Los Muñequitos de Matanzas Family Show

The special family show introduces the kids to Cuba's legendary Los Muñequitos de Matanzas who return to NY for the first time since 2002, following a nearly decade-long ban of Cuban artists coming to the US. Renowned for their fiery rumbas, dynamic drumming and sacred rituals, the musicians, singers and dancers of Los Muñequitos are recognized throughout the world as members of the most vital ensemble to sustain and popularize the African roots of Cuban culture.

"Spectacular sensual dancing and some of the most complex drumming to be heard in this hemisphere." - New York Times

A co-presentation with World Music Institute

This engagement of Los Munequitos de Matanzas is part of a 16-city national tour produced by MAPP International Productions.

Latin Grammy. The album La Rumba Soy Yo, won a Latin Grammy in the category Best Folk Music Album of 2001. Cuban Odyssey, an album with Canadian flautist Jane Bunnett and a host of Cuban artists, won the award for Best Latin Jazz Album of 2003. The group also participated in the production Con sentimiento manana and is on the DVD, A Tribute to the Ancestors, also under the Cuba Bis label.

Los Muñequitos has shared the stage with various prominent figures from Cuba and elsewhere, such as Celeste Mendoza, Tata Guines, Celia Cruz, Carlos Embale, Tito Puente, Omara Portuondo, Chucho Valdés and Irakere, Pablo Milanés, Juan Formell y Los Van Van, José Luis Cortés and NG La Banda, Orquesta Aragón, Herbie Hancock, Orlando Valle “Maraca,” Stephan Kurmann, Mayito Rivera, Paulito FG, Haila Mompié, Isaac Delgado, Changuito, Ned Sublette, Nelson González, Max Pollack, Síntesis, Septeto Nacional de Cuba, Cucú Diamante, Egberto Gismonti, La Familia Cepeda, Andy Montañéz, Danny Rivera, Rubén Blades, Gilberto Gil, Los Pleneros de la 21, Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, Cutumba, Pedro Lugo “El Nene,” Papo Luca, Cheo Feliciano, Jhonny Ventura, Tito Nieves, Los Papines, Clave y Guaguancó, Zenaida y la Camerata Romeu, Gilberto Santarosa, Oscar D’León, Ismael Miranda, Jerry Rivera, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Willy Colón, almost all Cuban rumba groups and rappers, and many more. Los Muñequitos has also recorded with many of these artists. Several of the group’s songs have been incorporated into the repertoire of musicians including Eddy Palmieri and Vocal Sampling.

The history of the Cuban rumba can be told alongside Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, not only because it is one of the oldest groups or because it has enjoyed great popularity since its first album, but because it has lived with its fame without losing the essence of its work. It has fused the most treasured elements of the rumba with contemporary forms of expression. Los Muñequitos has become the standard for how to dance, dress, and act rumba for people both inside and outside Cuba.

In 2003, the group suffered a severe blow with the loss of Ricardo Cané after a sudden illness. He had been a singer with the group for more than 25 years. Alberto Romero also passed away after singing for the group for many years. More recently, music director and songwriter Jesus Alfonso Miró left this earth. All of these men were great architects of the Cuban rumba. To them—and all who bequeathed to Los Muñequitos and the people of Cuba the magical, spiritual and artistic tradition brought to this island by the earliest African slaves—we dedicate this TRIBUTE TO THE ANCESTORS.

-Caridad Diéz / Havana, Cuba. February 2011