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Pedro Gomez (dance Instructor)
Pedro Gomez (born c. 1963) is a Salsa dance instructor from Cuba. Biography After Gomez was born, his parents decided to abandon Cuba, perhaps to allow his son to live under better economic conditions. The Gomez family arrived in Puerto Rico. Salsa music had been popularized in Cuba by Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot and others, and, in Puerto Rico, it shared the general public's top spot among favorite types of music with American rock and pop music. Such stars such as El Gran Combo and Eddie Santiago were famous during the 1980s there. Gomez started to become interested in this type of music since he was a child, demonstrating ability to dance it from his early years. Gomez tried to continue learning and practicing his dance moves as a teenager, after he had moved to Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami ...
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Salsa Music
Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montuno, with elements of Mambo (music), mambo, Latin jazz, Bomba (Puerto Rico), bomba, plena and guaracha. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa. Originally the name salsa was used to label commercially several styles of Latin dance music, but nowadays it is considered a musical style on its own and one of the staples of Latin American culture. The first self-identified salsa bands were predominantly assembled by Cubans, Cuban and Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican musicians in New York City in the '70s. The music style was based on the late son montuno of Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín and Roberto Faz. These musicians included Celia Cruz, Willie ColónRuben Blade ...
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Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola ( Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The official area of the Republic of Cuba is (without the territorial waters) but a total of 350,730 km² (135,418 sq mi) including the exclusive economic zone. Cuba is the second-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with over 11 million inhabitants. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney people from the 4th millennium BC with the Gua ...
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Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Isla de Mona, Mona, Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Vieques, Puerto Rico, Vieques. It has roughly 3.2 million residents, and its Capital city, capital and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, most populous city is San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Spanish language, Spanish and English language, English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates. Puerto Rico ...
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Celia Cruz
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the " Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music. She began her career in her native Cuba, earning recognition as a vocalist of the popular musical group Sonora Matancera, a musical association that lasted fifteen years (1950-1965). Cruz mastered a wide variety of Afro-Cuban music styles including guaracha, rumba, afro, son and bolero, recording numerous singles in these styles for Seeco Records. In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution caused the nationalization of the music industry, Cruz left her native country, becoming one of the symbols and spokespersons of the Cuban community in exile ...
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Olga Guillot
Olga Guillot (October 9, 1922 – July 12, 2010) was a Cuban singer who was known as the "Queen of Bolero". She was a native of Santiago de Cuba. Biography Daughter of Catalan-Jewish immigrants who moved to Cuba, her father was a tailor and her mother was a seamstress. Olga Guillot was born in Santiago de Cuba, and her family moved to Havana when she was five years old. As a teenager, she and her sister, Ana Luisa, performed as the "Duo Hermanitas Guillot." It wasn't until 1945 that her talent as a bolero singer was discovered, when Facundo Rivero, an influential man in the Cuban music scene of the era, heard her sing for the first time and helped her make her professional singing debut at a famous Havana night club. Soon after, Guillot met Miguelito Valdés, who took her to New York City, where Guillot was able to record her first album with the Decca label. She gained recognition in the United States with her version in Spanish of "Stormy Weather" in 1946. Guillot traveled to ...
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Rock And Roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm and blues, boogie woogie, gospel music, gospel, as well as country music. While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s,Peterson, Richard A. ''Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity'' (1999), p. 9, . the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to journalist Greg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the United States in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, rock and roll had developed into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music, though the latter also continued to be known in many circles as rock and roll."Kot, Greg"Rock and roll", in the ''Encyclopædia Bri ...
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Pop Music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. ''Rock'' and ''pop'' music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which ''pop'' became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles ...
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El Gran Combo
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican salsa orchestra based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012, it was often considered Puerto Rico's most successful musical group. The group received the moniker ''La Universidad de la Salsa'' (The University of Salsa) in Colombia, due to the sheer number of famous salsa musicians and singers who developed their careers with it, who started with the group (particularly Andy Montañez), or who were occasionally backed up by the band and La India. The salsa orchestra was founded in May 1962, by Rafael Ithier. Ithier was still nominally its musical director, and is the only remaining member from the band's original lineup. From 2010 until his death in 2022, Willie Sotelo, who joined the group in 2006 as pianist, had become the band's ''de facto'' musical director on tours, with Ithier conducting the group and playing occasionally in select live performances. They are still a ...
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Eddie Santiago
Eddie Santiago (born Eduardo Santiago Rodríguez, August 18, 1955) is a Salsa music, salsa singer from Puerto Rico. Early years At a young age, Santiago demonstrated great love for salsa music. He performed with several groups, including Generación 2000, Orquesta La Potente, Orquesta Opus, and the Orquesta Saragüey. Musical career Santiago's career took off in 1986 in Puerto Rico and the rest of Latin America as a soloist, forming his own band, and recording songs including: "Tú me quemas" ("You Burn Me"), "Qué Locura Enamorarme de Ti" ("What Madness To Fall in Love With You"), "Me Fallaste" ("You Failed Me"), Antidoto y Veneno ("Antidote and Venom"), "Tu Me Haces Falta" ("I Miss You"), his best known hit "Lluvia" ("Rain", not to be confused with Menudo (band), Menudo's hit of the same name), and many others. His fame eventually spread to Europe and the United States, making him one of the most popular salsa singers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was one of the main ...
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Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Florida, second-most populous city in Florida and the eleventh-most populous city in the Southeastern United States. The Miami metropolitan area is the ninth largest in the U.S. with a population of 6.138 million in 2020. The city has the List of tallest buildings in the United States#Cities with the most skyscrapers, third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over List of tallest buildings in Miami, 300 high-rises, 58 of which exceed . Miami is a major center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, arts, and international trade. Miami's metropolitan area is by far the largest urban econ ...
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Andy Montañez
Andrés Montañez Rodríguez (born May 7, 1942), better known as Andy Montañez, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter. Early life Montañez is a native of the ''Tras Talleres'' area of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is known by the nicknames "El Godfather de la Salsa" and "El Niño De Trastalleres". Musical career Montañez first gained fame as a member of the internationally successful El Gran Combo group, with songs like "Hojas blancas" (White Leaves), "Un verano en N.Y." (A Summer in NY), "El barbero loco" (The Crazy Barber), "Julia", "Ponme el alcolado, Juana" (Rub Me With the Bay Rum, Juana), "Vagabundo" (Bum), "El Swing", etc. He stayed for approximately 15 years, producing 37 LPs. He left El Gran Combo to pursue a career with Venezuelan group La Dimension Latina, creating a feud between the two groups. After leaving El Gran Combo, he enjoyed considerable success on an international scale with his own orchestra, touring Latin America Latin America or * frenc ...
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Puerto Rican Culture
The culture of Puerto Rico is the result of a number of international and indigenous influences, both past and present. Modern cultural manifestations showcase the island's rich history and help to create an identity which is uniquely Puerto Rican - Taíno (Native Indian), Spanish, African, and North American. Influences ''Taíno'' A subgroup of the Arawakan aboriginals, a group of Native Americans in northeastern South America, inhabited the Greater Antilles, but Puerto Rico was inhabited predominantly by Tainos. At the time Juan Ponce de León took possession of the Island, there were about twenty Taino villages, called ''yucayeque.'' It is believed that Taíno settlements ranged from single families to groups of 3,000 people. At their arrival the Spaniards expected the Taíno Indians to acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain by payment of gold tribute, to work and supply provisions of food and to observe Christian ways. The Taínos rebelled, most notably in ...
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