World-Class Latin Culture & Global Roots
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at BAM
Ailey closes its 2025-2026 Season under new Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack with a new production of Hymn, Judith Jamison’s Emmy Award-winning 1993 tribute to Alvin Ailey.
There’s also the company premiere of Walerski’s contemporary ballet Blink of an Eye, and every Ailey performance is a Revelation that stays in the body long after you leave the theater. More…
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at BAM
Hymn, Blink of an Eye, Revelations
Drom Latin
World Cup Music Fest
In Shakespeare in the Park, Romeo & Juliet's Love Language is Spanish
An iconic love story with a message for us all
Brooklyn Film Festival 2026 Screens 134 Films From 30 Countries
Great movies and filmmakers
Independent 20th Century Contemporary Art Fair Highlights Installations, Self-Taught, Arab Women and Latin American Artists
CASA CIPRIANI, Financial District, Manhattan 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇻🇪
FIFA World Cup 2026 at MetLife Stadium
Brazil vs Morocco, France vs Senegal, Norway vs Senegal, Ecuador vs Germany, Panama vs England
Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade 2026 Honors the Past and Inspires the Future
Salsa, bomba, plena, dance troupes, qué bonita bandera!
152nd Street Cultural Festival 2026 ~ Bronx Boricua
Live music, children’s pavilion, food, art, and more
Ẹ kú ọdún, ẹ kú ìyèdún
A Yoruba Happy New Year blessing. The late-May, early June onset of the rainy season in Yorubaland (Nigeria/Benin/Togo) sprouts new crops. This rebirth is celebrated with the World Ifá Festival in the sacred ancestral city of Ile-Ifẹ̀, the cradle of Yoruba civilization where the Yoruba world was created. Yoruba New Year’s Day is June 3.
The collapse of West Africa’s Oyo Empire from 1817-1835 forced large numbers of Yoruba into the Middle Passage as that horror was beginning to end. Many landed in Cuba and Puerto Rico which were booming.
So Yoruba culture came to dominate previous African lineages in the Caribbean. We call it Lucumí from the Yoruba greeting Oluku mi, which means “my friend.” Cuban mutual aid societies, Cabildos Africanos, were able to preserve the traditions which evolved into Cuban rumba, son Cubano, and Afro-Cuban jazz.
Elsewhere, Yoruba traditions evolved into South Carolina’s Gullah culture and some American folklore, Brazilian Candomblé, Uruguayan candombe, Argentine tango, and Puerto Rican salsa which are loved around the world. Aché.
This is the unspoken reason why we celebrate the 152nd Street Festival, South Bronx Culture Festival, Bronx Puerto Rican Parade, at the end of May.
In Yoruba/Lucumí tradition, before we begin something, we ask God’s messenger Eleguá, Orisha of the crossroads, to open the road. We ask for a blessing, just like we do before we sing and dance salsa today. Many salsas begin with the call to Eleguá: E-le-le, le-le-le…
So around ten days after Yoruba new year in June, we pay our respects to Eleguá. That is why we celebrate the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, America’s largest cultural celebration, in the second week of June. ¡WEPA!
George Floyd Changed the World
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
Toussaint L'Ouverture Led the Haitian Revolution
CAP-HAITIAN, Haiti 🇭🇹
Explore the Boroughs
Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | New Jersey
¿What is Latin?
LATIN CULTURE
Latin means many things to many people, but our definition is the mix of Indigenous, European, African, and Asian cultures in the Americas ~ from a Caribbean perspective.
The First Nations of the Americas are Indigenous Peoples who built advanced civilizations including: Mississippian (Cahokia), Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), Maya, Aztec, Inca, and more. South of the U.S. border, Indigenous culture remains strong.
Then, to quote Latin jazz legend Eddie Palmieri, “The Spaniard brought the African. The African put everyone to dance. In the States, they took away the drum, and we got the blues.”
The blues is the root of gospel, jazz, and R&B. Those are the roots of country, rock, pop, reggae, soul, Latin soul, funk, salsa, disco, house, rap, and trap; basically the popular music and dances of the U.S. and parts of the Caribbean.
These traditions influenced the entire world. Even K-Pop is based on R&B and rap.
Caribbean
Antiguan and Barbudan, Bahamian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominican, Garifuna, Grenadian, Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Trinidadian, Vincentian
North American
African American, Belizean, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran
South American
GLOBAL ROOTS
European
Colonization is evil, but that time is over (or should be). The Enlightenment foundation of the modern world was formed by European thinkers from Islamic, Native American, and Chinese ideas.
West African
A lot of Latin culture has African origins. That’s equally true of American culture where the Jazz Age defines us. Even much of today’s global youth culture has African origins through New York.
Beninese, Bissau-Guinean, Gambian, Ghanian, Ivorian, Guinean, Liberian, Malian, Nigerian, Senegalese, Sierra Leonean, Togolese, Yoruba
Central African
Angolan, Cameroonian, Congolese (Brazzaville), Congolese (Kinshasa), Equatorial Guinean, Gabonese, Guinean
East African
Southern African
Asian
Arab culture, like the Puerto Rican pandereta, came to the Americas through Africa. After abolition, some Asian communities came as indentured workers. Recent migrations also contributed to Latin culture.
Latin is various blends of all of the above, and New York City is our capital. Latin culture brings people together and that makes New York The Greatest Show on Earth. ¡WEPA!
E-le-le, le-le-le … Ay! San Miguel