In The Book of Salsa, Rondón offers an exhaustive overview of salsa and its associated genres, recounting his travels from New York to Cuba, from Puerto Rico to Venezuela. Through his erudite and passionate writing, he explores the history of salsa, its metamorphoses and its emblematic figures, highlighting its intersections with North American music.
The work also reflects his deep admiration for this dynamic music, which is at once joyful, festive and imbued with melancholy. This music, by evoking the love and daily life of the communities from which it comes, shows how lightness can be a means of political and social resistance. Rondón makes us discover the richness and complexity of the Caribbean region, far from stereotypes.
Cuban author Leonardo Padura, a big fan of this work, believes that it is one of the most instructive readings for understanding the Caribbean and its mixed culture. He even states that it is “one of those books that you would have liked to experience rather than write“. Translated by Maxime Bisson.
Allia Editions offers us the first pages in preview:
César Miguel Rondón is a prominent Venezuelan journalist who has excelled in writing, radio and television. In addition to his role in journalism, he is also recognized as an essayist, screenwriter and producer. In Caracas, in 1974, he launched a radio program devoted to salsa and became friends with several key figures in this musical world.
His move to New York in 1978 was the trigger for his project The Book of Salsa (1979), in which he sought to document the evolution of this Caribbean music, then neglected by the media and academia. Currently in exile in Miami because of the Maduro regime, his book has become a reference for lovers of Caribbean music around the world.
2023-09-30 09:07:44
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