Long a favorite on dance floors in Latin America, the porro, cumbia, and vallenato styles that make up Colombia's m?sica tropical are now enjoying international success. How did this music-which has its roots in a black, marginal region of the country-manage, from the 1940s onward, to become so popular in a nation that had prided itself on its white heritage? Peter Wade explores the history of m?sica tropical , analyzing its rise in the context of...