Los Conquistadores de la Salsa

What makes the group especially interesting is how intentionally they’ve worked with cultural exchange rather than just “exporting” a style. Over time, the orchestra developed into a mix of Cuban and Peruvian musicians, and a big part of their identity has been helping local players truly own the genre. That doesn’t happen automatically: it takes training, rehearsal culture, and an understanding of what gives Cuban music its character—how the rhythm section locks in, how the phrasing sits, and how the whole band breathes together.

The band has described how the early years could be challenging precisely because this music is so tied to Cuban tradition. Their response was to do the hard, practical work: workshops, classes, and hands-on coaching, so the musicians around them could internalize the concept rather than simply imitate it. The result is a group that doesn’t feel like a “copy” of Cuban music—it feels like a living, local scene that has learned the language properly.

They’ve also shown a clear respect for the broader Cuban musical heritage, not only the modern dancefloor energy. Along the way they’ve aimed to keep classic Cuban genres present—things like son and cha-cha-cha—styles that are foundational to Cuban identity and that still matter globally, especially in dance communities.

Why Los Conquistadores and rueda.casino fit together

rueda.casino is all about dancers connecting more deeply with the music—timing, structure, phrasing, and cultural context—so training becomes more than memorizing figures. That overlaps naturally with Los Conquistadores’ view of how Cuban music survives and spreads: it needs to be used, shared, and actively brought into new spaces.

From their perspective, letting other communities work with the music is not “giving something away”—it’s part of how the orchestra and the genre get more widely known. They’ve spoken positively about people using their music as a way of promoting the band and helping the sound travel further, and they’ve supported the idea that you need many different channels for the music to be truly diffused.

That’s why the collaboration with rueda.casino makes sense: dancers get access to authentic Cuban-inspired orchestra music to train with, and the band’s sound gets carried into a global learning environment where people are actively listening, repeating, and building skill on top of the rhythms. It’s a win-win that strengthens the link between live band culture and the international rueda community—exactly where Cuban music tends to thrive the most.

In 2018 we were able to do an interview with the band leader Robert Armas. Here is that interview.