Rumba Always in Fashion

Rhythms come and go and dances go out of style even more quickly, but core music remains; the rumba is one of these. With thunderous pace and strength, it was an original Cuban music.

Now that we are in a resurge of the rumba craze, it would be good to remember that those foundation tunes, which we consider basic in the American sound heritage, did not have a kind and sweet birth. They had lots of troubles and faced lack of understanding from the ruling social classes.

Rumba was born in the arc formed by the provinces of Matanzas and Havana, mainly in the port areas where the Africans were grouped when they were brought to Cuba in the tragic times of slavery. People of African descent originally used the word rumba as a synonym for party.

With time the African communities became actual rumba conservatories through the strength of oral tradition. Even so, the music of the drums took a long time to break free and had to hide in secret societies and slave houses. An energetic Afro-Cuban dance, rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd.

One of the first prohibitions against this rhythm is included in the police and government edicts of 1792. There is also an 1893 news report of the arrest of a group of mulatto men in the western city of Matanzas for going out on the street to dance rumba without prior permission.