was that the predominantly male European colonists seldom brought their families
with them, which very quickly led to a forced mixing of European, African, and
American populations. In time, mestizo (a mixture of European and Native) and
Creole (European and African) cultures came to dominate many regions of Latin
America, though they too developed in profoundly diverse ways. Other important
factors were the economic potential of a particular territory and the availability of
a workforce, which in turn was affected by the relative prevalence of European dis-
eases. In Mexico and Peru, disease decimated but did not completely annihilate the
Native populations, negating the necessity to bring large numbers of African slaves
to these areas. Conversely, many Caribbean islands saw the complete extinction
of the Native inhabitants. African and Native cultures were thus not felt uniformly
across the continent, greatly affecting the syncretic dynamic.
Yet another factor was the religious syncretism that permeated the continent. Ca-
tholicism (and to a lesser extent Protestant denominations) provided the overarch-
ing blueprint for the continent’s religious identity, which then absorbed, to varying
degrees, elements from African and Native beliefs, as well as scattered elements
of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and other faiths.
Colonial church and civil authorities realized early on that the most efficient
way of achieving their goals was to incorporate existing Native elements into the
transplanted European culture, creating a completely new entity. One strategy was
to build churches and cathedrals on the same sites as the old temples, to provide
a sense of religious continuity. Since music had been an important part of Native
religious ceremonies, the Church emphasized it in Catholic services, to make the
new converts feel at home in the new religion. Soon, much of the Native popula-
tion accepted the new faith, though the priests were less successful in eradicating
the old system of beliefs. Native celebrations, feasts, and processions were sur-
reptitiously adapted to the Christian faith and held away from the watchful eyes of
priests and church officials. Idols would find their way onto altars, hidden under
crosses or stashed away in church walls. As a result, Native religions endured, at
first alongside (but separate from) Christianity, and increasingly in a mixture of
interconnected Christian and Native beliefs that adapted to the specific needs of
the populace.
Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism | 205
Meanwhile, African religions were emerging wherever African slaves were
present in the Americas, providing them with a sense of identity and spiritual con-
tinuity. These included Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodou, Jamaican Obeah, and Ku-
mina (as well as the more recent Rastafarian movement), Brazilian Candomblé, and
hundreds of other less-famous traditions throughout the continent. Most of these re-
ligions are a combination of Christian and African (and sometimes Native) beliefs,
and were often based on communications with ancestral spirits (e.g., orishas in San-
teria, lwas in Vodou) that dwelled in the African continent and that provided spiri-
tual help and practical advice. To shield these activities from the disapproving eyes
of the authorities, the ancestral spirits were merged with Catholic saints and hidden
under a Christian veneer. Over time, the two deities—and the two faiths—came to
be intermingled and fused together to produce hybrid religions and cultures.
The fusion of European, Native, African, mestizo, and Creole characteristics
quickly distinguished Latin American cultures from its sources, and in time the
continent became less of a European cultural outpost and acquired its own charac-
ter and identity. From these syncretic cultures emerged most of the classical, folk,
and popular music of Latin America (as well as the art, architecture, literature,
etc.). European ballroom dances (such as the minuete, jota, malagueña, seguidilla,
contradanza, waltz, polka, and mazurka) emerged from high-society salons and became popular dances, performed in rural settings, now infused with Native or
African rhythms and instrumentation, but also retaining European dance steps such
as the zapateado and the zarandeo. Thus, the Martinican quadrille was a dance of the 18th century French salons, typically accompanied by small orchestras made up
of slaves or former slaves. After the ball, the musicians would perform the music
at their own get-togethers, melding it with their Afro-Caribbean drumming tradi-
tions. In time, this kwadril became one of the source components of the popular
zouk of recent years.
European instruments such as the guitar and the harp became prevalent
throughout the continent, embraced by various ethnic groups. Many soon became
hybridized, yielding new variations that had been unknown in Europe (e.g., the
Peruvian charango and the jarana from Veracruz), with corresponding tuning
systems, performance techniques and composition ideals. The harp, brought to the
Americas by Jesuit missionaries, took hold in many mestizo and Native cultures,
most prominently the Mexican arpa jarocha, the Venezuelan arpa llanera and the
arpa paraguaya.
Similarly, African instruments (drums, marimbas, and thumb-pianos) and prac-
tices (complex syncopated rhythms, call-and-response singing, ritual dancing) were
often adopted by other ethnic groups, while African Americans almost invariably
embraced European and Native instruments, forms and styles, and combined them
with their own. Yet mixing African and European music did not automatically yield
a generic result, as can be attested by the marked differences between Brazilian
206 | Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism
samba, Cuban rumba, Jamaican reggae, and Dixieland jazz. Some syncretic processes derive from unusual sources, the result of unique historical factors. Thus,
Trinidadian chutney combines African rhythms with East Indian melodies and in-
struments, while the music of the Central American Garífuna combines African and
Native elements with virtually no European contributions.
Syncretism manifested itself in the continent’s art music as well, including
prominently in the colonial villancico guineo and mestizo e indio, which purported
to represent African and Native culture. While 19th-century art music (particularly
opera) often attempted to include ethnic elements, these were usually stylized ver-
sions of European trends. Conversely, the nationalist movements in the 20th century
did successfully combine European art music with Native, African, mestizo, and
Creole folk music, including prominently in the works of Chávez, Ginastera, and
Villa-Lobos. One began finding in the concert hall the tangos, sambas, sones,
and rumbas that had previously been the domain of the village, the barrio, the
nightclub or the Carnival parade.
The syncretic process redoubled in the second half of the 20th century, with con-
tinuous cross-pollination aided by increased migration, recording and transmission
technology, and mass commercialization. British and American rock influenced
styles such as Brazilian tropicália and Argentine rock nacional. The Colombian
cumbia was adopted an
d transformed by numerous traditions, from the Mexican
borderlands to Argentina. Styles such as salsa, soca, reggae, samba, and dozens of others emerged from local and national contexts to become hemispheric and even
global phenomena. In the process, they continually influenced each other, produc-
ing limitless combinations of syncretic styles. Yet paradoxically, the same period
also saw the increased homogenization of Latin America’s music. The forces of glo-
balization and modernization transformed and re-created countless styles outside of
their original context, usually in some commercial venue. As Latin American music
became an important contributor to the so-called world music phenomenon, it often
adopted a pop orientation, colored by aural uniformity, mass media dissemination,
Western influences and essentially the same rock ‘n’ roll instrumentation: electric
guitars, bass, synthesizers, and drum sets. The meaning of the music in terms of
its function and social representation was altered by this transformation, and in the
process, much of the individuality that engendered it was lost.
Further Reading
Clark, Walter A. “Preface: What Makes Latin American Music ‘Latin’? Some Personal
Reflections.” Musical Quarterly 92, no. 3/4, Latin American Music (Fall–Winter 2009):
167–76.
Davis, Martha Ellen. “ ‘Bi-Musicality’ in the Cultural Configurations of the Caribbean,”
Black Music Research Journal 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1994): 145–60.
Floyd Jr., Samuel A. “Black Music in the Circum-Caribbean,” American Music, 17,
no. 1 (Spring 1999): 1–38.
Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism | 207
Guilbault, Jocelyne. “Créolité and the New Cultural Politics of Difference in Popu-
lar Music of the French West Indies,” Black Music Research Journal, 14, no. 2 (Autumn
1994): 161–78.
Hill, Donald R. “West African and Haitian Influences on the Ritual and Popular Music
of Carriacou, Trinidad, and Cuba,” Black Music Research Journal, 18, no. 1/2 (Spring–
Autumn 1998): pp. 183–201.
Jong, Nanette de. “An Anatomy of Creolization: Curaçao and the Antillean Waltz,”
Latin American Music Review, 24, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter 2003): 233–51.
Martin, Denis-Constant. “Filiation of Innovation? Some Hypotheses to Overcome the
Dilemma of Afro-American Music’s Origins,” Black Music Research Journal, 11, no. 1
(Spring 1991): 19–38.
Quintero, Angel G., and Roberto Márquez Rivera. “Migration and Worldview in Salsa
Music,” Latin American Music Review, 24, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter 2003): 210–32.
Shepherd, John A. “A Theoretical Model for the Sociomusicological Analysis of Popular
Music,” Popular Music, 2 (1982): 145–47.
Wade, Peter. “African Diaspora and Colombian Popular Music in the Twentieth Cen-
tury,” Black Music Research Journal, 28, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 41–56.
Waterman, R. A. “ ‘Hot’ Rhythm in Negro Music,” Journal of the American Musicologi-
cal Society 1 (1948): 24–37.
Mark Brill
I
Immigrant Music
The number of first-generation immigrants and their descendants living in the
United States has burgeoned since the liberal American immigration reform of
1965. In 2010, an estimated 55 million people (or 17 percent of the total national
population) classified themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino catego-
ries (Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban). Destinations for immigrants broadened
in recent decades and sizeable Latino immigrant communities have now settled in
virtually every American state. A United States Census Bureau report foresees the
national Hispanic and Latino population rising to 30 percent by 2050. Accordingly,
Latin American and Latin music will increase their already significant impact on
the American soundscape in the 21st century.
Americanized interpretations of Cuban dance music from danzón and rumba to
mambo and cha-cha-chá filled American dance halls from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Argentine tango and Brazilian bossa nova gained popularity among mainstream audiences while Mexican mariachi and other folklórico ensembles are widely
known to a national public. But Latin American music has also been a consider-
able outside influence on popular music styles of the United States such as jazz
(or more recently rap), and numerous bandleaders and musicians of Caribbean and
Latin American heritage have shaped various musical scenes, particularly in the
larger urban centers. While immigrants brought their regional music genres with
them to the United States such as bachata , vallenato, or banda , for example, some genres developed as a result of collaborations among musicians of different national origins. Salsa , for instance, is considered one of the most dynamic and sig-
nificant pan-American musical phenomena of the 1970s and 1980s. Incorporating
multiple styles nurtured by Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrant musicians to New
York City, it quickly became a favorite dance music among all Latino communi-
ties in the United States as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America. Reggaetón ,
which emerged in the late 1990s as a blend of Jamaican music influences of reggae
and dancehall with Puerto Rican genres and the Boricua/Latino-centric rap scene
in New York City, took the younger Latino generations by storm.
The large metropolitan areas on both the East and West Coast, but increasingly
also in the Midwest, constitute a fertile ground for musical innovation. Immigration-
heavy cities have given birth to numerous transnational popular music phenomena.
Technobanda and its associated quebradita dance style, for example, spread in the
209
210 | Immigrant Music
late 1980s from Guadalajara, Jalisco, to Los Angeles, California, where it gained
great popularity among immigrants as well as American youths of Mexican heri-
tage. In the early 21st century, pasito duranguense (“the little step from Durango,” a
state in northwestern Mexico ) originated in Chicago as a fusion of Mexican banda,
norteño and grupero music, while the dance steps were borrowed from the Mexi-
can American quebradita and Dominican merengue . Duranguense ’s phenomenal rise of popularity reflects the growing importance of Latino immigrants and their
own music styles. Despite the fact that the American news media tends to advertise
Latin pop stars who sing in English rather than immigrant music, regional Mexican
music accounted for more than half of all Latin music sales in the United States,
according to a 2001 report of the Recording Industry Association of America. In
the summer of 2004, various duranguense groups claimed almost one-half of the
spots on Billboard’s Top 25 Latin Albums chart.
Visibility through National Awards and the Media
Although many genres performed, listened, and danced to by Caribbean and Latin
American immigrants stay within the confines of their own communities, the more
commercially oriented music styles are made accessible to a national audience
through the media. The music industry has contributed to an increased awareness
by creating awards such as the Billboard Latin Music Awards that grew out of the
Billboard Music Awards program from Billboard Magazine , an industry publica-
tion charting the sales
and radio airplay success of musical recordings. Nine years
after the awards’ inauguration in 1990, the awards ceremony was broadcast on the
television network Telemundo, the second largest Spanish-language media com-
pany in the United States, and it since has become the network’s highest-rated
music special. Recognizing the most popular Latin music on the charts, the Bill-
board Latin Music Awards features top solo performers and Latin groups vying
for honors in such categories as pop, rock, tropical, Mexican regional music, and
reggaetón. In 2000, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences desig-
nated seven categories of the Grammy Awards for Latin music performance: Latin
pop, Latin rock /alternative, traditional tropical Latin, salsa, merengue, Mexican
American, and tejano . Meanwhile, all major recording labels have Latin divisions.
Among the most successful Latin labels in the United States are Disa, Fonovisa,
Sony Music Latin, and Universal Music Latino.
Assimilation versus Multiculturalism
Latin Americans, like other groups of immigrants, assimilated in varying degrees
to the American way of life. The 1960s to 1970s Mexican American rhythm and
Immigrant
Music
|
211
blues and rock bands from East Los Angeles adapted musical styles representa-
tive of the American mainstream rather than developing any particular, regional
musical style as, for example, the Texan Mexican musicians did with conjunto
and orquesta . While the musical replenishment from south of the border has had
a major impact on Mexican American musical production and consumption, sev-
eral Latin American music genres were brought to the United States via Mexico:
the mambo was introduced by Mexico City–based bandleader Pérez Prado and a
Mexican version of the bolero was popularized by Los Panchos and other bolero
trios in the 1940s and 1950s. Mexicans, not Colombians, brought cumbia to the
United States and when Colombian immigration began to surge in the 1990s, it
was vallenato, not cumbia that enjoyed the status as a quintessential symbol of
Colombian identity. Today it is Mexican immigrants, not Colombians, who nu-
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 37