Only all-female salsa band in San Diego shares history of Puerto Rican, Cuban cultures through music

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — You can feel the excitement building right before a Sabrosas Latin Orchestra show starts.

This band is the first of its kind in San Diego.

“We are the only San Diego all-female orchestra,” Mariela Contreras said, introducing the band to the crowd.

These women can take you to the Caribbean with music that speaks to your soul.

“Vamos a Puerto Rico,” Iliana Ortiz sings before starting a song.

This all-female performance breaks barriers in San Diego.

“I want to hear what an instrument sounds like when it’s being played by a woman, which is no different, right?” Contreras said.

Through their songs, the musicians give their audience a front-row look into history.

“They talk about the history and the things that are happening in Puerto Rico, so by the lyrics, you learn history,” Ortiz said.

Salsa music originated in New York in the 1960s with influence from Puerto Rican and Cuban cultures after a mass movement of Puerto Ricans migrated to the city in the 1950s.

“There [was] not many options besides agriculture, very few jobs, and it was not progressing much on the island,” said Carmen Acevedo, the museum coordinator for the House of Puerto Rico.

The songs they sing may sound like a celebration, but they carry a deeper meaning.

“It’s loaded in a melody," Contreras said. "It’s loaded in a rhythm. It sounds like a very happy song, but in reality, it’s talking about the struggles.”

It’s not just these songs, it’s also the dances that tell the story of the island.

“I love the soul that it has,” said Serena Cuevas, the owner of Deseo Studios, a Latin dance group in Chula Vista.

Each movement calls back to the African roots connected to the Caribbean.

“It’s nice to get them to understand the depth of the music as well as like surface level. Okay, well, what are the moves, but also why are we doing those moves and where do those moves come from?” Cuevas said.

She says the dance and sound connect Puerto Ricans, no matter where they live.

“I can’t go to Puerto Rico all the time," she said. "I can go once in a while for a vacation, but I still feel very connected.”

That connection keeps the culture alive across the nation.

“Even if you haven’t been raised on the island, and you see the interaction with your family about it, you inherit that feeling," she said.

The music even captivates musicians like Elizabeth Howard, who never grew up in the culture.

"I didn’t know how I had never heard that music before,” Howard said. “I felt the music through to my toes, and I didn’t know how to dance it, but my body wanted to move.”

In recent years, government mismanagement, corruption and natural disasters compounded Puerto Rico’s economic decline, leaving music as one of the main ways for Puerto Ricans to raise awareness about issues on the island.

“To sing in salsa, to sing in Spanish is to be seen, and I want to be seen, and I want to represent," Ortiz said.         

Fueled by that sound, there’s a renewed movement for Puerto Ricans living in the states to reclaim the culture.

“It’s meant to live on, so people know the history, so people sing the history, so people dance the history,” Contreras said.

With each performance, these women make sure the rhythm won’t stop here.

“Why can’t more women be behind music?” Contreras asked.