Made in NuYoRico: Fania Records, Latin Music, and Salsa’s Nuyorican Meanings

In the 1970s, New York–based Fania Records was a dominant force in salsa music. The Latin music label stylized the genre’s cultural aesthetics with popular songs from its “bad boys” Willie Colón and Héctor LaVoe, among others. It arguably created the soundtrack of NYC’s working-class Puerto Rican–diaspora (a.k.a. Nuyorican) neighborhoods. But by the mid-1980s, waning record sales and lawsuits from its recording artists, like singer-songwriter Rubén Blades, threatened Fania’s existence. Using interviews, archival material, and court documents, Negrón (American studies and Latino studies, Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston) deftly analyzes various songs from Fania’s catalogue. She also takes a deep dive into LaVoe’s life and his signature song, “El Cantante,” which Blades wrote. In the first chapter, an almost shot-by-shot synopsis of Our Latin Thing, the label’s 1972 musical documentary, provides insight into later chapters on salsa’s commercialization and Fania’s legal troubles.