Salsa is one of the most popular types of music listened to and danced to in the United States. Until now, the single comprehensive history of the music — and the industry that grew up around it, including musicians, performances, styles, movements, and production — was available only in Spanish. This lively translation provides for English-reading and music-loving fans the chance to enjoy César Miguel Rondón’s celebrated El libro de la salsa.

Rondón tells the engaging story of salsa’s roots in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, and of its emergence and development in the 1960s as a distinct musical movement in New York. Rondón presents salsa as a truly pan-Caribbean phenomenon, emerging in the migrations and interactions, the celebrations and conflicts that marked the region. Although salsa is rooted in urban culture, Rondón explains, it is also a commercial product produced and shaped by professional musicians, record producers, and the music industry. For this first English-language edition, Rondón has added a new chapter to bring the story of salsa up to the present.