The catá is a Cuban percussion instrument from the east of the island: a wooden cylinder played with two sticks. In rumba it is usually called guagua; it is the same instrument.
Traditionally the catá is carved from a hollowed tree trunk. The player strikes it with wooden sticks (called palitos in rumba). The instrument has no drumhead: the wood itself sounds, giving a dry, hard tone. In rumba the guagua is also described as a hollowed piece of bamboo.
In tumba francesa, the tradition of Haitian origin in eastern Cuba, the catá plays the main rhythm: a cinquillo pattern the drums build on.
In rumba the catá was taken up under the name guagua. There it plays a fixed pattern that sets the clave together with the claves, especially in guaguancó. These guaguancó guagua patterns later echo in the timbales bell parts of 1940s mambo.
Today rumba players often replace the catá with a caja china (a wood block) or a plastic jam block.