(beating drums)
- Please don't use this.
My family's gonna kill me.
(lively Latin music)
Dreaming of Havana but can't get away?
Just head over to Central Park on a summer Sunday
and the rumblings of congas will have you feeling
like you're there in a quick second.
I'm your girl, Kat Lazo, and you're watching "Barrio USA,"
a Thrillist original series.
(lively Latin music)
I don't know a lot about rumba, but what I do know
is that it's a big party with lots of drumming
and lots of dancing.
Before I hit up Central Park in order to experience it
for myself, I'm gonna take my first-ever rumba dance class
in order to get my feet wet.
My back!
But I'm dragging my girl, Anna,
because I don't wanna embarrass myself alone.
Oh my god, yes!
You brought coffee?
'Cause I'm gonna need some energy for this class.
- Yes, I figured. (laughing)
- Oh my god, I'm really grateful that you're gonna take
this class with me because I'm really nervous.
I'm actually a horrible dancer.
- I've actually taken salsa classes before
and I was so shocked to see how different it was
than the salsa that you dance in the sala at home
during the family parties.
- OK, so basically what you're trying to tell me
is that you're gonna be the expert here.
- No. - Yes!
That's why I needed a friend, to like hold my hand,
calm me down, but we got this.
- Yes - Let's go.
I don't wanna be late.
We're headed to learn more about rumba.
Now it's time to learn for myself.
(lively Latin music)
- Yeah!
- Ah, thank you.
OK, so you're teaching us rumba.
What kind of rumba are you teaching us today?
- So there are different kinds of rumba.
There is the Latin kind, which is more international,
and then we have an American kind.
That's the one we're gonna learn today.
And it's more social, it's a little easier to learn.
And it's also considered to be the dance of love.
- I just met you so we gotta work our way up to there.
- OK, are you guys ready? - Let's get the basics.
- Let's get started?
All right. - The basics.
- So first we'll learn the box,
which is the basic step for rumba.
The hips are very important, and needs to be a game
of seduction between the male and female.
When we bend our knees, a lot of people think,
"Oh, let's shake the hips,"
but it starts with the knee, yeah.
We don't wanna move from the waist up.
Make a box with the right foot, bend knee,
and switch to the other side.
So we always alternate, left, right, together.
Shall we try together now?
I think it'll be easier.
- Sure. - What do you say, yeah?
So here, this is gonna be--
- We're moving very fast.
You didn't even buy me lunch.
(laughing)
- OK, slow, side, together, left foot forward.
Slow, side, together, quick left.
Slow-- - Oh my god!
No, it's fun, it's fun.
It's just my own anxiety.
(Latin music)
- [Instructor] Slow.
- Oh, I forgot what we're doing.
Gonna go here, and dip.
- [Anna] Oh yes, so graceful.
- Hopefully I'm better at drumming than I am at dancing.
- I'm actually gonna stay and practice a little bit more.
- Oh my god, OK.
- You did so well, though. - Goodbye.
- Now I pride myself on being both
a native New Yorker and a Latina.
But even I never heard of rumba in the park,
which is why I'm so excited to meet up with the OG rumberos.
- OG, what does OG mean?
- Who have not only managed to keep the music alive
for decades, but they're also passing along the tradition
to future generations.
So we're here in Central Park.
What's going on with these drums?
What's a rumba in the park?
- It's harmony, and happy, and spiritual.
You gotta feel happy when you come to the rumba.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Rumba is an expression of what we are.
- I see, there's three drums.
Can you explain how it all plays together?
- No. - No.
- Basically rumba's a Cuban art.
Within that, African rhythms that came to Keros.
Just a bunch of people having fun.
- They come on Sunday only.
This is my chance to say hello.
Because he's busy, I'm busy.
- You can start a rumba with anything, a pair of spoons,
a box, you know, whatever.
The singing, of course, is a big part of it,
but without the dancing you can't have a rumba.
There's a pattern to it, it's very choreographed.
All the while having fun with it.
- Even now they wanna play the rumba.
(crowd chattering)
(beating drums)
(crowd singing in foreign language)
- [Kat] Since the 1950s, Cuban rumberos have kept
the music alive by meeting up in this park every week,
attracting drummers from different races and nationalities
who saw rumba as a way to reconnect to their Latin roots.
So I can learn more about rumba's history, I'm meeting up
with the first woman to play at rumba in the park,
a space that's usually dominated by men.
- I was just making some coffee, do you want some?
- Yes, please.
- [Aurora] It's espresso, it's strong.
- [Kat] I like it strong, so let's do it.
- [Aurora] I like it strong, too.
- There aren't many women who participate
in rumba in the park.
- Oh, I'd like to see a lot more women take the drum.
- Is that why you started Zon del Barrio?
- [Aurora] Yeah! (lively Latin music)
Very few of the band leaders that were out here
were actually reaching out to the women.
There would be a young guy say, "Give me a chance,"
they'd bring him up.
He was great, they'd surround him.
They'd teach him.
With a girl, oh, she better be pretty, and she better sing,
and then everybody's taking turns to see
who's gonna be her boyfriend.
I have women in the band, I have veterans, the older guys.
I believe when you mix them together,
you can learn and you can grow.
See, I came from a generation where I heard Tito Puente.
I heard Mozart.
These kids aren't hearing that.
- Well, thankfully they have folks like you,
like the OG from rumba in the park to pass on that legacy.
How did you come to start participating
in rumba in the park?
- Through my brother.
(beating drums)
- When I started coming here, I was 17 years old, 1975.
I had been on the street in a bad way
and then I was back on the street doing good, not bad.
I used to spend eight hours a day at home practicing.
Could you hold that for me? - Yeah, absolutely.
(beating drums)
- First one would be the bass.
(beating drums)
The second, that would be a little more complicated.
That would go... (beating drums)
And that accompanies the bass.
(beating drums)
Then the third drum is the solo drum.
(beating drums)
And that comprises the Guaguanco rhythm,
which is the basic rumba rhythm that everybody plays.
- All right, what's an easy beat that you're gonna show me?
I'm so nervous.
Yeyito, be nice to me.
- This hand stays where it is, this hand comes up here.
This is your pulse.
This keeps the beat.
So the pulse is basically just...
(beating drum lightly)
Right.
You don't have to chop it, you're not chopping.
- Oh. (laughing)
- So keep it flat.
And then this hand is gonna do this...
(beating drum)
- OK, here we go.
Yeyito, I'm so sorry. - Try, try it.
Just give it a try. (beating drum)
Well, it's been a great interview with Yeyito.
(lively Latin music)
- The rumba's been played here in the park since the 1950s.
Maybe even before that.
There was a dance club called the Park Palace.
Drummers would come out and play in the park on their breaks
and stuff like that, just to get away
from the whole club scene.
- While the hippie girls were topless in the fountain,
the rumberos were right by the lake, right by the benches,
and we were playing beats centuries old.
All the young Latinos gravitated there.
It was like a ritual, it was like a Latino ritual.
Rituals that were taught to Africans, way, way back.
In the Caribbean days, Sunday was their day of cleansing.
They would dress up in white to drum.
We were going back into history, back into time.
To be in the middle of it,
you feel the vibration of the drums.
You feel it.
- You can take me out of the park.
You cannot take my song out of the park.
It's been here.
It's gonna stay here forever.
(lively Latin music)
- I hope in the future, I can see more integrated bands.
It's good to know how to take what's inside of you
and bring it out into music.
It's a wonderful thing.
- [Kat] It's a form of communication.
- [Aurora] Yeah, the drum, that's what unites us all.
- Rumba in the park is obviously one poppin' celebration.
So next time that you're in New York City's Central Park
on a Sunday, make sure to listen out for the congas
and experience rumba in the park for yourself.
(lively Latin music)
This season in "Barrio USA," we're hitting up
New York and Miami.
Tune in every week as we highlight the hidden gems
of Latinx subcultures.
Till next time, Thrillist.
Deuces.
(lively Latin music)
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