Festival Afrocubano de Matanzas

Matanzas is credited as the birthplace of the yambu and columbia rumba styles, sustained today by folkloric ensembles including AfroCuba de Matanzas, formed in 1957 around percussionist Francisco Zamora Minini, and Los Munequitos de Matanzas. The city has hosted internationally attended rumba festivals under varying names for over two decades, including a Festival Internacional de la Rumba documented from 2001 and a differently branded Festival Internacional de Rumba Guaguanco Matancero more recently.

Matanzas earned its Athens of Cuba nickname partly through its role as one of the two cradles of rumba, the Afro-Cuban music and dance tradition born in the barracks and urban tenements of enslaved and formerly enslaved Cubans of Yoruba, Congo and Abakua descent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with Matanzas specifically credited as the birthplace of the yambu and columbia rumba styles, distinct from Havana's guaguanco.