¡Salsa! Havana Heat, Bronx Beat. by Hernando Calvo Ospina; Nick CaistorReview by: Deborah Pacini HernándezThe Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Aug., 1996), pp. 543-544Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2517822 .

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BOOK REVIEWS I GENERAL 543

he misses some promising sources and leaves some questions unanswered, Mason, a respected British student of the social history of soccer, has given future researchers a solid place to start.

JOSEPH L. ARBENA, Clemson University

iSALSA! Havana Heat, Bronx Beat. By HERNANDO CALVO OSPINA. Translated by NICK CAISTOR. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995. Photographs. Notes. Glossary. Index. 151 pp. Paper. $16.oo.

Since the 1970s, salsa has been the most widely disseminated popular music through- out Latin America. But beyond its importance in economic terms, it has also become a symbol of pan-Latin American identity, expressing Latin American and Latino resistance to the overwhelming influence of mass culture emanating from the North Atlantic. Until recently, however, it has been difficult for teachers in the United States to incorporate studies of salsa into their Latin American and Latino studies curriculum, because most of what was in print was either in the popular press- and therefore uncollected by most university libraries -or else in Spanish-language journals or books difficult to obtain in this country (for example, El libro de la salsa: cronica de la mtisica del Caribe urbano, by Cesar Miguel Rondon, 1980; La salsa, by Jose Arteaga, 1ggo).

This situation has improved with the publication of a number of English-language articles, chapters, and books on various aspects of the music ("Salsa, Maracas, and Baile: Latin Popular Music in the Poetry of Victor Herna6ndez Cruz," by Frances Aparicio, Melus 16: 1, 1ggo; Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae, by Peter Manuel, 1995; Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin. AMusic, by Charley Ger- ard and Marty Sheller, 1989; Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City, by Vernon Boggs, 1992). Although each of these endeavors has made a valuable contribution, individually they lack the historical grounding and sociological focus that would make them more appropriate for general classroom use.

It is in this context that Hernando Calvo Ospina's book must be evaluated. This is not the definitive work on salsa that scholars (such as I) have been waiting for, but it should be welcomed nevertheless as a useful addition to the English-language literature on the subject appropriate for undergraduate classes. Calvo, a Colombian journalist and professed avid salsa dancer, has no scholarly pretensions; he writes in an informal, free-ranging style. Some chapters are straightforward chronological accounts, while others are narrated by imaginary salsa fans who offer political and social commentary along the way. All nine chapters are interspersed with lyrics in both Spanish and English, which provide an idea of salsa's characteristic range of topics and use of language but which, unfortunately, seldom relate directly to the surrounding text.

In spite of the book's somewhat naive style and lack of theoretical underpinnings,

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544 | HAHR I AUGUST

I found it to be the most refreshing, accessible, and above all, comprehensive socio- historical treatment of salsa to appear in English to date. Calvo, intensely involved with salsa as a dancer since adolescence, brings a genuine and commendable desire to historicize salsa's trajectory and explain its meaning. Happily, his experience as a journalist has helped him explicate the social, cultural, economic, and political terrain in which salsa is embedded, particularly how issues of race, class, national- ism, and gender have influenced its development. For example, he acknowledges the nationalistic debates on who "owns" salsa (Cuba or Puerto Rico), but he quite properly situates salsa's emergence in New York City's multinational barrio. Then he describes its subsequent development not only in New York but throughout Latin America. He underscores how class has shaped audience responses to salsa, which was initially embraced only by the urban poor, whether in New York, San Juan, or Caracas; only after salsa had spread throughout Latin America did the middle class jump on the bandwagon and accept the music as a symbol of Latin American cultural identity.

Calvo rightly chastises the political left for misunderstanding salsa's early working-class aesthetic. More recently, salsa's orientation shifted to middle-class aes- thetics and values. As a result, Calvo notes, salsa began losing its appeal to working- class dancers. Calvo should also be commended for including an entire-if short- chapter analyzing women's participation. In summary, advanced salsa researchers may find the book too thin on bibliography and theory; but those seeking a basic but insightful introduction to what salsa is, how it evolved, and what it means to its fans will find this book an enjoyable and illuminating read.

DEBORAH PACINI HERNANDEZ, University of Florida

Inherit The Alamo: Myth and Ritual at an Amrberican Shrine. By HOLLY BEACHLEY

BREAR. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. Photographs. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. viii, 184 pp. Cloth. $19.95.

Inherit the Alanw is a highly readable and completely accessible contribution to the genre of studies in the representation and commemoration of "the past," an approach that has been gaining popularity among historians, anthropologists, museologists, art historians, literary scholars, and other cultural critics of Europe and the United States. Holly Beachley Brear, an Americanist who, unfortunately, utilizes no Spanish- language materials, analyzes current contests over ordering "the past," particularly the 1836 battle between Mexican and Texan forces at the Alamo, and consequently over the meaning of that "past" for the present inhabitants of San Antonio, Texas.

Brear claims that her criticism "extends to all who use the Alamo for declaring identity" (p. 152). Her brief discussions of the agendas of groups such as the San Antonio Living Historians Association (SALHA) and of individuals such as archae- ologists Anne Fox and Waynne Cox, however, do not equal her sustained indictment

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