The African Roots of Latin Music

FAIN: ED-50241-03

CUNY Research Foundation, LaGuardia Community College (Long Island City, NY 11101-3007)
Ana Maria Hernandez (Project Director: April 2003 to February 2005)

The development of curricular modules that explore the integration of African musical traditions into Caribbean culture and their influences on American music in the twentieth century.

Associated Products

"The African Roots of Latin Music" (Web Resource)
Title: "The African Roots of Latin Music"
Author: Edgardo Diaz-Diaz
Author: Ana Maria Hernandez
Author: Max Rodriguez
Author: Gustavo Moretto
Abstract: This project grew out of a desire to attain a deeper understanding of the complex multicultural phenomenon that is Latin music. Born in West and Central Africa, raised in Haiti, Cuba, Brazil and New Orleans, and attaining its full bloom in New York, Latin music is truly a global phenomenon that embraces two centuries, three continents and innumerable cultural traditions. Today, salsa and Latin jazz are played and enjoyed all over the world by musicians and dancers of all ethnic origins. Until recently, full-length studies on this subject were scarce. In the past ten years, research on the origins and development of jazz yielded information and renewed interest on the parallel, intertwined development of its close cousin, Latin music. Since 1999, seminal studies have been published by John Storm Roberts, Robin Moore, Isabelle Leymarie, Lise Waxer, Leonardo Acosta, and Raúl Fernández. A traveling bilingual exhibition on Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, opened in Washington D.C. in 2003 and will circle the nation for the next three years. A generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled Professors Ana María Hernández, Max Rodríguez and Gustavo Moretto to form a study group under the direction of consultant Edgardo Díaz-Díaz to delve into recent publications on the subject and listen to CD reissues of sources long unavailable. While the grant project resulted in a series of instructional modules to be used in three specific courses, we felt the need to extend our findings to a larger public.
Year: 2004
Primary URL: http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/ahernandez/afroots
Primary URL Description: This website traces the influence of African music on the development of Latin, primarily Caribbean, music from the arrival of the fist slaves to the plantations of the Caribbean to recent forms of musical fusion.

“The United States in the Poetry of Guillén.” In Brenda Greene, ed. and intro. The African Presence and Influence in the Culture of the Americas. Newcastle upon Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010: 25-32. (Book Section)
Title: “The United States in the Poetry of Guillén.” In Brenda Greene, ed. and intro. The African Presence and Influence in the Culture of the Americas. Newcastle upon Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010: 25-32.
Author: Ana Maria Hernandez
Editor: Brenda Greene
Abstract: This article explores the influence of the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance in the early poems of Nicolas Guillen, a close friend of Langston Hughes. The study of Pan African movements in the Americas resulted from my NEH funded Focus Grant, "The African Roots of Latin Music."
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/african-presence-and-influence-on-the-cultures-of-the-americas/oclc/636921546&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: This book gathers papers presented at the CUNY-wide conference on the influence of the African diaspora in the culture of the Americas.

Fantoches 1926. Folletin moderno por once escritores cubanos. Doral: Stockcero, 2011. (Book)
Title: Fantoches 1926. Folletin moderno por once escritores cubanos. Doral: Stockcero, 2011.
Author: Carlos Loveira, Jorge Mañach et al.
Editor: Ana Maria Hernandez
Abstract: This collective mystery novel from 1926 includes a spirited debate about the African legacy in Cuban culture. The initial research about the African influence on Cuban culture was sponsored by the NEH Focus Grant "The African Roots of Latin Music" during 2003-2004.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/fantoches-1926-folletin-moderno-por-once-escritores-cubanos/oclc/730253590&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: This website includes a summary of the novel and the circumstances in which it was created.
Type: Edited Volume

"Two Hundred Years of Cuban Dance" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: "Two Hundred Years of Cuban Dance"
Abstract: This lecture explores the African influence on various types of Cuban dance, from the elegant "contradanza" of the early 1800's to the fusion dances of today, and including the development of danzón, rumba, mambo and conga. The initial research into this subject was funded by a Focus Grant from NEH, "The African Roots of Latin Music" (2003-2004).
Author: Ana Maria Hernandez
Date: 10/18/2011
Location: SUNY Old Westbury

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