Y Tenemos Sabor (1967) Documentaries – Resources
A 1967 ICAIC documentary directed by Sara Gómez exploring the African roots of Cuban music through performances, instrument demonstrations, and conversations with musicians. One of the earliest serious film treatments of Afro-Cuban musical heritage.
Documentary
What It Covers
Directed by Sara Gómez — one of Cuba's first female filmmakers and a significant figure in Cuban cinema — the film examines Afro-Cuban musical traditions with specific attention to the instruments, rhythms, and cultural practices brought from Africa. It includes performances and demonstrations of percussion traditions that still underlie Cuban popular music today.
The guide is luthier Alberto Zayas, who explains where many instruments of Cuban dance music come from and how they are used. In between, groups perform live: Changüí, Típico Habanero, the rumba group Clave y Guaguancó and the Conga de Santiago de Cuba, as well as the trios Los Decanos and Virgilio, Almenares y Márquez. Gómez also filmed people singing and dancing in tenements, in the street, at funerals and at spontaneous gatherings.
Why Dancers Should Watch It
As a 1967 film, Y Tenemos Sabor captures these traditions closer to their living origins than anything made later. The performers and musicians it documents were often one generation removed from the people who carried these traditions across the Atlantic. For dancers, it's a rare early visual record of the movement and musical vocabulary that everything they're learning descends from.