Buena Vista Social Club

The Buena Vista Social Club was the name of a members-only music club in Havana, Cuba that was at its height during the 1940s. In the late 1990s Wim Wenders made a movie upon the initiative of Ry Cooder called Buena Vista Social Club about some of the musicians who had performed there and their involvement in the production of an album released in 1997 also called Buena Vista Social Club. Both movie and album were highly successful, and started a craze for Cuban music in the United States and Europe.

Highly praised during the 40s and 50s, the rediscovery of the Buena Vista Social Club had a major social impact on cubans that live in the states. If it was not for the initiative of Ry Cooder, the world would not have known that Cuba had a rich musical history and a different way of life before XXL .