Salsaduende

Cuba founded its identity by combining the influences of its entire population - white, black, and mulatto. Music played an important role in the formation of such an identity. The genre that was to succeed in creatively fusing equal amounts of white- and black- derived musical features was the son, which subsequently came to dominate the culture not only in Cuba, but most of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean as well. The son originated in eastern Cuba during the 1st decades of the century. From the begining it represented a combination of Spanish-derived and Afro-Cuban elements.