LC Meridian

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Martha Cooper/City Lore Timbaleros Joe Rodriguez and Orlando Marin "play" their combs on a car during the P.S. 52 All-Star Alumni Reunion, September 2000. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Courtesy of Benny Bonilla Benny Bonilla (congas) and Orlando Marín (timbales) ca. 1950. [Click to enlarge]

The Music Building's East Dining Room was transformed into a cultural retreat on October 11 with the documentary "From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale."

The documentary took Lehman students and faculty members through two musical movements that occurred in the Bronx from the forties to the seventies: mambo and hip-hop. The film examined how the older generation (the mambo generation) and the younger generation (the hip-hop generation) revitalized the borough with music and dance.

"Mambo" was presented by the Women Studies Program as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at Lehman. The documentary followed an enlightened lecture by Professor Miguel Perez titled "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage."

"Mambo" first aired in September of last year on PBS and won the National Council of La Raza's ALMA Award this past June. The hour long documentary is directed by Henry Chalfant ("Style Wars") and produced by Elena Martinez and Steve Zeitlin of the not-for-profit organization "City Lore". Martinez, who hails from the Bronx, believed that a documentary like "Mambo" was essential.

"While it's important that people [outside of the Bronx] learn about the history of Hispanic culture, it is important that we educate our own community," Martinez said.

Ordinary Bronxites and famed Bronx legends like Africa Bambaata, Charlie Chase, Eddie Palmieri, Kid Freeze, and many others gave eye-witness accounts of how African-American and Latin communities in the South Bronx revolutionized pop culture with mambo and hip-hop. From the foot-tapping mambo rhythms to the head-bobbling hip-hop beats, attendees could not help but to immerse themselves in the times of yore.

Martinez remarked that the South Bronx is often characterized by negative stereotypes that diminish its contributions to the music world. "Mambo" hoped to expose the borough's rich history.

"There is a lot of creativity in the Bronx," Martinez said. "We definitely have great talents that exists in the Bronx [and "City Lore"] wanted to show that."

The documentary begins with mambo, a celebrated Cuban dance style and music genre that emerged in the Bronx after World War II. Puerto Ricans in the South Bronx were particularly fascinated with the dance style. Mambo music is a synthesis of sophisticated jazz rhythms, swing (big band) music, and breezy Cuban tempos. Latin American band leaders like Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez popularized the mambo phenomena. The mambo dance is exceedingly sensual, yet elegant.

The hip movements and fancy foot work displayed in the documentary are simply spell-binding. It's as if the dancers are so in tune with the conga drums and timbales that it becomes an instrument of its own. The documentary managed to merge decades-old footage with lively mambo and hip-hop music without making them seem incompatible.

As the mambo movement died out and gave root to Salsa, a more insubordinate and empowering movement arose: hip-hop. African-Americans living in the South Bronx created the genre. Freestyle dancing was indivisible with hip-hop.

The film also presents an edifying portrait of the Bronx arsons that took place in the seventies, using personal accounts. This particular segment was instructive for those who did not live though the period. New York City faced a fiscal crisis that many of the interviewees would never forget. The South Bronx also became a melting pot in the seventies, accommodating different minority groups. Naturally, there was tension and gang violence was at a high.

The failures of public policy and urban planning in the South Bronx led many better-off residents to consider finding happiness in the suburbs. Frustrated with the city and their environment, Bronxites (notably African-Americans) turned to hip-hop music. It allowed the Afro-Latin community to find refuge in their overwhelming environment.

"Mambo" inflames a nostalgic and frivolous feeling in all viewers, whether young or old. It chronicles a journey in time when dancing was a remedy for the struggles that plagued the people of the South Bronx. In a moment when things were ghastly, dancing made all the difference.

"Mambo" is expected to be available on DVD to the general public in early 2008.

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