Johnny Pacheo helped put it all together

Let’s start this week’s search for salsa by finding one of its earliest, strongest stars. Johnny Pacheco was a Dominican band leader who was a master of myriad Latin genres, like cha cha chá, guaracha, son montunu and pachanga. In 1964 he co-founded Fania Records, which powerfully unified Latin genres into Salsa, a musical and  movement that was as much a genre as it was a cultural force.

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