Danzon–and a Debate about “Latin” or “Hispanic”
One hundred years ago today … Two takes on Latinx culture/politics in NYC newspapers.
The News reported from Havana that Florenz Ziegfeld was bringing a Cuban band to NYC to play danzon, in a response to the demands of New Yorkers who had travelled to Cuba and been smitten by what had essentially been the most popular form of music in Cuba since the late 1800s. The article claimed, in language unsurprisingly primitivist and racist, that this would be New York’s first exposure to “the barbaric tum-tum-tum music.”
The Daily News, 29 March, 1920, p. 14.
The band, led by someone with the perhaps unlikely name of Max Dolan, would play dinnertime parties in the rooftop garden of Ziegfeld’s New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 West 42nd Street. The building still exists, having been landmarked in 1979, but the garden is gone. (See Alexander, "New Amsterdam Theatre" in Jackson, The Encyclopedia of New York City, p.888-889.)
New Amsterdam theater in 1905, Detroit Publishing Co. State Historical Society of Colorado. Library of Congress.
Striking a very different note, not specific to NYC, the Sun and Herald offered an editorial about a “movement” to change the nomenclature for to countries in Central and South America–to replace the category “Latin America” with “Hispanic America.” The piece ruminates over the nuances of the two terms and comes to a conclusion that resonates to this day:
Instead of trying to popularize another general designation we should encourage the practice of making specific reference to the various republics. Let us be more careful in recognizing the distinctive features of each country instead of grouping them indiscriminately together.
