The samba did not come from any Spanish speaking country. The dance called the samba comes from Portuguese-speaking Brazil, where it evolved as a folk dance among people of African descent.
It became a dance for urban Brazilian couples in the late nineteenth century, and became internationally popular in the 1920s and 1930s. It was later combined with bossa nova music, which is also a Brazilian invention.
Most Latin dances did originate in Spanish-speaking countries. Some have been mentioned in other chapters: salsa, rumba, merengue, cumbia, tango. Other Latin dance crazes have included the mambo, cha-cha, and conga line.
People in the United States discovered Latin American dances in the 1940s and have never stopped enjoying them. Latin rhythm, with its blending of African, Spanish, and Native American traditions, has influenced many forms of music, including jazz and rock.The Latin music industry has greatly expanded in the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the most recent Latin dance crazes in the United States was the macarena. Imported from Spain in the 1990s, it was briefly danced everywhere from weddings to baseball games.
