{"id":14725,"date":"2021-01-27T01:35:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T06:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=14725"},"modified":"2021-01-27T01:35:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T06:35:43","slug":"rhythms-of-latin-america-merengue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/rhythms-of-latin-america-merengue\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhythms of Latin America: Merengue"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14727\" style=\"width: 521px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14727\" class=\" wp-image-14727\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/musician-623362_960_720-350x263.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"511\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/musician-623362_960_720-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/musician-623362_960_720-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/musician-623362_960_720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-14727\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image taken from Pixabay.com.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>To talk about <em>merengue<\/em> is to talk about a Caribbean music genre with an irresistible power to draw everyone\u2014from Caracas to New York\u2014to the dancefloor.<\/p>\n<p>With its roots deep within the Dominican Republic\u2019s colonial past, <em>merengue <\/em>emerged near the midpoint of the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century as a staple of the rural class expanding to the country\u2019s urban centers and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>In the same fashion as <em>salsa<\/em>, merengue was born of the fusion of African rhythms with European notation, and a good dose of instruments from both cultures. Also, merengue\u2019s distinguishable rhythm is two-four, though it is not uncommon to hear four-four beats in some songs.<\/p>\n<p>The genre got an unprecedented impulse by Rafael Le\u00f3nidas Trujillo, the Dominican dictator from 1930 to 1961, who turned it into national music of his country. It was during this time when <em>merengue <\/em>reached the US audiences thanks to groups like the one from \u00c1ngel Viloria y su Conjunto T\u00edpico Cibae\u00f1o in the 1950s.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Compadre Pedro Juan\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ig4kVfe9rJY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Compadre Pedro Juan&#8221;, by Luis Alberti sung by Francis Santana.<\/p>\n<p><em>Merengue<\/em> became so ingrained in Latin American culture that it was finally recognized in 2017 as one of UNESCO\u2019s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.<\/p>\n<p>There are basically two styles of Dominican merengue: the one called <em>perico ripiao<\/em>, originating from the Cibao region and requiring accordion, <em>tambora<\/em>, and <em>g\u00fcira<\/em>; and the orchestral or big band merengue, which evolved in New York and many Latin American cities using a more complex instrumentation, like the saxophone or the synthesizer.<\/p>\n<p>Among the greatest exponents of merengue, we may count Wilfrido Vargas, the Dominican singer, trumpeter, and band conductor whose influential work helped lay the foundations of the modern version of the genre at an international level since the 1980\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Another name synonymous with <em>merengue <\/em>is that of Dominican Juan Luis Guerra, singer, songwriter, and producer with a career spanning four decades and multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy awards under his belt.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, many others have left their footprint on the <em>merengue <\/em>stage for good, like Los Hermanos Rosario, Las Chicas del Can, Olga Ta\u00f1\u00f3n, Elvis Crespo, Bonny Cepeda, and Milly Quezada.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wilfrido Vargas  - Volver\u00e9\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oT8uxicA108?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cVolver\u00e9\u201d, by Wilfrido Vargas Orchestra, feat. Rubby P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Juan Luis Guerra Y 4.40 - A Pedir Su Mano\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2cOQR9dH_w4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA pedir su mano\u201d, by Juan Luis Guerra y su 440.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/adult-3086307_960_720-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/adult-3086307_960_720-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/adult-3086307_960_720-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/adult-3086307_960_720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>To talk about merengue is to talk about a Caribbean music genre with an irresistible power to draw everyone\u2014from Caracas to New York\u2014to the dancefloor. With its roots deep within the Dominican Republic\u2019s colonial past, merengue emerged near the midpoint of the 19th century as a staple of the rural class expanding to the country\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/rhythms-of-latin-america-merengue\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":14726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[536967,536976],"class_list":["post-14725","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-latin-american-culture","tag-latin-american-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14728,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions\/14728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}