Mexico
Mexico, and above all Mexico City, was where mambo conquered the world in the late 1940s. Here Pérez Prado recorded his mambos and Benny Moré became a star. Danzón is still danced there.
Pérez Prado and the mambo
- Pérez Prado went to Mexico in the late 1940s and formed his own band there. He signed with RCA Victor in Mexico City. The success of those recordings also earned him a US contract.
- In 1950 Sonny Burke heard Qué rico el mambo in Mexico. He recorded it in the US, where it became a hit.
- Pérez Prado stayed in Mexico and died in Mexico City on 14 September 1989.
Benny Moré
- Benny Moré came to Mexico with the Conjunto Matamoros on 21 June 1945. The group went back to Havana, but Moré stayed.
- In the late 1940s he sang guaracha-mambos with Pérez Prado. Together they recorded 28 songs for RCA Victor, mostly mambos.
- He appeared in the Mexican films Carita de cielo (1946) and En cada puerto un amor (1949).
- In spring 1952 he returned to Cuba. In Mexico he was a star, but in Cuba he was still largely unknown at the time.
Danzón was very popular in Veracruz, because of the strong Cuban influence in the region. Later it flourished in Mexico City, especially at the Salón México dance hall. There the dance has survived longer than in Cuba. It is still danced in the squares of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Mexico City. In the 1990s there was a second revival, especially among older people, and in 1991 María Novaro's film Danzón came out.
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