehgly, mat had m fail several times over as a classical concert violinist, arrd m

attempt to make a living for yam as a cartoonist for the Los Angeh Times, before seriously

considering a career as a popular dance band W r . Even m the 1940s, afaer htxrrmg bemme both

famous and extremely wealthy through the perfomance of e u s Latin A m r i m dance musics, he

taka pains m his ambiography Do d i m himelf from what he considers ao be mli~ popular 7

"I do not enjoy playing average pap& mnsic. It is ?DO simple, repetitbas, and s-. That soands stuffy, I kna.sr, but you h a what I mean, migas" (Cugat 1948:76)

G o n c W n

The devebprmentat tra~ectnv of popular C u h dance musk from the mid nineteenth century until

the 19303 has involmd a m e of b k d foIktonc genres to conform bJ Oie expectations of

w~andiencesinvarionspamoftheworM. Thismlignmentisrnostap~ntintmsays. Pint,

Afro-Cnban genres such as the rumba gmpnc6, perceimi by Cuban elides as m w or sexually

exciting, were parodied and graddy incorparared intp burlesque theater and tourist cabaret shows.

Second, Afm-Cnban genres sulch as the burlesqne rmnba and son seem a have been used loosely as

a mndel tp constrnct balmom music and dance syles of a decidedly Empean chamler. More

traditional forms of folklolic expression among urban blacks, such as Mrican-derived ~l@ous praise

songs and dances, comparsa music, and street m b a , experienced legal suppmsbn throughout the

early twentieth centnry, and tended to become less widely practiced. The historical pmesses

associated with the development of early century popular music m Cuba pnwide an excellent example

of how dominant ideology can affect the existing musical Wtions of margmali2ed ethnic group,

and aZso give rise to entirely new fonns of musical expression.

We are living m an age when the notion of "pure" and "authenticu mnsical traditions, are

becoming problematic, if not abstxrd, theoretical concepts. Culture pups are interacting so

constantly, and mass mediated musical forms are being disseminated so broadly, that it is virtually

impossible to associabe particular sounds and g e m with fixed contexts, meanings, or patterns of

behavior. We are challenged tn develop a means of theoretically frarniag the manrrer m which music

and dance from around the wrld are adopbPd into new social settings, in a performative

sense, and 83 rehe these changes 80 ongoing pnxeses of jdeohgml strtlggle and daminance. The

complex series of changes in the Cuban rmnba of the early tventieth centmy, and the atally different

sorts of mnsic and dance m t s withwhich the term has mwe to be assmktd over time, p m d e a -4

perfect formn for this study. The three forms of rmnba discassed h, the folk to^, baltrwm, and

burlesque, represent a synthesis of diverse mnsical stybzs, inbematiorid influences, mi aesthetic

sensibilities. All three document m in sound and perfomme behavior the himry of cuhml

supmsion m Cuba, the United States, and elsewhere, and the gradual processes sacial and m m h l

intqmtion underpray in Cuba of the 1 9 3 0 ~ ~ Eargely on Empean terms.

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ballroom musics

Afr-Lat. folLLorlc musics

black performca

--

European Aesthetic - danta

habanera --ba-

burlesque theater--

the vhite v iev of black mustdance

Afro- Latin Aesthntic 1870 1910 1930 1950