Havana → New York

The migration that turned island rhythms into a New York genre.

A genre can be a map of a migration. The rhythms were Cuban and Puerto Rican; the conditions that fused them were a specific New York — the postwar concentration of migrants in East Harlem and the South Bronx, where everyday barrio life turned inherited repertoires into something newly Nuyorican. Follow the people who made the crossing: Machito and Mongo Santamaría, Celia Cruz arriving from Cuba, Johnny Pacheco branding it all, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades giving it a barrio voice, until the Fania All-Stars carry it back out to the world. The island rhythms didn't just travel — the journey is what made them salsa.

Theme

migration

Stops

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