Maria's Music Blog

History and Origins  Salsa is a hybrid musical genre based on Afro-Cuban music that also incorporates different elements from various Latin American Styles. It started developing in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s but it was not until the 1960s that this genre of music received its official name. In the 1970s this genre became more popular along with the spread of Hispanic Cultural Identity. The word “Salsa” means “sauce” in English and is usually a mixture of ingredients made to flavor the food, which in some type of way has similarities to this musical genre, since this genre is a mixture of different elements. This genre of music is strongly influenced by Cuban Culture and also incorporates a lot of elements from Puerto Rican Culture. At the same time Jazz and Rock also played an important role in the creation of this unique genre. This genre has a lot of diversity because styles such as: Bolero, Rhumba, Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha composed and contributed to what today we know ...

  It is no secret that in the past, men were usually in charge of playing the music and women were in charge of the dances and keeping them company. This is something that we can see in most cultures, which is really interesting because even though we are so different, we speak different languages and have different traditions; this dynamic of gender and music is present in a lot of cultures.  This is also something we can see in the Colombian culture, in which if we look back years ago, we can see how the musical groups were mostly composed of men. Today, I’m going to talk about a specific genre of music that is really popular in the Colombian Caribbean and in which we can still see how the majority of people who are part of this musical genre are men. This genre is called Vallenato and if I’m honest this is one of my favorite musical genres of my country. I love that the music in this genre is very cheerful, transmits a lot of feelings and is very traditional.  Below I’...

As a person who was born and raised in Colombia, whenever I have the opportunity to share a little about my culture I choose to do so. That is why I have decided to make this blog about rituals that take place in Colombia and the music that is used to accompany those rituals.  First of all let me tell you a little bit about Colombia.  Colombia is a country located in South America where the main language is Spanish. The  capital of Colombia is Bogota, where a large part of the population is located. However, in the interior cordilleras you can find indigenous groups that still survive and continue to struggle to maintain their roots, their culture and their traditions. Colombia's  population is mostly mestizo but European and African minorities can also be found. Which makes Colombia a very diverse country with a lot of musical and cultural diversity as well.  Based on this ethnic diversity, in Colombia there are many rituals that come from different ethnic grou...

Hi all! I'm Maria Gonzalez Taborda and I'm going to be one of your classmates in this class.  To start, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself so that you have an idea of who I am and where I come from. I was born in Colombia and lived there until I was 15. When I was 15, my parents decided to start a new life in a new place, and that's how I got here. I have been living here in Spartanburg for three years and a half now but I'm not going to lie, I'm still getting used to it. I'm a Freshman and I'm planning to major in Psychology and Hispanic Studies but you never know, that may change in the future.   I live with my parents and my little sister who is not so little anymore, she is 13 now, and the rest of my family lives in Colombia. My first language is Spanish and I'm working on improving my English every day, but it has been a little difficult to learn a new language, to be honest. I'm a proud Latina, I love my country, my culture, it...