• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • Art
  • Books
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre

Totó la Momposina

Totó la Momposina is a renowned Afro-Colombian folk singer. The “Queen of Cumbia” is the grand dame of Colombia’s unique blend of African, Native American, & Spanish song and dance traditions.

Totó la Momposina in NYC

Totó singing El Pescador in the 1991 sessions for her signature album La Candela Viva

La Momposina plays a free Central Park SummerStage concert with Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Saturday, July 8, 2017 6-10pm.

Totó la Momposina is Colombia’s Queen of Cumbia

Totó la Momposina was born Sonia Bazanta Vides in 1940 in Talaigua Nuevo, a town on the island of Mompós on the Magdalena River, the great river of Colombia that drains the Andes into the Caribbean at Barranquilla. That’s why they call her “La Momposina,” (the woman from Mompós).

Mompós was a colonial center for trade between the Andes and the Caribbean, so it was a melting pot of peoples. If you escaped slavery in colonial times, you fled to the mountains or the interior and lived among the Native people.

Cumbia is a Caribbean courtship dance that grew out of this mixing of Africans and Native Americans. Totó is the grand dame of Cumbia and other Caribbean folk traditions.

La Momposina was born into a family of musicians so she learned to sing and dance as a child. Having been born and raised before the changes brought about by globalization, Totó is an important connection to our past.

La Momposina got her nickname Totó because of her natural charisma. It means big heart in a small person.

Colombia’s civil war forced the family to flee to the capital Bogotá. There Totó’s mother started a dance group which kept traditions alive in the family home.

Totó turned professional in 1968 and began touring outside Colombia in the 1970s. WOMAD tours (World of Music and Dance) raised Totó’s profile in Europe in the 1980s. She lived in France for four years during this time and studied dance at the Sorbonne.

Totó recorded her classic breakout album La Candela Viva for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label in 1993.

Pacanto (2001) was nominated for a Latin Grammy for “Best Traditional Tropical Album.” In 2013, La Mamposina was awarded a Latin Grammy for Lifetime Achievement.

Many of the songs from La Candela Viva have now been reimagined as Tambolero (2015), a celebration of La Mamposina’s 60th anniversary as an artist.


Published July 8, 2017 | Updated January 16, 2023.

Filed Under: Colombian, cumbia, folk music, Indigenous, LATIN MUSIC, People

Primary Sidebar

Colombian Salsa

Pablo Mayor Folklore Urbano NYC "El Barrio Project" (courtesy)

The Pablo Mayor Folklore Urbano Orchestra Plays Colombian Salsa for Uptown Nights at Harlem Stage

RISE Theatre Directory

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE. Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in September 2023

Things to do in NYC in October 2023

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine™

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's weekly email.

Follow

New York

Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.