Identity & Resistance in Cuban & Puerto Rican Music

In working-class Afro-Latin communities, nothing surpasses music in terms of cultural expression and documentation. Self-identity, education, resistance, escapism, and the concept of our history in our own voices are all imbedded in the text and sub-text of the traditional and popular music of Afro-Latin America. In this six-week course, multi-Grammy nominee and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director John Santos focuses on how a wide range of Cuban and Puerto Rican music addresses these issues. Recorded music, slides and videos form the foundation for the lectures with ample Q&A.

Session 1. Raices Afro-Cubanas: Kongo, Yoruba, Abakuá

Survival and identity through music and the arts are among the strongest facets of resilience and resistance during slavery and post-slavery in the Americas. This phenomenon uniquely represents Black courage and creativity and set the stage for the explosion of Black arts as socio-political expression in the “New World.”

Session 2. La Bomba y La Plena Puertorriqueña

Session 3. La Música Campesina

Session 4. Carnaval y La Rumba Cubana

Session 5. El Son y el Bolero

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Update Note: This lecture series takes place off-site, not at Yerba Buena Gardens. The August 27, 2014 session will be held at the California Historical Society on Mission Street near 3rd Street.

Co-Presented with