Women have made significant contributions to Latin music, a genre which predates the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Indigenous communities reserved music for women, who were given equal opportunities with men to teach, perform, sing, and dance. Ethnomusicologists have measured ceramic, animal-bone, and cane flutes from the Inca Empire which indicate a preference for women with a high vocal range. Women had equal social status, were trained, and received the same opportunities in music as men in indigenous communities until the arrival of Columbus in the late 15th century. European settlers brought patriarchal, machismo ideologies to the continent, replacing the idea of equality between men and women. They equated native music with "savagery" and European music with "civilization". Female musicians tended to be darker-skinned as a result of the slave trade (which increased the population of African slaves), and contemporary society denigrated music as a profession. Latin music became Africanized, with syncopated rhythms and call-and-response; European settlement introduced harmony and the Spanish décima song form.
Since the pre-recording era of music, Latin music was male-dominated, and there are relatively few examples of female songwriters, music producers, record executives, and promoters. Women lacked access to musical training; music programs were nonexistent, and cultural norms discouraged female participation. Latin music had a primarily male presence; men discriminated against women, limiting them to singing or dancing and discouraging them from becoming instrumentalists, writers, composers, arrangers, and executives. Women artists in the sub-genres of Latin music, such as Selena, Jenni Rivera, Jennifer Lopez, Ivy Queen, Julieta Venegas, and Ely Guerra have been credited with enhancing the genres' female presence; they have broken through barriers, reshaping Latin music and public perceptions of female sexuality, gender, and femininity. Chilean folklorist Violeta Parra recorded songs about failed heterosexual relationships, emphasizing men's incapability to commit to a woman. Women in salsa music are significantly underrepresented in the industry as very few women, with the exception of Celia Cruz, have been associated with the emergence of the genre; for example, in the British documentary Salsa: Latin Pop Music in the Cites (1985), Cruz is one of the only female singers who is mentioned.
Women Latin singers have a significant demographic imbalance on Billboard music charts compared with their male counterparts. As radio formats explore genres popularized and led by men, such as reggaeton and regional Mexican, women on the Billboard Latin music charts are periodically absent. The last female singer with a number-one single was Sofia Reyes, whose collaborative "Solo Yo" ended a five-year drought on the Latin Pop Songs chart in 2016. A year earlier, on the 50-position Hot Latin Songs chart, 22 weeks passed without a song by a woman. Reyes has expressed concern about the disparity between male and female performances at Latin music award shows, noting that 90 percent of the performers are male. Other female singers, such as Chiquis Rivera, have attributed the decline in the visibility of women in Latin music to sexist radio programmers. Latin music executive Alexandra Lioutikoff believes that the decline is due to a lack of female collaboration. Latin music remains male-dominated, and the music industry has "prejudiced practice" limiting female recording artists. On March 5, 2023, Karol G became the first woman to debut and peak atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with an all-Spanish album Mañana Será Bonito.
Characteristics Latin American music is varied; it includes thirty countries, influenced by European, African, and Amerindian cultures. Latin music uses two European languages: Spanish and Portuguese, though modern-day widely distinguishes the genre as primarily sung or recorded in Spanish and to a lesser extent French and Italian. Although heterogeneous, Latin music commonly includes the Spanish décima song form, African syncopated rhythms and call-and-response, and European harmony.
History Pre-Columbian Latin America
Pre-modern Latin music refers to music made by Native Americans, hundreds of ethnic groups across the continent. The first inhabitants of Latin America settled 30,000 years before the arrival of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus at the peak of native cultural diversification into simple and complex societies. These societies included sedentary agricultural tribes and hunter gatherers, who sang prayers to a deity asking for prosperity with lyrics of "conflict, beauty, pain, and loss that mark all human experience" and music reflecting their understanding of the universe. They had "intricate ways of explaining the relationships between the sound, social organization, time, and the sacred", and their rituals included dramatized performances of mythology vocalizing their view of creation. The creation myth of the Keres people of Laguna Pueblo (present west-central New Mexico) describes "the unformed cosmos as the domain of Tse che nako (Thought Woman or Spider Woman) who chants life into two sacred bundles that become the sisters Uretsete and Naosete (She Who Matters and She Who Remembers)."
Indigenous communities predating Columbus' arrival reserved music for women, although men were equally involved in dance. During the Inca Empire in the mid-14th century, women from royal families and selected acallas (chosen ones) were taught science, art, poetry, and music from "wise elders". The "chosen ones" were selected for their beauty and "quality of their voices." There were six houses, one of which was called the taquiaclla (taqui means "song"), which housed girls aged nine to fifteen with "gifted" singing voices. The Andeans preferred young women with a high vocal range. Although no scripts or musical notation survive, archaeologists have uncovered a variety of ceramic, animal bone, and cane flutes. Ethnomusicologists who have measured the flutes have found their pitch compatible with a high vocal range. Women in these communities were well-treated, with equal opportunities to teach, perform, sing, and dance (as soloists, with other women, or in pairs with men). Female singers had a social status equal to men, receiving musical training and opportunities with their male counterparts.
European arrival
Columbus' arrival in 1492 and the Spanish colonization of the Americas brought patriarchy and machismo to the continent, overriding sexual equality. Early Spanish music described women as "property and mistrusted [by men]." In a song, "Delgadina", women are servants who must please their men "no matter the cost." According to author Janet Sturman, the Iberian idea of machismo (in which a strong man is superior to others, including women) was held by the conquistadors. Europeans who settled in the New World associated native music with "savagery" and European music with "civilization". During the slave trade, musicians in Latin America primarily had a dark complexion. This was due to an increased population of African slaves and contemporary society's view of music as a profession. Most slaves arriving in Brazil were "bi-musical", and introduced their music to the country. Rural Quechua-speaking Bolivian farmers sang about European resistance in songs with Native American and European influences. Black Bolivians sang songs with lyrics reflecting a European influence, performed as Africanized European music.
In colonial Latin America, nuns wrote, directed, and performed music. They played a variety of instruments, including the clavichord, harp, flageolet, and flute. The nuns played in front of spectators, choirs, and high-ranking government officials. Musically-adept, underprivileged women were allowed to perform during the nuns' Christmas recital. Performances were often "feminine acts", such as sewing, embroidery, bakery, and selling "special confections." For two hundred years in Latin America, the "elite woman" was educated in the arts; "the rest" were consigned to cooking, sewing, spinning, weaving, embroidery, and music. In 17th- and 18th-century Mexico City, music was often heard by visitors. The music emanated from cathedral choirs, indigenous dancers, or black musicians organized in the city. During the 17th century, Europeans and their descendants wrote and performed music at cathedrals in Mexico's cities which was repeated in song by blacks, mulattos, indigenous Mexicans, Asians, and ethnicities. In 1690, Mexican author Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote secular and religious poetry, plays, philosophy, and theology. She often discussed topics ranging from mathematics to music with visitors, had no interest in marriage and wanted to pursue "a life of the mind." Although her views were suppressed, de la Cruz defended women's rights in education.
At a 1691 celebration, European traveler Juan de Galde described his participation in dancing and singing and placing a scapular on two young women in Mexico. A Mexican singer named Reina performed for six hours, which made "the event more enjoyable". The "wild" celebration banned Jamaicans from entry. In 1697, Neapolitan chronicler Gemelli Carreri wrote during his trip off the coast of the Dominican Republic that he saw a canoe of musicians trying to outdo each other in singing and drawing attention to their "perfection". In 1799 Buenos Aires, privileged women were encouraged to educate themselves in the arts. The government required that women be taught to read and write, in addition to physical education and music.
Before recordings Since the arrival of European settlers, Latin music has been male-dominated. Musical training was nonexistent for women. Male predominance in the genre left "power imbalances that acted as barriers to women's participation in Latin music." Despite this barrier, women have become successful. Under the authority of men, they were limited to roles as vocalists or dancers rather than instrumentalists, writers, composers, arrangers, and executives. According to musicologist Ilan Stavans, female roles were related to traditional norms; "decent women" cared for their children and remained at home, cleaning and cooking. Women's dance routines were a growing concern among female fans and performers. Female dancers, more closely scrutinized than males, were expected to follow "normative gender expectations" and exhibit "appropriate behavior". Although male dancers typically performed suggestively, women who danced similarly were accused of being "loose" or "slack".
Genres Tropical music