Guajira

The guajira sings of an idealized campesino countryside: rolling fields, palm shade and rural longing, dressed in the lyrical melodies of Cuba's punto...

The guajira sings of an idealized campesino countryside: rolling fields, palm shade and rural longing, dressed in the lyrical melodies of Cuba's punto guajiro and shaded by the same habanera-tinged current. Where the guaracha jokes, the guajira yearns; its tempo eases and its imagery turns pastoral — a city's nostalgia for a country it has left behind. It spans the rural punto cubano and the staged, urban guajira-son that entered popular music; it belongs to the broader trova-and-son family of Cuban song and, like its relatives, carried into the salsa repertoire as one of the gentler colors a sonero could reach for between the harder dance numbers.

Era

Son & Trova

Traits

Lyrical, idealized-countryside (campesina) song from the rural punto cubano; enters salsa as the 'guajira-son' repertoire.