Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
CLASSROOM CURRICULUM AND EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Educational materials developed by:
Patricia Costa-Kim, Ph.D. Director, Education
Experience Music Project
- And Marisol Berrios-Miranda, Ph.D., Robert Carroll, Ph.C., Shannon Dudley, Ph.D.,
Michelle Habell-Pallan Ph.D., and Francisco Orozco, Ph.C.
of the University of Washington
American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music was created by Experience Music Project and organized for
travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The exhibition, its national tour,
and related programs are made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund.
Ford Motor Company Fund
EMP
Experience Music Project
The American Sabor website http://www.americansabor.org
High School Pre/Post-Visit Activities
Pre-Visit Activity
page 1 of 7
American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
Name: ____________________________________________
Latino Musical Artists
Do some basic research about one of the following musical figures and present a one-page report. Consider musical influences,
historical period(s) and other factors that have influenced the music of the selected artist. Reflect on key contributions made by
each artist to current popular music and/or culture.
Questions:
• What region or major city in the United States is/are the artist(s) identified with? For what reasons does he/she live there?
• What social, political or economic issues does the artist(s) address through music?
• What significant historical or social events are associated with the artist(s)?
• In what the genre of music does the artist perform? What makes this artist significant?
• El Vez
• Jennifer Lopez
• Tito Puente
• Daddy Yankee
• Miami Sound Machine
• Los Lobos
• Carlos Santana
• Celia Cruz
• Eva Ybarra
Experience Music Project
High School Pre/Post-Visit Activities
Post-Visit Activity page 2 of 7
American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
Name: ____________________________________________
Preserving and Interpreting Culture
This activity addresses the importance of preserving and studying music by cultural institutions.
You will need to download the PDF or video of the interviews with Professor Shannon Dudley and Roberto Hernandez from
EMP|SFM’s Web site at empsfm.org.
Ask students to write a report about an institution or organization that preserves culture, especially music. The Internet
Resources list for this unit is a good place to start for ideas. Questions:
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What does the organization do? Does it have a mission statement?
How does it fulfill its mission?
In addition to exhibitions, what other programs and/or services does the organization provide that further fulfill its
role as a cultural and educational resource?
What careers might one have at this organization?
Read the transcript of the interview with Professor Shannon Dudley. What did Professor Dudley study that led to
where he is today professionally? Why is an academic with an expertise in ethnomusicology important to a project
like American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music?
Read the excerpt from the interview with Roberto Hernandez. How do you think music is preserved by a person
like Hernandez?
What music are you listening to now? What music should these organizations be studying and preserving for the
future? Support your argument.
Experience Music Project
High School Pre/Post-Visit Activities
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INTERVIEW
American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
Oral History Excerpt
Roberto Hernandez
“I’m born and raised here in San Francisco, a native of Mission District, and I’ve been playing music since I was a little boy... Carnaval…has been
the cultural event in our community that has provided neighborhood children, youth, adults an opportunity to learn…the dancing or singing,
choreography, painting and most important, it’s been about teaching other people the difference between the traditions of Mexico — because
a lot of people here in this country think that everybody’s Mexican….We’re not all Mexican, you know, there’s [el Cubano?], Puertorriqueño,
el Panamanio, Brasiliero, (break in audio), Columbiano, and many other countries, and so when you talk about Latinos, or Hispanics as they try
to call us, you know, they, everybody thinks we’re Mexicans, and we’re not. And so beyond the Mariachi, you know, there’s the samba, which is
very rich in Brazil, (break in audio) the cha cha cha, the mambo, the merengue, the cumbia and many other traditions in terms of music…And it’s
funny because even with the salsa, they say ‘salsa’. There’s no such thing as ‘salsa’ music. You know, there’s cha cha cha, there’s mambo, there’s
(break in audio)... I guess somebody decided to call it salsa, and if you really translate the word ‘salsa’ into English, it’s sauce. It’s not even a music
format. And so what we’ve done throughout the last 29 years is we’ve educated people about our different traditions, not only with music
and dance, but the history…on all of the Americas….if you go to, for example, Cuba, you find the Afro-Cubano, and when I went to Cuba, you
know, and studied actually drumming in Cuba, I learned the richness of the influence of the slaves that actually were brought to the Americas
that escaped from the ships in Cuba, and the indigenous…Cuba actually took a lot of those slaves into the mountains, and, of course, Europeans
weren’t about to go chasing them to the mountains to try to find them and bring them back to the ships….And the same story goes whether
you go to Puerto Rico. I learned the same thing in Puerto Rico about the Africanos in Brazil and Nicaragua. You go to Nicaragua and you go to
[Blue Fields], you find Africanos. Go to Columbia and you find Africanos, you go to Panama and you find … See, Africanos brought their rhythms
and their traditions to the Americas, and there was a blending of Africa rhythms into the traditions of the indigenous here in the Americas…
And if you look at groups, like whether it be Santana or Malo or Sapo or any of those groups, that have that influence. Chepito Areas, you
know, who’s from Nicaragua, had a huge influence to the making of Santana’s band’s music, and it was that percussion element that made a
difference into that band and a lot of other bands. And that was something that was so beautiful because it came out of the Mission District…
and so people got to understand that that Latin aspect …traces all the way back to Africa. And so we’ve been, throughout the last 29 years,
paying respect to Africa…”
Experience Music Project
High School Pre/Post-Visit Activities
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INTERVIEW
American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music
Oral History Excerpt
Shannon Dudley
Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Washington
SD: OK. My name is Shannon Dudley, and I’m a Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington.
OK. Maybe if we can start by having you give us sort of a genesis of how this project got started...?
SD:
This project got started really I suppose you should go back to 2000 when the Allan Foundation granted some money to the school of music
to fund a collaboration between the school of music, and KEXP music station and the Experience Music Project. And, we sort of struggled
to find common ground. And, after several years of collaborating on various things, we found the common ground, I think, in this idea for
an exhibit on Latinos in U.S. popular music because we had expertise at the university on Latin America and American popular music—
American ethnic music especially.
And, the EMP was interested in U.S. popular music, we figured, and KEXP as well. So, we found the way of sort of blending ethnomusicology
with popular music studies, and with the repertoires and the audiences that EMP and KEXP were trying to reach. And, at the same time, it
was a project that was just ripe for the doing because Latinos have become such an obvious part of American popular culture in the last few
years in a way that they weren’t before. You see Spanish language commercials on ABC. You see salsa music in car commercials. And, people
need to know, and am curious to know, and will be glad to know, I think, where that comes from, and what the stories are behind that.
On that, can you talk a little bit about sort of the story that most people—the narrative most people know as sort of a black and white narrative
of it, versus the story you tell, I guess?
SD: Right. Well, American popular music has been powerfully shaped by African American musicians and communities. And, we tend to think of it
as a black and white narrative in the sense that a lot of musical genres are described in terms of European and African contributions. People
often think of the blues as having an African rhythm, and certainly European melodic qualities and instruments, things like that.
And, that’s an important way to tell the story, and I suppose 50 years ago, it was a revolutionary way to tell the story of American popular
music, and it was very important. And, I think in the same way, today it’s important to complicate that story a little bit, and to bring in—
there are a lot of other extremes that you could bring in that have fed the mainstream. But, Latinos, by which I mean people who come from
Latin American countries, or are of Latin American heritage, or who are a Spanish speaking heritage and have been here for much longer
than Anglos have inside what is currently the United States, have been here as long, really, as any other ethnic group in large numbers.
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And, they constitute a third ethnic population, if you will, along with black and white, that has really had a fundamental role in shaping our
culture, and our musical culture in particular. But, the narrative – the black and white narrative – often excludes them, and also because
Latinos speak a different language, or Latin Americans speak a different language, there’s often a tendency to regard those musical
influences as foreign influences.
And, one of the things that we really want to stress in this exhibit is that Latinos are part of the fabric of American–meaning U.S. – society.
And, at the same time, there are people that have a particularly important role in connecting us to the Americas, Latin America. And so, the
title of the exhibit, American [Sabor] references that, that both those kinds of Americanness (sic), and the word [Sabor] is a term which in
Spanish means flavor, but is often used to describe music, style, a kind of richness of expression and personality. And what we want to
convey through that title is the idea that the flavor, the character, the style of American culture is deeply and wonderfully influenced by
Latinos across a long historical span.
Great. Yeah. All right, so let’s maybe run through the themes. The first one, I’ll ask the question and you enter it. What role have Latino artists
and music played in American popular music?
SD:
Latinos have played an important role in American popular music both as people have brought us in contact with musical traditions beyond
our borders, and as people who have innovated within American culture, U.S. popular culture. And I think sometimes it’s hard for us to
understand how people can be both at the same time, both connecting us to something abroad, and participating in the genesis of
American popular culture as innovators within the U.S.
And so, the exhibit has to look at both of those things, and look at musicians like Carlos Santana, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay
Area, and in the 1960s was inspired by the counter-culture, and the Civil Rights Movement, and all the excitement that was in the air about
new cultural possibilities, and he was one of many interracial bands in the San Francisco Bay Area including Tower of Power in Oakland,
including Sly and the Family Stone.
And, Carlos Santana, for many people, is sort of the one great example of a Latino that has really brought a Latin sound into the
mainstream. But, he was just like so many other kids in his time, and in his place, who were participating in an exciting new social
movement, not with an agenda of Latino identity particularly.
In fact, I’ve heard Carlos Santana say that it was really more a connection to Africa that he was finding, and discovering, and expressing
through his music and to humanity. And, a character like that presents a particularly interesting challenge of trying to understand how
Latinos have been fundamental innovators and creative agents in the shaping of a uniquely American – that is, United States of America
– culture, and at the same time have traded upon their familiarity, their connection to other cultures to sound, and people, and languages
outside of the mainstream to do that.
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[BACKGROUND CONVERSATION]
You ready? OK. How have the integration and migration shaped Latino and U.S. popular culture?
SD: Immigration has shaped U.S. Latino popular culture by bringing constant refreshment of ideas and styles from the Americas into the U.S.
And, the connections that U.S. Latinos have to home countries, or to the countries of their parents, represent I think a really wonderful and
dynamic force within American popular culture.
If you look at something like Reggaetón, which is sort of sweeping the country in the late 1990s, and the early 21st century here to the
point where a lot of white kids are listening to it, and it’s all over the radio, whether it’s radio that’s aimed at Latinos or not, that’s a great
example of this sort of transnational mixing that produces dynamic new music genres, something that you could say started in Jamaica, or
you could say maybe it started in the Bronx, the idea of rap, and of rapping over sampled music, over repetitive background tracks, rhythm
tracks, and which took root in Puerto Rico in a Spanish language form, and in Panama, which Dominican kids living in barrios in U.S. cities
like New York and Boston started to pick up on and develop and which bounced around like that all over the United States and Latin
America until it took a form that was recognizable and got a name.
And, it’s that dynamism of exchange, I think, that distinguishes Latino youth culture, and the constant back and forth, the waves of
immigration are putting people always in the position of trying to find a space that is neither Latin American nor completely U.S., and
drawing upon elements of both of those cultures, and those places, to find new ways of saying who they are.
How have Latino youths driven popular music innovations that crossed [borders and boundaries?]?
SD: I just answered that question, didn’t I? (laughter) We often think of American popular music culture as being propelled by successive
generations and youth movements. Many people nowadays don’t really think of jazz that way, but in its time, jazz was something that
young people were enthusiastic about and their parents didn’t want them to do.
And, the same went for R&B, and then rock ‘n’ roll of course which is sort of R&B with a new name, but which reached much broader
mainstream audiences under that name.
Hip hop, disco was a youth movement, a style before it became a loathed commercial formula, punk, heavy metal, all these things, we think
of the great heroes and innovators, and eras of genesis as being associated with communities of young people who were looking for
something new. And, what we often ignore is the diversity of young people that participated in those things.
No one thinks of punk as a Latino genre, and yet the scene in LA, the punk scene was very active, and very influential. People think of
Ritchie Valens, perhaps, as sort of an anomaly of somebody who brought a Mexican folk song, “La Bamba,” into rock ‘n’ roll. And, it was
kind of a one-time thing. People will say, “Well, everything else he played sounded like rock ‘n’ roll.”
You could say that everything in rock ‘n’ roll sounds like Ritchie Valens or like Cannibal and the Headhunters, and all of these east LA kids of
Mexican heritage who were creating new sounds, and sounds which became part of the fabric of American music. And, Cannibal and the
Headhunters toured with the Beatles and they drew huge crowds. So, we often deny the influence of Latinos unless we can hear something
Latin American, and we for get that they have been part of new generations of youth looking for new expressions, and participating in new
things along with people of many different ethnic groups and backgrounds.
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And, one of the things this exhibit wants to do is, I think by talking about that it’s a way for us to see Latinos as truly part of our culture
because we know how our culture is driven by these youth movements. And, if we can see those Latino faces, and hear those Latino voices,
and those innovations, I think it’s a huge breakthrough for understanding how diverse our society really is.
Good. In what ways have Latinos musically expressed their experiences as Americans?
SD:
Music has been one of the ways that Latinos have most obviously expressed an experience that is bicultural, and that is in between. Many
Latinos either came from a country beyond the borders of the United States, or were born to parents who did, and never were really able
to feel completely accepted, acknowledged as Americans, perhaps wanted to identify with American popular culture, but couldn’t in every
respect.
A great example of that is in a book I was privileged to read just recently, Raquel Rivera’s Puerto Ricans—what’s the name of that book,
Marisol? New York Ricans—
MBM: From the Hip Hop Zone.
SD:
New York Ricans, I think she calls it, From the Hip Hop Zone. It talks about how Puerto Ricans who participated in hip hop in the late ‘70s
and ‘80s, and were real innovators within the genre, couldn’t break through in the commercial realm because the record labels were
looking for blacks because they needed to market it as black music. And, so then 20 years later you had this phenomenon of reggaetón,
which I think finally answers that dilemma for Latino youths.
They are part of American culture, and yet they have to be different too because they can’t become part of what is viewed in the common
narrative of American popular culture as American. Another great example from New York is the boogaloo, which people call it cha-cha
with a backbeat. And, that was on the heels of the big band era when Machito and Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez were playing in the
palladium in the 1950s, and the cha cha cha was all the rage, and the mambo.
And then, these smaller bands of upstart Puerto Rican youth started playing for mixed Latino and black audiences at community centers,
and small parties, and small venues around New York. And, they came up with this new sound, which was kind of a mixture, stylistically, of
Latino genres like the cha cha cha—for Cuban genres, the cha cha cha, the pachanga, and a kind of African American rhythmic sensibility,
and a mixture of English and Spanish using English food names, African American chitlins along with Puerto Rican [cuchifrito?], and it was
like the sound of a party.
It was the sound of these parties that were mixtures of black and Latino youth. And, then Latin’s soul was also part of that. Groups like
[Joe Cuba?] that were famous for the boogaloo were also famous for Latin soul, singing ballads in English but with a kind of bolero rhythm
and sensibility in their arrangements. And, for Latino youth, that was like a light coming down to the darkness for a lot of them because
they could hear themselves, see themselves, be themselves through their music because they were neither Latino, nor black, nor American,
nor white.
Knowing who you are, and going to a place, and being with other people who feel the same way and have the same style, and where you
can sense that belonging I think is something that music does for people -- one of the most important things that music does for people.
And, there’s so many examples of how Latinos have found that sense of belonging through music at the times and places where they
couldn’t find it in other ways.
Experience Music Project