Roberto Torres (1940-) began his music career in his hometown of Güines, Cuba at an early age. In 1959, Torres emigrated to the United States where he continued his music career, starting the Orquesta Broadway in New York City in 1963. His major break came in 1965 when he signed on as singer for the Latin band, Sonora Matancera.
In the 1970s, Torres embarked on his solo carreer and founded Guajiro Records in 1973. In later life, Torres organized and played lead for the Miami-basedband, Roberto Torres y su Orquesta.
Torres is credited with inventing the charanga-vallenta, a style of Latin music blending the traditional rythms of the Cuban charangaand the Colombian vallento. He is perhaps most known for the hit 1980 rendition of Simón Díaz's Venezuelan folksong, Caballo Viejo, done in the charanga-vallenata style.
René Touzet y Monte was a notable Cuban-American musician and bandleader. He led a sixteen-piece orchestra in Cuba before relocating to the United States in 1944, working with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz, and Xavier Cugat. He had a relationship with Cuban singer Olga Guillot.
