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Article: The Latin-African theme explored.
- Article from:
- Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA)
- Article date:
- June 17, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Orange County Register. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Richard Chang
ster
The connections between Latin America and Africa run deep.
How could they not? Five hundred years ago, Spanish conquistadors made their first forays into Latin America, bringing with them African slaves. Slave importation continued for centuries, persisting in countries like Cuba all the way up to the 1880s.
For half a millenium, Spanish, Portuguese, African and indigenous peoples and cultures have mixed, creating wonderful sounds such as cumbia, rumba, samba, festejo, son and Afro-Cuban jazz.
While these sounds have been the lifeblood of Latin Americans for generations, it's only been recently that ...