Every week, La Alternativa delivers the very best from the Latin alternative scene by curating a blend of emerging and established artists within the Latin diaspora, while providing a platform to champion our growing local music scene. Listen on demand here and on 88Nine from 10-11 p.m. every Wednesday.
Salsa is a genre many Latines have grown up around. It blasted from the kitchen on a Saturday morning as your dad “subtly” let you know it's time to clean the house. It got everyone at the Quinceañera moving at 10 p.m. — except your baby cousin sleeping across two chairs with a suit jacket laid over him. It’s also possible you first saw it in motion during the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show with Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga.
We connect the genre to emotional moments, or maybe it simply beckons you to the dance floor. Whatever your relationship with salsa is, we know it all began in Cuba, emerging in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Artists like Arsenio Rodriguez and Benny Moré inferred from the sounds of the island, incorporating syncopated rhythm and instruments from Spanish and African descent to create a blended genre called “son cubano.”
Rodriguez, known as El Ciego Maravilloso, became blind at the age of 7 and grew up to be a pioneer of the genre. He was a composer, percussionist and bandleader who brought the conga drum and Afro-Cuban rhythms to the genre. “Hachero Pa' Un Palo” is an example of “son montuno,” incorporating the traditional son with a faster and repetitive montuno (a syncopated, repetitive, two-measure musical pattern) section.
Salsa that we recognize and have come to love today is thanks to Fania Records. Founded in NYC by Johnny Pacheco and Jerry Masucci back in 1964, the label brought us music by legends like Celia Cruz, Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Ruben Blades and many more.
Alongside their individual projects, they came together to form Fania All-Stars, an eclectic mix of voices and styles that travelled the global. On their travels, they performed special renditions of songs like “Anacaona,” a symbol of cultural pride paying tribute to the Taino artist who played a crucial role in the resistance against Spanish colonialism in Haiti.
In this episode, we do our own traveling through history as we play the classics and timeless tracks, from son to salsa.
Episode playlist
- Arsenio Rodriguez, “Hachero Pa’ un Palo”
- Buena Vista Social Club, “Candela”
- Benny Moré, “Como Fue”
- La Sonora Matancera & Nelson Pinedo, “Quien Sera”
- Omara Portuondo, “Donde Estabas Tu”
- Fania All-Stars, “Anacaona (feat. Cheo Feliciano)”
- Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco, “Quimbara”
- Joe Arroyo, “Rebelion”
- El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, “Un Verano en Nueva York”
- Marc Anthony, “Preciosa”
- Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe, “Todo Tiene Su Final”
