Anacaona

Cuba

Anacaona

🇨🇺

Anacaona 🇨🇺

In Cuba today, women are a powerful force in music - especially in the heart of Havan, where all-female salsa orchestras light up the stage. Anacaona is the oldest of them, founded in 1932 by Concepción “Cuchito”; Castro Zaldarriaga and her sisters who started a female septet to challenge the male-dominated son music scene. For their band they chose the name of a beautiful Taino queen Anacaona, who in her time led an uprising against the Spanish. The original members of Anacaona have more than enough reasons to be proud of their successors. How lucky are those Castro sisters who, 93 years after being united under the native name of Anacaona, first as a septeto and later as a jazz band, have heiresses who today continue being the feminine orchestra standard of Cuba. Anacaona has not only endured for generations but evolved, becoming an international ambassador for Cuban music and a symbol of resilience, elegance and rhythmic power.