leader Xavier Cugat founded the Waldorf-
Astoria Orchestra in New York, and intro-
duced a highly commercialized (and
enormously popular) Latin sound to U.S.
audiences.
In the 1940s, bandleader Perez Prado
introduced a national craze with new
upbeat form of the danzon known as the
mambo. A fusion of Cuban music and
jazz (or “cubop”) became popular after
World War II, influencing Dizzy Gillespie
and other key jazz figures of the era. New
Yorker Frank “Machito” Grillo, who had
sung with Xavier Cugat, was a key figure
in this genre. Machito would also mentor
one of the key figures in the modern Latin
music scene in the United States, the
Puerto Rican drummer Ernesto “Tito”
Puente. Dance Mania,one of Puente’s best-
known records came out in 1958. While
Tito Puente played a wide range of Afro-
Cuban and other music styles, he is best
known as one of the key figures in salsa
music, a general term that is sometimes
used as an all-encompassing word for
Latin music, but more specifically for the
fusion of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz.
Throughout the 1960s, New York
remained the center of Latin music in the
United States. In addition to Tito Puente,
key musicians during the decade included
fellow Puerto Rican New Yorkers Ray
Barretto and Eddie Palmieri. By the end
of the decade, as the hybrid Nuyorican
cultural identity emerged, the atmosphere
was ripe for and explosion of modern salsa
music. Contemporary salsa is said to have
been born on the streets of New York.
The New York-based record company,
Fania Records, introduced many of the
early salsa stars, including Johnny Pacheco
and Willie Colón.
Latinos in Sports
In 1947, Jackie Robinson, an all-American
multi-sport college athlete, broke the
major league baseball color line when
Brooklyn Dodger general manager
Branch Rickey called the African-
American Robinson up from the Dodger’s
minor league affiliate, the Montreal
Expos. Over next few years, more African-
American athletes would join the majors,
as would a growing number of players
from Latin America.
There were Latino players in the
major leagues before Robinson, though
only those with light skin were allowed to
play. Some, like Rafael Almeida and
Armando Marsans of the Cincinnati
Reds, were forced to sign affidavits swear-
ing they were of European and not
African descent. Nonetheless, over 40
players, mostly Cubans, played major
league baseball between 1902 and 1947.
The most prominent was Adolfo Luque,
who had a 30-year career as a player and
manager.
After Robinson shattered the color
line, black and other darker-skinned
Latinos joined the game. During the
1950s, Minnie Minoso, Roberto
Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, and others
helped alter the game forever. Vic Power,
a Puerto Rican first baseman who won
seven Gold Glove awards in the late
1950s and early 1960s, introduced the
one-handed catch at his base, which
earned him the reputation from white
writers as a “showboat.” Frequently,
Latino players found that because they
spoke little English and therefore got less
press attention, their accomplishments
on the field were not as well known. Stars
like Clemente were branded as “moody”,
“hot-tempered”, or even “troubled” due
to his relationship with the press.
In other major sports, Latino partic-
ipation was much rarer during the 1950s
and 1960s. While today there are a hand-
ful of Latino football, basketball and even
hockey players, there were virtually none
in that earlier era. By the end of the
1960s, however, professional golf boasted
two major Latino stars: Lee Treviño and
Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez.THE BRACERO PROGRAM
Established as an emergency response to
wartime labor shortages, the bracero pro-
gram, which provided for the temporary
entry of seasonal farmworkers, became
the cornerstone institution in U.S.-
Mexican relations for more than 20 years
(1942–1964). It was buttressed by
American growers, who wanted to pro-
tect their low labor costs, and it was
tremendously popular with poor
Mexicans, who welcomed higher wages,
even under exploitative conditions.
Before the program ended, it had
employed nearly 5 million Mexicans,
though many of these were “repeaters”—LA RAZA UNIDA 167Roberto Clemente (Corbis)Chi Chi Rodriguez (Corbis)