African Influences In Latin American Music

The genre bachata was developed in the Caribbean island of Dominican Republic. This genre was created based on boleros (slow-tempo Latin music), son cubanos, waltzes, Mexican music and merengue. Bachata is well known as love and depressing songs in which many people describe them self with this genre. At one point back in the earlier 1960s, bachata was considered vulgar and low-class. “Acceptance of the music has increased significantly in the last two decades, although some dominicans, both individuals living on the island and stateside, still do not accept the music because of the implication of its lower-class origins and associations with such themes as crime, poverty, drinking, and prostitution’’(Stavans 47). The genre Bachata has spread and grown so quickly for the past few years that is has become very famous in the United States, Europe, China, and South America. The genre bachata is well known to attract people with its lyrics, instruments, and dance since it identifies many people with real life events.

It may be used in a negative way, but there is way more to a hex then that. It is considered a form protective magic, but it is also a manipulative magic as well. It is also an emotional connection to oneself. Hex signs are a form of the Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, which is found in the Fancy Dutch tradition in Pennsylvania Dutch Countries. Which is a related to fraktur. Which is a form of a star in a circle.

How did Cuba and Brazil affect popular music, culture and dance in the 1940’s and 50’s? In this investigation I am going to establish what affects Cuba and Brazil had on popular music and dance. The first thing I’m going to do is discover how the music from Cuba and Brazil spread to America, the center of music. While doing my research I will be looking at what types of music were popular in Cuba and Brazil during the 40’s and 50’s as well as how these types of music affected American popular music. Two of the sources I used in this essay, Latin Music USA and Music in Brazil will then be evaluated. To

The modernize approach of religion and traditions of the old African culture now converted into an Afro-Brazilian culture that still has an impact and exists today which is also still celebrated in Brazil. I believe that without slavery, many of the importance of both sides of society selling slaves and buying slaves would not have shaped humanity in the modern world. “Two centuries had seen African and European cultural religious and linguistic habits merging into unique Afro-Brazilian social and religious customs, music, and storytelling (Nellis 62).” The cultural influence of Afro-Brazilians has persistently grew from celebrations like carnaval into a mainstream popular culture. Brazil holds a variety of different ideas, culture and people. These ideas and traditions include musical interests, dancing, different food dishes, literature and art, festivities, and religious practices.

1) How did Haiti and the Dominican Republic begin? What European countries influenced the development of these nations?

The roots of modern american rock and roll music, are firmly planted in Africa. As the native Africans were torn apart from their family’s and brought to the new world their lives were immediately and drastically changed forever. Finding themselves immersed in a completely new environment with a foreign culture, they thankfully persevered and carried on with their own traditions and most importantly to this paper, musical ones. Most American slaves originated from Western and Central Africa. The West Africans carried a musical tradition rich with long melody lines, complicated rhythms (poly rhythmics) and stringed instruments CITATION. The West Africans music was also strongly integrated into their everyday lives. Songs were preformed for religious ceremonies and dances and music was often a

Puerto Rican music is an evolving art form that expresses Puerto Rican culture and identity. The development of Puerto Rican music is also a reflection of their history, both being complicated by several layers. Social, political, and economic conditions are all related to the musical expressions of Puerto Ricans (Glasser, 8). Puerto Rican migration to the United States and the culture clash experienced by migrants is another layer complicating the evolution of Puerto Rican music (Glasser, 199). Musical expression has been affected by every aspect of life for the Puerto Ricans and therefore is an illustration of the Puerto Rican experience.

One can see why the elite of the island did not see Bomba as a typical Puerto Rican music. It originated from Africa and no one wants to be associated with them. But this is clearly racism and classicism at work here, for upon hearing this type of music you can not do anything but feel the powerful beat. You get into the call-and-response interaction, because not too many types of music have interaction between the musicians and the audience.

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” This is a quote from the movie “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) which is one of the greatest horror movies of all time. This quote in particular is the most chilling of all lines in the movie because it shows how insane Hannibal Lecter really is, not on an intellectual level but a barbaric one. The Silence of the Lambs and Edgar Allan Poe had very similar styles in their literary use.

There are multitudinous types of Chicano music that include all types of instruments, verses, backgrounds, and purposes. According to Tatum (2001), “The popular Hispanic folk music has deep roots in Spain and Mexico, but it is a living cultural form that is forever changing and adapting to new social conditions and musical currents (Robb 1980, 5)” (p.15). Modernization also plays a key role in the diversion of Chicano music. For example, as new instruments were being invented, they were then incorporated into the music, making it sound more different and attractive. The types of Chicano music range from romance which could narrate an event, corridos, which was a form of cultural differentiation, alabanzas, which were specifically religious, and the canción, in which lovers expressed their deep adoration for each other (Tatum 2001). If a man who was lost in his woman’s eyes wanted to choose a song for their

Brazil's individual national character and rich musical tradition are the result of a profound mingling of races that has been ongoing in the country since the landing of Pedro Alvares Cabral in April 1500. Even before this event the indigenous Indians of Brazil had an already conventional musical culture; they sang in chorus and solo, played horns, whistles, and flutes, and beat out rhythms with foot-stamping, beats, hand-clapping, rattles, and drums. With the Portuguese invasion came the violin, piano, clarinet, guitar, and tambourine. These were incorporated into the musical forms of modinha, moda, fofa, acalanto, and fado, which were songs of lullaby, sentiment, and dance. The Portuguese also brought religious festivals and pageants such as the bumba-meu-boi and reisado. The former in festivity of the Epiphany and the latter a rich enactment of the death and resurrection of a mythical bull. Entrudo, a rude festivity considered to be the precursor to Carnival, was also brought by the Portuguese. Less than forty years after the arrival of Cabral, the first African slaves were brought to Brazil. With them came another racial, cultural, and musical infusion. There were three main ethnic groups that contributed to the boiling Brazilian melting pot: the Sudanese, the Bantu, and the Moslem Guinea-Sudanese. They contributed the circle dance and lundu song, a precursor to the samba. (Smith)

Moreno asserts that ““Too many times, we have read our history books that have been written by Europeans, and it has had a tremendous impact in the way we view our culture and listen to our music. I do think that our identity is lost with it and at some point, we try to find it again later in life” (7). Students are able to see a different point of view rather than only the perspectives of textbook writers who at times deprive students from the full truth and the media who exaggerates or embellishes the truth. Many artists and musicians express their anger and oppression through music and students are able to listen to this and get the complete synopsis of problems happening in the world. For instance, in “The Embodiment of Salsa: Musicians, Instrument and the Performance of a Latina Style and Identity,” Patria Roman-Velasquez argued that the embodiment of salsa develops through specific practices whereby instruments, performance techniques, vocal sounds, bodily movements and ways of dressing are encoded and experienced as part of a particular Latin identity. Therefore, this expressing that music has much of an influence in Latin identity and the construction of identity and

There are currently 150 million Afro-descendants in Latin America who make up nearly 30 percent of the region’s population (Congressional Research Service, 2005). Out of the fifteen Latin American nations that have recently adapted some sort of multicultural reform, only three give recognize Afro-Latino communities and give them the same rights as indigenous groups (Hooker, 2005). Indigenous groups are more successful than afro-descendent groups in gaining collective rights and development aid from international NGO’s. Collective rights important because are closely related to land rights and can become a tool to fight descrimination .I will attempt to uncover the causes for the discrepancy. This study relies heavily on ethnographic

“Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard,… I have known him to cut and slash the women’s head so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty,…”

Hispanic’s music had a great impact in USA. Nowadays, Americans listen to Hispanics’ music. Hispanics’ music now is part of American’s culture. These changes in USA began around of 19th century, when Hispanics immigration increases in the USA. One of the big changes in music occurred around 1940s, when Americans began to recognize the efforts of Cuban-American musicians. One of the Cuban bands was Cugat. It was known better Orchestra ‘based in New York’s Waldorf Astoria’ which had a great visual and musical style. Another Cuban band was Machito who were dominated as one of the best New York’s scenes at that time. Thanks, to those bans Americans adopted some of Cubans’ dances and performances such as rumba, mambo and cumbia. Americans used and still using the Cuban instruments like bongos and maracas to create their rhythms. Later on, Americans created Jazz by African Americans with the influenced of Cuban’s music.