SOURCE: Aparicio, Frances R. “Salsa, Maracas, and Baile: Latin Popular Music in the Poetry of Victor Hernandez Cruz.” MELUS 16, no. 1 (Spring 1989-90): 43-58.

In the following essay, Aparicio describes how Latin music and dance forms influence Cruz's poetry.

“We easily turned 139th Street into a tropical barriada. All the stories in the area had Spanish signs in front. In the mornings you would hear the radios blaring those Latin rhythms in an eerie but reassuring echoey unison—and the smell of hundreds of pots of Café Bustelo filling the air. … the rhythm was very important to all of us. On 139th Street it would be my lullaby. Conga drums and chants echoing through the streets and alleyways in the late afternoon. I would lie in bed with my bottle [baby bottle] and listen to the coros as I watched the light from the headlights of the cars that...