In the first quarter of 2026, 54 percent of U.S. listeners reported casually tuning into Latin music each month, a record high, according to music data company Luminate. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported that recorded music revenue in Latin America rose 17.1 percent in 2025, marking a 16th consecutive year of growth, with streaming accounting for 88.1 percent of revenue. As Latin music expands globally, the conversation is not only about growth but also about preservation.
While newer genres often dominate headlines, styles such as salsa carry decades of cultural history rooted in specific communities and traditions. For Oscar Hernández, pianist, arranger and musical director of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, salsa's continuing relevance depends on keeping that history connected to its future. Salsa's history reflects the movement of people and cultures.
African and Caribbean musical traditions, migration from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the experiences of Latino communities in New York all helped shape the genre. During the 1970s, salsa also became closely associated with the city's Puerto Rican identity and community life. Its history is therefore about more than a recognizable rhythm.
It is rooted in the communities, migration patterns and cultural exchanges that helped create it. Hernández has spent decades learning from and performing alongside many of the musicians who helped define salsa's modern history. He worked with performers including Tito Puente, Machito, Ray Barretto and Celia Cruz, gaining experience across salsa and Latin jazz before establishing the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.
A four-time Grammy winner, including three Grammy-winning albums with the orchestra, Hernández also served as musical director for Rubén Blades, one of salsa's most influential figures, during a career that has included collaborations with artists ranging from Paul Simon to Gloria Estefan. Growing up as the youngest of 11 children in the South Bronx, Hernández says music changed the course of his life. He told Newsweek that music "saved" him, setting him on a path that would eventually take him around the world and onto some of the biggest stages in music.
"I learned at the hands of all the best people who are no longer here, and I represent those people by what I do." For Hernández, carrying that legacy forward does not mean reproducing the past indefinitely. "We're steeped in the history, but we're also relevant in terms of 2026," he said. That balance has become a familiar challenge across many musical traditions.
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