Latin American Music

Latin American Music: Culture and Politics
Hey, everybody loves music—some music. Music is as close to a universal language as we have. Even when the words are foreign, the beat, melody, sense, instruments, feeling can communicate to us. Yes, this is a history course. However, culture is a powerful and vital part of history. So, along with learning the “facts” of the past, you will learn and in some cases learn to appreciate the musical richness of Latin American culture. The first portion of this essay introduces you to some Latin American composers and musicians you should know about--just to be a cultured citizen of Planet Earth. The second portion highlights the highly political content of much Latin American music. The final section briefly traces the recent boom in Latino music in the US. This is an “exposure” exercise meant to introduce you to a wide range of music from the region. Thus there are gaps and serious omissions—but, in my view, SOME culture is preferable to none. Here are some brief notes on some of the artists and composers-- consider it a sampler, not a full course meal. [Those entries without attribution come from the World Book Encyclopedia, CD ROM Millennium 2000 version; or Encyclopedia Britannica 2002, Expanded DVD edition.]

A Few Musical Folks You Should Know

Chavez, Carlos
(1899-1978), a Mexican composer, was one of the most important influences on the musical life of Mexico in the 1900's. Many of Chavez's works reflect his interest in Mexican folk music. Some of Chavez's other compositions were written in a strong romantic style.The use of complex rhythms became a dominant element in his mature compositions. Chavez wrote seven symphonies, several ballets, and cantatas, songs, and chamber works. Several of his pieces use native Mexican folk instruments. For example, Xochipilli Macuilxochitl (1940) is an orchestral composition that requires traditional Indian drums. Chavez was born in Mexico City. In 1928, he organized the first permanent symphony orchestra in Mexico, and he served as its conductor until 1949. He also directed the National Conservatory of Music almost continuously from 1928 to 1934 and the National Institute of Fine Arts from 1947 to 1952. In addition, Chavez was a music and art critic for a Mexico City newspaper. Chavez served as guest conductor for several major symphony orchestras in the United States.

Gardel, Carlos
was born in the city of Toulouse, France, on 11 December 1890. Son of an unknown father and Berta Gardés,who gave him her surname, he was christened as Charles Romuald Gardés. In 1893 his mother arrived in Argentina with her small child who was around twoyears old. His childhood was spent in the surroundings of the Mercado de Abasto, his adopted neighborhood, so then "El Morocho del Abasto" was born. In 1916, already recovered, he resumed alongside Razzano his season in Mar del Plata. The following year he decided to sing publicly a tango, and so one evening at the Teatro Empire in Buenos Aires he premiered Mi noche triste by Samuel Castriota and Pascual Contursi. Since then he would include tangos in his repertory. On 9 April 1917 the Glucksmann house hired them to record. He is starred on a silent movie: "Flor de Durazno" and together with Razzano he started his first tour of Chile. Gardel helped propel the tango to international popularity. The tango is a ballroom dance for a couple in slow 2/4 or 4/4 time. The dancers alternate long, slow steps with short, quick steps, sometimes making sudden turns and striking dramatic poses. The tango was danced in the United States about 1912 by Vernon and Irene Castle, a famous ballroom dancing team. It also became popular in Paris and London. Today's tango is related to an Argentine dance called the milonga, a Cuban dance called the habanera, and a tango from Spain's Andalusian region.

Gardel's last recording in Buenos Aires was on 6 November 1933 when he committed to disc Madame Ivonne, a tango by Eduardo Pereyra and Enrique Cadícamo. Between January and February 1935 he was starred on the films "El día que me quieras" and "Tango Bar" where he sang his most remembered hits. In April, Gardel decided to set out for a tour of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Aruba, Curaçao, Colombia, Panamá, Cuba and Mexico, but destiny prevented its completion by the tragic air crash in Medellín which ended his life on 24 June 1935. Source: Todo Tango

Jobim, Antonio Carlos
(1927-1994), Brazilian composer, pianist, and arranger of popular music. He became known for the song "The Girl from Ipanema," which was a worldwide hit in 1964. The lyrics for the song were written by the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes. Other songs by Jobim, including "Waters of March" and "Wave," also achieved worldwide popularity. Jobim was the leading composer of the style called the bossa nova. This is a Brazilian form of dance music that combines the rhythm of the samba with complex arrangements and harmonies of jazz music. The bossa nova began in Brazil during the 1950's and spread to the United States in the 1960's. Jobim's songs were recorded by many American musicians, including Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz. Jobim also composed music for motion pictures and the stage. Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almedia Jobim was born in Rio de Janeiro.
Jobim (Vh-1 bio)

Puente, Tito
(Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr.) 1923-, American musician, b. New York City. One of the premier composers and players of Latin music, he is a bandleader, pianist, and virtuoso percussionist. He began playing in the 1930s and performed in various bands while studying at the Julliard School of Music (1945-47). In 1947 he formed his own group, the Piccadilly Boys, which shortly afterward became the Tito Puente Orchestra. During the 1950s Puente became renowned for his Big Band renditions, in person and on recordings, of such Latin dance craze styles as the mambo and cha-cha; in the 1960s he also turned to pachenga music. Puente played in and led many other bands. Beginning in the 1960s he also collaborated with several jazz musicians and since then has customarily worked in either a Latin or jazz style, or a combination of the two, becoming an important figure in salsa music. During his long career, Puente has won four Grammys and has recorded more than 100 albums.
Tito Puente brief bio
Puente (VH-1 bio)

Hey, did I omit someone really important? Someone you really like? Suggestions for additional performers welcome!
Part 2: Mixing Politics and Music in Latin America

As you've observed during the course of the semester, free political expression in Latin America has been an infrequent luxury. Elites dominated the political arena during the 19th century, leaving little room for the voices of the people. Aside from an uprising (called a montonera in Argentina), the masses had few means of voicing their political concerns. In Mexico, for example, the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1884-1911) stifled opposition voices, monopolized political offices, rigged elections, and banned or broke strikes and protests. During the 20th century, military dictatorships repeated cut off most means of political expression: voting, organizing unions, free press, TV and radio.
With the legitimate means of political participation non-existent, many Latin Americans turned to non-institutional means of political expression. Thus the arts, literature, and, yes, music, became vehicles of political protest. With political institutions not functioning at all or tightly controlled by repressive regimes, people turned the arts and music to political ends. We could cite many examples over the decades. Here are a few.

Corridos of Mexico's Borderlands

Corridos Sin Fronteras/ Ballads Without Borders
A corrido is a ballad or folksong whose theme, characters, or events flow from the values and experiences of local communities of northern Mexico and/or the American Southwest. "Between 1848 and 1860, the modern corrido emerged out of an ancient musico-literary form that had been introduced from Spain in the sixteenth century — the romance. And it was evidently in Texas, and not in Michoacán, Durango, or Jalisco, as once thought, that the first corridos were composed. The climate of conflict that grew out of the Anglo invasion and subsequent annexation of what became the American Southwest at the end of the Mexican-American War (1848) was the ideal setting for the birth of an expressive culture that would key in on this conflict. The folklorist Américo Paredes has argued that the Mexican corrido actually originated along the Texas-Mexico border, since the earliest corrido collected in complete form comes from Texas — "El corrido de Kiansis" ("The Ballad of Kansas"; 1860s). In the early corridos, the conflict is generally placed in terms of professional rivalries, without expression of violence.

Later, "El corrido de Juan Cortina" ushered in what has been called the hero corrido. This type of corrido invariably features a larger-than-life Mexican hero who single-handedly defies a cowardly, smaller-than-life gang of Anglo-American lawmen. Hero corridos were written until the 1920s in Texas and elsewhere, including such classics as "Joaquín Murrieta and Jacinto Treviño," but perhaps the most memorable is "El corrido de Gregorio Cortez", the story of a folk hero who fled for his life after killing an Anglo-American sheriff in self-defense. Historically, the corrido and canción are two distinct genres or musical forms. However, in the Hispanic Southwest they have at times experienced considerable overlap, especially since the 1920s. Of course, this convergence is never complete; some corridos retain enough of their "classical" narrative features to stamp them unmistakably as corridos, while most canciones remain purely lyrical expressions of love." Source: Free Resources from Gale Publishing

Gregorio Cortez (1875-1916) lived in Karnes County, Texas, at the turn of this century. One day Sheriff Morris went to his house and accused him of stealing a horse. Gregorio had no idea of what was going on because he didn't know how to speak English. The sheriff didn't know any Spanish but he had a translator with him. Unfortunately, the translator, Mr. Choate, did not know Spanish very well. When the sheriff asked Gregorio if he knew anything about a missing horse, Choate translated the word "horse" incorrectly.

Gregorio said he knew nothing about this "horse." Tempers flared, leading to disaster. The sheriff shot Gregorio's brother, who died. Then Gregorio shot the sheriff, who crawled off into a field where he bled to death. His translator had fled to seek help. By the time Choate returned with others, the sheriff was dead. A statewide manhunt ensued, involving Texas Rangers and lawmen from many counties. Gregorio had fled, and was able to elude his pursuers through his horsemanship and with the help of friends.

Cortez was captured just before reaching the Mexican border. He was tried and sent to prison. But the story of the long chase was now known by the entire state, and soon became the subject of "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," a story of legendary horsemanship and complex issues. You can read more about Cortez in the book With a Pistol in His Hand, by folklorist Americo Paredes (1915-1999). See also the 1982 film with Edward James Olmos. Corrido "Gregorio Cortez"

Selena (Quintanilla Perez)
(1971-95) Although less overtly political than her Tejano predecessors, Selena became a powerful cultural icon during her short career. Her tragic murder makes her story all the more poignant. Dubbed the Latin Madonna (supposedly a compliment), Selena was poised to achieve crossover success with the release of her first English-language album shortly before being murdered. The founder of her fan club, suspected of embezzlement, and possibly degranged, short and killled the singer in a Corpus Christi, TX, motel room. Selena, who had performed from the age of nine with the family band, was a vivacious entertainer whose fluid voice celebrated the sound of Tejano, a fast-paced accordion-based Latin dance music that combined elements of jazz, country, and German polka and was rooted in South Texas. Selena's Tex-Mex popularity earned her laurels as the queen of Tejano, and she won a 1994 Grammy award for best Mexican-American album for Selena Live. Another album, "Amor Prohibido," sold more than 400,000 copies and was nominated for a 1995 Grammy award. At the time of Selena's shooting death, her song "Fotos y Recuerdos" was number four on Billboard's Latin chart. Six years after her untimely death, Tejana pop star Selena lives on in the memory of her family and fans-and in fashion through the efforts of award-winning designer Sandra Salcedo. In the spring of 1998 the first designs of the newly mass-produced Selena clothing line made their debut in stores nationwide. Salcedo, who has her own label, created the new collection along with Selena's sister, Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga.
Hispanic Magazine tribute and links
Selena (VH-1 bio)

Victor Jara (1932-1973)
Martyr of Chilean Protest Music, victim of Chile's fascist military dictatorship. Photos of Victor Jara
Victor Jara Sings
"Chile Stadium"
 
There are five thousand of us here 
in this little part of the city.
We are five thousand.
I wonder how many we are in all
in the cities and in the whole country? Here alone
are ten thousand hands which plant seeds 
and make the factories run:
How much humanity
exposed to hunger, cold, panic, pain, 
moral pressures, terror and insanity?
 What horror the face of fascism creates!
How hard it is to sing 
when I must sing of horror. 
Horror which I am living. 
Horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much horror 
and so many moments of infinity 
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song. 
What I see I have never seen. 
What I have felt and what I feel 
will give birth to the moment. . . . 
The life of Victor Jara (September 23, 1932-September 16(?), 1973) by Brad Chapman

Victor Jara is an extremely important influence on the music and culture of Chile. His life was a reflection of his country, of the tumultuous times in which he lived, and of his personal philosophies. Victor Jara began his life in a small town of Chile and with his music talent and great love for the people of Chile, became one of the best known and most influential musical figures of Latin America.

Victor Jara was born in Loquen, Chile, a small town outside of Santiago. His parents were rural farmers--his father, Manuel, worked as a simple laborer while his mother, Amanda, performed many odd jobs to make money for the family. Victor Jara's father had a drinking problem, and their home was often not happy because of the many fights when Victor's drunken father used to hit Amanda. After some years of this unhappiness, Victor's father moved to the countryside to work as a farmer, and Amanda was left on her own to raise Victor Jara and his brothers and sisters. She was an extremely hard worker, and in the words of Victor Jara, her optimistic outlook on life gave strength to the family. She was an extremely important part of Victor Jara's life. She sang and played the guitar, and taught Victor to play the guitar and also taught him many traditional folk songs of Chile. The time he spent with his mother had a great influence on his musical style.

Amanda had a great belief in the power of education, so when Victor finished elementary and high school he began studying accounting. Sadly, Amanda died when Victor was only 15 years old. He left his accounting studies and entered into the seminary. He was very sad over the death of his mother, and also believed that the profession of a priest was the most important in the world. But after two years, he became disenchanted with religion, and left to join the army for a few years. After this he returned to Lonquen, but had no job or prospects and thus began to study the folk music of Chile with a group of friends. During this time he developed an interest in theater, and began to study acting in the School of Theater in the University of Chile. There he showed an inclination towards directing, and after his acting degree was completed, he began in the directing program. During these years and in the future, Victor Jara participated in countless theater productions. He was also beginning to further sing and study folk music when he first met Violeta Parra. She was an extremely talented singer and artist, an admirer of the traditional music and instruments of Chile, and the owner of a small cafe in Santiago. Victor began to help in this cafe, and soon began singing more and more. During this time he also began to get involved in the politics of Chile. In 1966, he made his first solo disk, self titled "Victor Jara." In the following years he continued as a theater director but began to spend more and more time with his songs and political activities. Finally, in 1970, he left the life of the theater to spend all of his time working for the people of Chile through his songs.

The songs of Victor Jara are filled with his thoughts on the simple people of Chile. He had a great love for the hard working people of small towns and villages, and many of his songs celebrate the lives of these people. Also, because of his great love for his country, many of his songs attack injustices in society or political scandals. Victor Jara is an essential part of the great Latin American musical movement known as "Nueva Cancion" or New Song. This movement is involved with many revolutionary activities in Latin America, and all of the artists of Neuva Cancion share many common goals and thoughts (please see the essay on Nueva Cancion for more information). Finally, Victor Jara's political ideas where an extremely important part of his songs. He believed in the general communist philosophy, like many progressive singers of Latin America, because of it's promises to better the lives of poor people.

You can see the devotion of Victor Jara to his political ideals most strongly in his support of the presendency of Salvador Allende in 1973. Allende was a part of the Popular Unity party (a subsection of the Communist Party of Chile) and Victor Jara, along with other Chileans singers, gave concerts in favor of Allende and his political goals. Allende was a progressive canditate who had a great love for the people of the small towns of Chile. The Popular Unity party had plans to increase education, and to supply increased housing and free socialized medical care. One of the concerts representative of this campaign for Allende was the concert given in the Stadium of Chile, where many political artists sang in favor of Allende. In the end, the Allende campaign was a success, and he was elected president of Chile, after some political compromise and manuevering. However, there was much opposition to the election of Allende and the military organized a coup to overthrow the newly placed president. In the resulting coup, Allende was killed and the military seized control of the government. On the day of this tragedy, Victor Jara was at his job in the State Technical University, which was surrounded by the military, who took Victor Jara prisoner for five horrible days. During these days, he was forced to live in cold and dirty prisons without proper food or water, but other prisoners there with him testify that during these sufferings, he was only concerned with the welfare of his fellow prisoners.

Finally, the military brought Victor Jara and other political prisoners to the Stadium of Chile, the place where the concert for Allende has previously been held. There the milatary men tortured and killed many people. They broke Victor Jara's hands (Note: many stories indicate that Victor Jara's hands were cut off, but Joan Jara's book about Victor indicates that when she saw him after his death, his hands were broken, so that is the version being used in this essay) so that he couldn't play his guitar, and then taunted him to try and sing and play his songs. Even under these horrible tortures, Victor Jara magnificently sang a portion of the song of the Popular Unity party. After this, he received many brutal blows, and finally was brutally killed with a machine gun and carried to a mass grave.

After his horrible death Joan Jara, the wife of Victor, was shown to his body and gave him a proper funeral and buriel. Because of all of the problems in Chile following his horrible coup, she was forced to leave the country in secret with tapes of Victor Jara's music. Even today, the policital and intensely human songs of Victor Jara are respected all over the world, and the ideals of Nueva Cancion and political music in general remain extremely strong. The life of Victor Jara is a beautiful example of an intelligent and sincere singer who spoke strongly through his songs. As a result, the songs of Victor Jara are a testimony to his strength and positive view of life.

Bob Marley (1945-81)
Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist; critic of racism everywhere and corruption in Jamaican politics. As a member of the Wailers, a reggae band t included Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh , and later on his own, Marley propelled reggae to worldwide popularity. His commitment to nonviolence and the Rastafarian religion are transparent in his music, and his smoky tenor and loping reggae beat combine to enhance the appeal of his political message. Reggae is a type of popular music that developed in Jamaica in the 1960's. At first it was primarily performed by and for poor Jamaicans. It later became popular throughout Jamaica and also in England and the United States.

Reggae has influenced soul, rhythm and blues, and rock music. The words in most reggae songs deal with the social concerns and religious beliefs of poor Jamaicans. The songs are in 4/4 time and feature strong accents off the beat. Short rhythmic patterns are repeated many times by electric guitars and drums. They are also sometimes repeated with organ or piano. The rhythms in reggae are sometimes complex, but the harmonies are simple. As with rock music, the volume of reggae is loud. Reggae has its roots in traditional African music, Jamaican folk music, and North American popular music. It developed from two other types of Jamaican popular music--ska and rock steady.

Reggae began to gain popularity outside Jamaica in the late 1960's through the recordings of a number of reggae musicians. The most important was Bob Marley, who grew up in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica. Marley led a group called the Wailers, founded in 1964. He was the most famous reggae star internationally until his death from cancer in 1981 at the age of 36. His colleague friend and Peter Tosh also met a premature end a few years later-- at age 42-- murdered during a robbery gone bad.
"Until the philosophy which hold one race Superior and another inferior Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned Everywhere is war, me say war" - Bob Marley, in his song "War," quoting from H.I.M Haile Selassie I
VH-1 Behind with Scenes with Bob Marley
Marley (VH-1 bio) Bob Marley Foundation

Sosa, Mercedes
A strong voice against mlitary dictatorship in Argentina. Born in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina on July 9th, 1935, Mercedes Sosa grew up in a modest home, where she developed a love for popular artistic expressions. As an adolescent, she loved singing, dancing and hoped to become a native dance instructor. She entered the Argentine folklore scene in a rather unusual way. In the mid-1960s, while living in Mendoza, she along with her musician husband, Manuel Oscar Matus, and poet Armando Tejada Gómez became the founders of the Movimiento del Nuevo Cancionero, which renewed the natively rooted artistic expressions of the time. It was in those days that she recorded her debut album with an independent work, Canciones con fundamento. Shortly thereafter, she performed at the Cosquín Festival for the first time, thanks to the generosity of the already famous singer Jorge Cafrune. That same year,1965, she recorded the only track of the concept work Romance de la Muerte de Juan Lavalle, by Ernesto Sábato and Eduardo Falú. During the autumn of 1966, she released Yo no canto por cantar, her first album with PolyGram -at present Universal- and started a relationship with the company which she has kept for 33 years. Undoubtedly, an exceptional case of fidelity to a record company. In April 1967, after recording her third album Para cantarle a mi gente - she started hir first world tour. She sang in Lisbon, Miami, Rome, Warsaw, Leningrade, Kislovo, Sochi, Gagri, Bakú and Tiflis. During that tour she met Ariel Ramirez, author of Misa Criolla, who invited her to be the leading vocals in his work Mujeres Argentinas. She accepted and recorded that album in 1969, shortly after the release of Con sabor a Mercedes Sosa. By that time, her assertive voice had was becoming an inconvenience to the military government of her country, and she was frequently censored on official radios.

New Beginnings: In 1999, she returned to the stage and began a worlwide tour. Apart from her numerous concerts in Argentina, she performed in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries. In July of that year, she accompanied Charly García at a rock concert in Mexico City. The following September, Sosa began an important tour around Portugal, Spain, England, France, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Finland and Italy. Mercedes Sosa, known worldwide as, The Voice of Latin America, has never avoided any challenge. Thus, almost 35 years after her original debut as a folklore singer, she reinvented her musical style. For the first time, she recorded an album outside of the popular music genre. Sosa hit the peak of her career with Misa Criolla y Elegía, and strengthened her image as young artist - even though her own grandchildren remind her that she is already 64 years old. Misa Criolla y Elegía was be released in November, 1999.
Source: More on Mercedes Sosa
Sosa (VH-1 b io)

Estefan, Gloria
(1957-...), popular Cuban-born singer and songwriter--vehemently anti-Castro, darling of Miami's Cuban exiles. Estefan was born in Havana. Her original name was Gloria Maria Fajardo. Her family moved to Miami in 1959. She began to appear with a Cuban American band called the Miami Latin Boys in 1975. The group was soon renamed the Miami Sound Machine. Estefan received a degree in psychology from the University of Miami in 1978 but decided to pursue a music career instead. She married Emilio Estefan, Jr., the group's leader and keyboard player, in 1978. The Miami Sound Machine had its first hit in "Conga" (1985). Estefan was the Miami Sound Machine's dynamic lead singer and also composed many of its songs, including the hit "Anything for You" (1987). Her other compositions include "Live for Loving You" (1991), "Coming Out of the Dark" (1991), "Always Tomorrow" (1992), and "Go Away" (1993). In the 1990's, Estefan left the Miami Sound Machine to pursue a solo career. Popular with the rabidly anti-Castro Cuban community in Miami, Estefan often expresses opposition to the Cuban President. Like many Latino performers, she mixes politics and music.
Estefan (VH-1 bio)

Fiel de la Vega, Puerto Rico
[in Spanish]

Narco Corridos
Certainly one of the strangest musical political mobilizations has come along the US-Mexican border. Here traditional corridos (folksongs) that once honored revolutionaries like Pancho Villa, now make heroes of Mexican drug traffickers. Colombian drug lords also enjoy such musical celebrity, although in some cases, they pay composers for their work. In either case, many poor Mexicans and Colombians, see drug traffickers as populist folk heroes-- worthy of celebration in song.
Narco Corrido: Brief Description

Narco Corrido Book

Part 3: La Bomba: The Latin Pop Explosion by Jeff Wallenfeldt
Hispanics were on their way to becoming the largest ethnic minority in the United States by the first decades of the 21st century, but their music was already tops in 1999. The year saw a proliferation of Top 40 hits by Latino artists in 1999 and an explosion of Latin pop music. At the forefront were handsome, charismatic Ricky Martin—a 27-year-old Puerto Rican, the movement's answer to the young Elvis Presley—and sultry Jennifer Lopez, a 29-year-old Nuyorican (New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent) who first gained fame as a film actress. By midsummer Martin's “Livin' la Vida Loca” and Lopez's “If You Had My Love” both had reached number one in the charts. Suddenly the singers were everywhere—and not only in the Hispanic neighborhoods—their voices bleeding from Walkman headphones, their faces on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, their well-toned bodies in heavy rotation on MTV.

That dancing was at the heart of their performances was no surprise, not only because of the seductive rhythms of Latin music. Before starring in the film biography of Selena, the ill-fated Tejano pop sensation, Lopez was a dancer on television's In Living Color; by age 12 Martin had joined Menudo, the teenage song-and-dance franchise. He later acted on American television's General Hospital and in Les Miserables on Broadway before embarking on a Spanish-language singing career that made him an international star. His galvanic performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards was the watershed event of the Latin pop explosion, its “crossover” moment.

The notion of Latin music crossing over was not new, however. Since the 1930s, Latino musicians had flirted with mainstream acceptance in the U.S., beginning with the “king of rhumba,” Xavier Cugat. In the late 1940s, New Yorkers flocked to dance halls to hear Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. In 1959 Ritchie Valens had a Spanish-language rock-and-roll hit with “La Bamba,” and in the 1960s the group Santana infused its propulsive rock with Latin rhythms. Those rhythms were also pivotal to hits by non-Latinos, notably Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's work with the Drifters in the early '60s and the Philadelphia soul of writer-producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Cuban-born Gloria Estefan broke through with a string of Latin-flavoured pop hits, Spaniard Julio Iglesias became an international star, and Panamanian salsa singer Ruben Blades and Los Angeles's roots rockers Los Lobos became critics' darlings.

None of these inroads, however, was as deep as the latest wave of Latin pop—which also included Nuyorican Marc Anthony; Julio Iglesias's son Enrique; Selena's widower, Chris Perez; and Colombian singer Shakira. Some critics noted that Martin's and Lopez's platinum hits were less than pure Latin music and much indebted to rock and rhythm-and-blues styles. Yet modern Latin popular music was a hybrid that drew on a variety of cultures and styles, from tango to Tejano ballads, Afro-Cuban polyrhythms to Brazilian bossa nova. Moreover, Martin and Lopez were careful not to ignore their Hispanic audience or the rapidly expanding Spanish-language radio market.
Tons more links to quality information: University of Texas LANIC (Latin American Resources on Music)