Rafael Hernández

Rafael Hernández left his native Puerto Rico as a young man and settled early in East Harlem, where he helped shape the Latin music scene in the United States throughout the 1920s and 1930s by writing popular songs and leading a celebrated string quartet. Across subsequent decades a wide range of Latin performers committed his pieces to disc, among them the songs “Lamento Borincano,” “Amor Ciego,” “El Cumbanchero,” “No Me Quieras Tanto,” “Cachita,” and “Silencio,” which were interpreted by El Gran Combo, Trío Matamoros, Pedro Flores, Tito Puente, Ernesto Lecuona, Daniel Santos, Xavier Cugat, and Pérez Prado.