Historical evidence suggests early roots of the dance go back to the 1600’s. Essentially, it was influenced by African slave rhythms and dancing. In the late nineteenth century, it referred to various Cuban music styles developed by Afro-Cuban workers. Also, several different styles emerged with their own music rhythms and dancing. Later, during WWII, Cuban middle and upper classes were dancing the Son and Danzon dances related to it. Eventually, the Europeans and Americans discovered it in Cuba. Furthermore, they brought it back to their countries and in 1930’s America, it was all the rage. Also, it spread to most of the European countries.
In the United States, the anglicized variant rhumba developed for ballroom music with Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1920’s. Moreover, the 1930’s song The Peanut Vendor popularized this dance genre of music and dancing in the U.S. Currently, there are three styles of the genre popular in the United States. These styles are American style, the International style and American style bolero.
