Larry Landa, the 'narco' businessman who helped Cali receive the name 'the Sky Branch'

How did a city like Cali become 'the Sky Branch'? It is a question that, despite not being replicated with such power, has not gone unnoticed in recent decades. And it is that although the capital of Vallecaucana was a muse of verses such as 'From the bridge to there is Juanchito and from the bridge there is Cali' or 'If you are passing through La Quinta, it is my beautiful Cali that you are going through', the real city that welcomed this genre since the second half of the 20th century was New York.

This thesis is the one held by writers such as Alejandro Ulloa Sanmiguel, author of the book 'La salsa in times of snow', a historical and geographical analysis that connects the cult around trumpets and timpani with the narco culture and some of the most powerful drug lords; and in the middle of that list - which is not short - is the name of businessman Larry Landa.

And it is that, “From the beginning, salsa music, its interpretive and commercial practices have been inseparably linked to illegal drug trafficking,” according to the Colombian who cites American Carleton Washburbne, and that is where the name Larry Landa comes in, who despite having links with drug trafficking both in Colombia as in the United States, is one of the main causes of the export of the Caribbean genus to Colombia.

It may interest you: Meet Eun Heekyung, Kim Kyun-uk and other Korean writers invited to FilBo

Larry Landa, salsa and drug trafficking

Before this title was awarded to Cali, the Sky Branch was New York, and this was not only due to the powerful rise of artists who were born there musically, but to two great salsa entrepreneurs in this city: Jerry Massuci, who had the ability to found, no less, the Fania Records label, and Ralph Mercado , creator of the defunct firm RMM Records. Both had links with organizations linked to drug trafficking to carry out concert tours. That's where the name Larry Landa comes in.

According to the copy presented at the Bogotá International Book Fair -FilBo- 2022 this April 22, the Colombian was the link between Mercado and Massuci to expand salsa with money from narcos, and a specific example of this occurred in 1972, when an artist arrived in Cali who, at present, is an indispensable one when talking about salsa is all about.

The influence of the businessman and the economic boom with regard to drug trafficking generated a boom in Cali with respect to the romantic salsa, which predominated over the dura, to the point of forming the 'El pasito cañandonga' movement, related to the name of the famous nightclub located in this city

Ismael Miranda and his first concert at the Sultana del Valle

It was 1972 when the news was announced: the Puerto Rican would appear in Cali. Two theories emerged about his hiring, and both lead to the fact that it was produced with money from drug traffickers who dominated drug trafficking in that decade. That was the genesis of the inseparable link between salsa and cocaine.

“Whatever the truth, it seems that's where the salsa/drug trafficking relationship between Cali and New York began, without the hired musicians necessarily knowing about the business of those who hired them,” says Ulloa Sanmiguel. Landa's influence began to be felt by bringing to Cali other heavyweights such as Tito Puente, Oscar d'León and even Hector Lavoe himself. The artists didn't know who they took pictures with or what kind of people danced to their songs in each performance; the truth is that the financial muscle of those businesses made itself felt and it wasn't until the 2000s that it began to decline.

As early as the 1980s, Landa was captured in the United States for drug trafficking and years later died in a prison in that country, ending a smuggling career that began in the early 1970s and which allowed it to be strengthened in the next decade both in the capital of the Valley and in New York, this being the perfect bridge for both of them. businesses that answer the question Why is Cali the salsa capital of the world today above New York?

KEEP READING: