Paris, 5 June 2025. Under the title “El son diverso y nuestro”, Cuban son became the protagonist of this Thursday’s session at the Latin America and Caribbean Week at UNESCO. The activity was organized by the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cuba to UNESCO, María del Carmen Herrera Caseiro, together with Mr. Dominique Roland, filmmaker and Director of the Centre des Arts d’Enghien-les-Bains, hosts of the event.
In her opening remarks, the Ambassador invited those present on a sensory journey through the history of Cuban son, through a multidisciplinary experience that combined live music, dance and documentary fragments.
The presentation, the result of more than forty years of ethnomusicological research carried out in close collaboration with the Cuban Institute for Music Research and Development (CIDMUC), sought to explore son as a living expression of the biocultural diversity of Cuba and Latin America.
Dominique Roland led the illustrated presentation, supported by excerpts from his documentary works dedicated to the genre. The audience enjoyed the live performance of the “Son mío” quartet, as well as the staging by a Cuban dance couple, who embodied the subtlety of the movements, the posture and the complicity of the dance, in perfect harmony with the essence of son.
During the hour-long presentation, the syncretic origins of son were addressed, its evolution from pre-Columbian and African rhythms, its expansion between rural and urban contexts, as well as its consolidation and international influence. The central role of dance and community interaction in the transmission of this genre — which constitutes the foundation of Cuban popular music — was highlighted, keeping alive its creative force and capacity for reinvention.
Before a packed house, the history of Cuban son reaffirmed itself as an expression of the richness and cultural blending that nourish the cultural identity of Cuba and the Latin American region, in a session where music, words and images intertwined to celebrate the vitality of this century-old genre.