A few years back, when 105.9fm first came on air (back when it was known as Caliente) it introduced itself with a one minute comercial highlighting the commitment to Hispanic culture and music. Rob and I loved this bit. It said everything we believed in with respects to the Hispanic culture and music and took into account the many different factions of Latino culture there was. It helped especially that the background mix of music included Ruben Blades’ “Patria” and Hector Lavoe’s “Que Cante Mi Gente.”
Although we are multicultural specialists, we have always been Latin Music specialists. Our literature has always said “beyond salsa and merengue.” I have always disliked that Spanish music is lumped into one category as there’s so much music differential. Not only do we have different sounds of music (salsa vs. Spanish rock vs. pop) but within each individual genre there are cultural/country specific music. As an example, salsa music, varies in style from the Fania era, the more Colombian Grupo Niche, the 80’s romantic slower versions and the more pop/like Marc Anthony & Victor Manuel’s. The speed of the song makes the song danceable or simply listenable. There are those songs that are pretty much dance favorites (lloraras, no le pegue a la negra, etc.) but even more so that will keep you dancing like you were at the Copacabana in the city assuming salsa music is your taste.
And this kind of differentiation flows through other types of Spanish music. From the older more tribal and African based latin music (perico ripiao, bomba, chapeta, etc.) to the more mainstream Spanish music of differing generations (1940’s mambo, 1960’s boogaloo, 1980’s salsa romantica, 2000’s reggaetón) and finally there’s very cultural specific music (Cuban guaguanco, Dominican bachata, Puerto Rican plena, Guatemala/Honduras marimba, Brazilian Samba, Argentinean tango, Colombian vallenatos, Chilenean cueca, etc.) These distinctions are important to some and we have the expertise of knowing the differences and having these types of music in our collection and the ability of playing them speficifally OR in combination at any event.
We honestly LOVE the music types, the dancing and the joy that Latin/Hispanic/Spanish music brings to any event. I find that even non-Spanish speakers and other cultures truly embrace the rhythm and movement that the music invokes. At one point over 80% of our events were at least half Hispanic because of our knowledge base of the music. Although the majority of our events are weddings, traditional quinceneras/sweet 16’s run a close second. Even though by looking at us you could never guess that Latin blood runs through our veins, watch us dance and you’ll know it certainly does!
