Cumbia

Cumbia is a type of music and dance that comes from Latin America. It brings together sounds and traditions from Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans, especially during times when different groups lived together in places like Colombia. Originally, cumbia grew out of funeral traditions in the Afro-Colombian community.

The music of cumbia uses drums like the tambora and tambor alegre, flutes such as the gaita hembra and flauta de millo, and often includes brass instruments and piano. A special instrument called the guacharaca helps create its simple, repeating rhythm.

Colombian cumbia is the oldest form and comes from the mixing of Indigenous, African, and Spanish cultures during the Conquest and Colony. Dancers sometimes hold candles while they move to the music. Panamanian cumbia also developed from African traditions during colonial times and later included Indigenous and European influences.

20th century

Many Latin American countries created their own versions of Cumbia during the 20th century. Cumbia spread from Colombia to other places because people moved, media shared music, and musicians shared ideas across borders.

In Mexico, Cumbia grew into many different styles and became important in city culture and for Mexican American communities. In Texas, a special kind called Cumbia Tejana appeared, mixing Colombian music with local Tejano, Conjunto, and pop sounds. Cumbia’s ability to change and fit new places helped it become popular around the world. Musicians added local instruments and rhythms but kept the basic beat. Today, Cumbia connects people and communities from many places.

History of Colombian cumbia

Cumbia started in the coastal area of Colombia and grew from many different cultural influences. Important among these were the traditions of African people brought by slaves during Spanish colonization, as well as Spanish and Indigenous elements. These mixed together to create the special dance and music we know as cumbia.

Over time, cumbia changed from a street dance to a ballroom dance and developed many different styles in various countries. It is often danced by couples, with a man and a woman moving closely together in a joyful way. Since the 1950s, cumbia has been performed in more formal and musical ways, different from its original style, and at one point in the 1970s, it wasn't as popular as before.

Expansion into Latin America

As cumbia grew, it spread across Latin America, creating new versions and gaining worldwide attention. In the 1970s, cumbia nearly disappeared in Colombia because of the rise of salsa. However, it found a new home in Central America, Mexico, and Peru, where it changed to match local tastes.

Cumbia showed how different cultures and people can come together, which helped improve how some people thought about mixed-race communities and workers. But in Argentina, many still saw cumbia as rude and it mostly reinforced ideas about lower classes.

Regional adaptations of Colombian cumbia

Argentina

• Argentine cumbia
• Cumbia villera, a style of Argentine cumbia from urban areas
• Cumbia santafesina, a music style from Santa Fe, Argentina

Bolivia

• Bolivian cumbia

Chile

• Chilean cumbia
• New Chilean cumbia

Colombia

• Colombian cumbia
• Bullerengue
• Porro
• Cumbia vallenata, a mix of cumbia and vallenato from Colombia
• Merecumbé, a blend of Colombian cumbia and Dominican merengue

Costa Rica

• Costa Rican cumbia

Ecuador

• Ecuadorian cumbia
• Turbocumbia

El Salvador

• Salvadoran cumbia
• Cumbia marimbera, popular in Southern Mexico and Central America

Guatemala

• Guatemalan cumbia
• Cumbia marimbera, popular in Southern Mexico and Central America

Honduras

• Honduran cumbia
• Cumbia marimbera, popular in Southern Mexico and Central America

Mexico

• Mexican cumbia
• Southeast cumbia or chunchaca, a Mexican cumbia style
• Northern Mexican cumbia or cumbia norteña, from northeastern Mexico and parts of Texas
• Cumbia sonidera, popular in Mexico City and central Mexico
• Cumbia marimbera, popular in Southern Mexico and Central America
• Cumbia pegassera, a Northern Mexican and U.S. favorite
• Tecnocumbia, a mix of cumbia and electronic music
• Cumbia rebajada, a slowed-down style from Monterrey

Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan cumbia
• Cumbia chinandegana
• Cumbia marimbera, popular in Southern Mexico and Central America

Panama

• Panamanian cumbia; A style combining Panamanian dance with cumbia, created by enslaved people of African descent during Spanish rule and later mixed with Indigenous and European influences.

Paraguay

• Cachaca, a mix of cumbia sonidera, norteña, vallenato, and cumbia villera

Peru

• Peruvian cumbia, also called chicha or psychedelic cumbia
• Chicha, also known as Andean cumbia or Andean tropical music
• Amazonian cumbia or jungle cumbia, from the Peruvian Amazon
• Cumbia piurana, styles from Piura on the north coast of Peru since the mid-1960s
• Cumbia sanjuanera, a sub-style of cumbia piurana
• Cumbia sureña, a mix of Andean cumbia and techno

United States

• American cumbia
• Tex-Mex cumbia
• Tejano or Tex-Mex music, a blend of cumbia with other Mexican and American styles from Texas and Mexico
• Cumbia rap, a U.S. and Latin American mix of cumbia with hip-hop and rap

Uruguay

• Uruguayan cumbia

Venezuela

• Venezuelan cumbia