Cuban Women and Salsa : To the Beat of Their Own Drum

This book would not have been possible without the help and support of countless individuals. I would like to first thank the Alcazar and Poey clans, who brought and kept music in my life. Donna Nudd, Terry Galloway, Carol Batker, Jerrilyn McGregory, and Carrie Sandahl read early chapter drafts and offered their incredible insights, as well as their friendship and laughter-I am always grateful. I am especially indebted to Anita González, who thoughtfully reviewed my proposal for Palgrave and articulated this project better than I could. Robinson Herrera, José Rodríguez, Jennine Capó Crucet, Hernán Ramírez, Carlos Bolaños, and Alex Aviña, who continuously remind me that what we do matters-you inspired me to see this through. I am also grateful to Maricarmen Martínez, whose lively conversations on rumberas found their way into these pages, and Urayoán Noel, who graciously shared his abundant knowledge with me. My editor, Robyn Curtis, and her assistant, Erica Buchman, at Palgrave supported this project from the start and their help made the process easy. I am also grateful to the fabulous baristas at All Saints and Catalina's in Tallahassee. You kept me fueled as I wrote and took up space. I also want to thank my husband, Virgil Suárez, whose support makes anything possible. Most especially, I want to thank my daughters, Alex and Gabby, who are the music and joy in my life. Lastly, thanks to the "whatsapperos" who kept me connected to family. The first pitcher of mojitos at our next salsa night is on me. Salsa is both an American and transnational phenomenon, however women in salsa have been neglected. To explore how female singers negotiate issues of gender, race, and nation through their performances, Poey engages with the ways they problematize the idea of the nation and facilitate their musical performances' movement across multiple borders. Although salsa as a musical phenomenon has garnered interest from various disciplines in the last fifteen years, the contributions of female performers to the genre has been largely ignored. Here, Poey rectifies that oversight by tracing the participation of Cuban and Cuban-American women as either solo artists or lead vocalists in the development and popularization of salsa. In order to explore how female singers negotiate complex issues of gender, race, and nation through their performances, Poey starts with an examination of one of the roots of salsa, Cuban music. The singers Rita Montaner and Celeste Mendoza, who both adapted traditional forms such as Rumba for different audiences, were early models for what women in salsa would become. From there, salsa took off with the careers of Celia Cruz, La Lupe, Gloria Estefan, and Albita Rodriguez, with their complex portrayals and interpretations of gender and racial codes. Salsa is inherently both an American and transnational phenomenon and Poey engages with the ways performers problematize the idea of the nation and facilitate their musical performances' movement across multiple borders Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-12 From the Streets to the Nightclub: Rumberas as Salsa Precursors....Pages 13-32 Celia Cruz: From “La Guarachera De Cuba” to the “Queen of Salsa”....Pages 33-53 La Lupe: The Excessive Performance of Race and Gender....Pages 55-75 Crossing over: Gloria Estefan’s Performance of the/on the Hyphen....Pages 77-97 No Se Parece a Nada/Not Like Anything Else: Albita Rodríguez Bends the Rules....Pages 99-119 Conclusion....Pages 121-130 Back Matter....Pages 131-177 "Although Salsa has garnered interest from various disciplines in the last fifteen years, the contributions of female performers has been largely ignored. This book adds to the field by tracing the participation of Cuban and Cuban-American women as either solo artists or lead vocals in the development and popularization of Salsa, highlighting their staging of gender, race and nation"--