La Salsa en Barcelona: Inmigración, identidad, músicas latinas y baile

Abstract

The dissemination of salsa in Spain began in the 1970s with the Fania record label’s promotion of various singers; however, it was in the 1980s that the popularization of musicians and groups began through radio, live concerts, and local groups who played current hits. In the 1990s, discotheques playing salsa multiplied and the teaching and learning of salsa dance began. The Cuban was the first style of salsa dancing disseminated in the early nineties. However, Los Angeles style began to proliferate from the first years of the new century, while the model of salsa congresses began to be replicated worldwide. The internationalization of salsa dancing coincided with the boom of Latin American immigration in Spain, so the emergence of the first schools and salsa dance companies aimed to the local audiences in the early new century occurred in parallel with the emergence of the new discotheques of salsa, merengue and bachata and of radio stations dedicated exclusively to Latin music directed to Latin American residents. Given the salsa and Latino musics offer made by the discotheques and dance halls it would be possible to assume that Latin Americans living in Barcelona and the Spaniards converge in these spaces; however, currently, although there are some exceptions, the salsa worlds of Latinos and Spaniards do not mix, and each group experiences salsa dance and other Latino musics in a different way._x000D_ _x000D_ Based on empirical data and considering the triad identity-music–dance, this research work concerns about the role of salsa music and dance regarding the intercultural communication between Latinos and Spaniards in Barcelona. In other words, the role of salsa and dance in the construction and negotiation of identities in the context of Barcelona is studied here. _x000D_ _x000D_ This study offers a retrospective analysis of the dissemination, consumption and production of salsa music and dance from the 1980s to the present in Barcelona, bearing in mind that the movement of salsa and Latin music in this city forms part of the movement of salsa and Latin music around the world, and that this movement is framed within a context characterized by redefinitions of identity through the ambivalent discourse about immigration and the growth of transnational circuits of cultural and commercial exchange in which music plays a relevant role. In this sense, this research provides information on a particular Kinetopia, which means answering how and why salsa dancing varies in Barcelona, at which points this scene salsa connected with some others. _x000D_ _x000D_ Therefore, the antecedents of salsa dancing and its emergence in USA, its dissemination beyond this country; the development of record production, radio stations and discotheques in Barcelona; the key dance teachers that disseminated the salsa dancing in Barcelona and their connection with international precursors of different dancing styles; schools, companies, salsa congresses; the opposition of "studio dance" and "street dance" and the respective central role of the body; the consequences of the internationalization of salsa dancing on the salsa live concerts are things that are analyzed here.

Date of Award	14 Dec 2015
Original language	Undefined/Unknown
Supervisor	Josep Martí Pérez (Director) & Lluís Albert Chillón Asensio (Tutor)