Latin America encompasses the parts of the American continent where Spanish or Portuguese are the main languages, i.e. Mexico, and in effect, the whole of Central and South America including many of the Caribbean islands. The term ‘Latin Music’ denotes music from all these areas, encompassing a host of very different styles of music from more than twenty different countries. In Latin America, there is usually some local musical flavor that is played on radio stations and performed at social occasions. In general, the inherent cultural and ethnic factors of a region or a group determine what is popular, rather than political frameworks and boundaries. Centures-old naturally grown common cultural heritage crosses the arbitrariness of political borders everywhere. In northern Chile you will hear music that sounds distinctly Peruvian, and people in northern Argentina tend to like the same kind of music as many Bolivians. This album covers a wide range of countries and styles, from Mexico to the Caribbean, to Venezuela, Brazil, down along the Andes, all the way to Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego.
