In the following essay, Perez Firmat examines Mambo Kings within the context of the recent wave of Cuban culture in the United States, identifying how the novel both embraces and drifts from Hispanic influences.

In the summer of 1990, the cover story of the June 25 issue of People magazine was devoted to Gloria Estefan, who, as you know, is the most important moving part of the Miami Sound Machine. At the time Estefan was staging what the magazine termed an "amazing recovery" from a serious traffic accident that had left her partially paralyzed; Estefan herself was upbeat about her prospects, and the point of the story was to reassure all of the rhythm nation that little Gloria would conga again.

I begin with this anecdote for two reasons: first, because it gives fair indication of the prominent role that Cuban Americans play in the increasing and inexorable latinization...