Salsa Essay

The plan in place for this research is to learn about the development of the genre of music and dance known as salsa. The support written will include how salsa affected a people and why it became identifiable with the Puerto Rican culture this will also include how this music and dance crossed social and racial barriers. In addition to personal interest, it is important to share the cultural aspects of the pride that Puerto Rican’s have about music and dance and how they identify with salsa. How this opened the communication with other races and may have even defined a newly found ethnicity (“ethnicity is determined based on the social and cultural groups you belong to”). “Ethics vs Morals.” Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. 2 Feb 2016.

This research will identify the relationship between the Puerto Rican way of life and how its progress was influenced by the complex genre of music and dance which came to be known as Salsa. This music and dance has crossed social and racial barriers and it still thriving and emerging today.

Many times, you hear how great this music and dance is but it is rare that you would initiate a conversation about the importance of its impact on our predecessors and those pioneers who came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. This research will provide concrete understanding on why the music and dance became as important as it did and why today our senior relatives find that sharing it and integrating it into the new additions to the family is imperative if they are born anywhere outside of Puerto Rico.

Salsa – meaning spicy - is a term associated with music and social dance. This popular music and dance evolved from earlier Cuban musical forms such as Son, Son Montuno, Cha cha cha and Mambo, which were popular in the Caribbean time period. There are some discrepancies on where the term and music actually originated. According to P. Manuel, the music form of “salsa has incorporated substantial elements of Puerto Rican music, such as the plena, bomba, and

She sites that “Nuyoricans were introduced to a diverse array of music through radio and theatre”. Martinez writes about the term “clave”, which is a five-beat rhythmic structure on which salsa was developed. Clave was listened to in New York City in the early 30’s and was an essential part of both, dance and music. The writer states that Puerto Ricans identify with salsa music as part of their culture because many of the early composers were of Puerto Rican descent, such as, Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, and Tito Puente, who was considered the King of Mambo. She also refers to how gender impacted business negotiations differently with previous and current