Music, art, and dance are vital variables that unite people in one culture group. Different artistic and creative directions within one ethnic community impact the development of culture and influence people who identify themselves as members of the group. This paper will present the music, art, and dance features of the Latino Culture Group and discuss the peculiarities of these diverse yet united directions.
Latin American music, art, and dances are commonly referred to as the creative traditions and crafts of Mexico, Central America, and several countries in South America and the Caribbean that were colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese. It can be stated that Latino culture is a result of a mixture of indigenous traditions (Indians) and African and European traditions that were introduced by the colonizers (Turner-Trujillo, 2017). Over time, traditions imported from Europe and Africa have become part of dance and music culture and are closely intertwined with local and regional arts.
Mambo, rumba, merengue, cumbia, salsa, bossa nova, bachata, and candombe – all these types of current popular music and dance trends have taken shape in Latin America and combine European, Indian and African cultures in different proportions (Gomez, n.d.). Latino artists were also influenced by foreign cultures and usually expressed political and cultural views, focusing on social justice issues related to their local roots and changes in their countries that could be found in muralism, surrealism, modernism art forms.
Melodic and rhythmic dance and music impact people in the Latino culture group as they are passionate, energetic, and expressive. Passion, energy, sensuality can be easily noticed in the gestures, mimic, and tone of Latino who are filled with sincere emotions expressed with their bodies’ help. Overall, the music, art, and dance of Latino are bright, creative, and expressive directions formed by the mix of different cultures with local motives.
References
Gomez, A. (n.d.). The Latin. Calameo. Web.
Turner-Trujillo, E., Toro, M. & Ramos, A. (2017). An overview of Latino and Latin American identity. Getty. Web.