Music plays a significant role in the production and outcome of a film. It can be used to set the stage, bring about the climax, or even take the viewer on a roller coaster ride. But, what does music tell its audience about a culture? Most music is culture-specific giving its listener a front seat view of the customs and lifestyles of society. Music even helps viewers associate certain sounds with a particular environment. For example, salsa and merengue are known to be music genres of Latin America. When someone hears salsa, they tend to imagine women with black hair, red flowers in their hair, and maracas. In this sense, each songs messages and ideas play a significant role in shaping the image of Latin America and its people. Many Hispanic music genres in American films portray Latin American people in a violent, stereotypical, or watered-down way.
             Violence in association with quick, upbeat mambo or conga is prevalent in American films. This type of music is used to get the viewer excited and ready for what is about to happen. But, looking deeper, one can begin to relate these sounds to aggression and later to Hispanic people themselves. For example, "Harlem Nights" was one of the first movies that introduced me to the Hispano-Caribbean sound of mambo. In the movie, a Hispanic man who was a mobster owned a club in Harlem that played this type of music. During one scene, a woman was seen with maracas while a live band played music for her in the background. People in the club were dancing in a way I had never seen before. Then, before I could figure out what was happening in the scene, people began shooting. Then they were told there was a bomb in the club and the club was later blown up. For a first time listener and viewer of such a scene, I thought that Hispanics in America had violent clubs that were involved with the mob. This is a type of misconception that can come about when movies portray Hispanics as a mobster and r...