Chips and Salsa

When I hear the word Salsa, I immediately think of chips. The “Rhythm and Power: Salsa in New York” exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York opened my eyes to a whole new view of salsa. The only time I ever paid attention to a specific dance form was on Dancing with the Stars, when I used to watch with my parents.

Upon walking into the Salsa exhibit, something shiny immediately grabbed my attention: Celia Cruz’s red dress (as shown above). It was beautiful, shiny, and honestly jaw-dropping. I do not have any interest in looking at clothing, but I stared at it for a solid five minutes. When I first saw the dress, I wondered who would possibly wear that. But when I saw the sign that said “Celia Cruz,” I thought to myself, hell yeah. Her iconic song “La Negra Tiene Tumbao” instantly popped into my mind. I am listening to it right now while writing this blog post. I began learning Spanish in sixth grade, and it quickly became my favorite subject. I never came across the word “Tumbao” in my Spanish classes, however. I looked it up about five minutes ago, and according to Urban Dictionary, it means: “An indescribable African sexiness or swing.” In this song, Celia Cruz essentially celebrates the unique style and attitude of black women. Pictured below are Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and Eddie Torres all wearing incredible, sparkly clothing.

While the Salsa exhibit was incredible, I found other parts of the museum equally fascinating. My favorite exhibit, arguably, was the one that had to do with biodiversity. The reason as to why I found it so captivating is because it was hands-on, and I was able to create my own fictional park. After finishing the park, I was graded on biodiversity, budget impact, flood mitigation, recreation, as shown below.

It was cool to see how adding certain greenery or attractions affected each sector. Afterwards, I was able to send my park to the big screen, where people were able to stand on a pad that projected them into the park, which I thought was very awesome.

Lastly, going into the historical exhibit near the Salsa exhibit was really interesting. I walked around the room and saw posters from all different time periods. One thing that really peaked my interest was a sign on a television screen that read: “Vote for President Johnson on November 3.” As I began to walk over to the screen, I noticed that it played a video on repeat, ending with the same “vote for Johnson” sign. I picked up the headphones and began to listen; it was a commercial with a little girl counting down while picking at a flower. While in the middle of counting, there was a loud voice over that said: “TEN, NINE, EIGHT…. TWO, ONE.” All of a sudden, there was a nuclear explosion on the screen. Then, a different voice came on and essentially stated that if we want to have a world where children can be safe, we must all vote for Johnson. This clearly showed the large amount of propaganda going on during this time; it was very interesting seeing it first-hand.

Overall, the museum and Salsa exhibit were fantastic. I would definitely like to bring my family there one day, as there is a lot to see and do!