María Rodríguez
Music, food, and friendship formed the fabric of community when María Rodríguez moved to Washington, D.C. in the 1950s. She settled in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, home to immigrants from Latin America whose cultural traditions transformed the city’s musical and culinary landscapes.
María Rodríguez (1926-1998) grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and studied eurythmics at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York. Known by her legal name, Jean Marie Butler, she became an instructor at Elizabeth State Teachers College in North Carolina. She came to use her stage name, María Rodríguez, after moving to Washington, D.C., where she formed her namesake band, María Y Sus Magníficos. A pianist, composer, and arranger, Rodríguez was among the first faculty members at the Levine School of Music and taught with the Latin American Youth Center’s music program, Escuela de Rumba.
Selected quotations from an interview with María Rodríguez and Luis Salomé conducted on May 16, 1993 by Héctor Corporán. The recording is archived in the Black Mosaic collection.
...I'm not from Washington....so these are the people that I met...Somebody needed a pianist...that’s how I first got into it. So…as a result, I know more Spanish-speaking people...I have more identification with the Spanish-speaking community because of the music!
María Rodríguez, piano, and Luis Salomé, bass, with the Orquesta del Siglo Veinte (20th Century Orchestra) in 1962. Founder Paul Hawkins plays timbales (center). Black Mosaic Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Rodríguez was an African American conservatory-trained pianist, composer, and arranger from Cleveland, Ohio. Her legal name was Jean Marie Butler. Her interview took place alongside her friend and bandmate, Afro-Cuban bassist Luis Salomé (1912-1995), who explained that American musicians often took Latin names at the height of Latin music’s mid-twentieth-century popularity.
...[A]t that time...I had a little four- or five-piece orchestra because it was so hard to get jobs...I had heard about [Luis] Salomé...through the musical grapevine. We had to go and pick him up at La Fonda Restaurant because he was working—good cook, and…Caridad [Salomé], his wife, would cover for him….There was no rehearsal. He just knew the songs, and we knew the idiom. And we worked in Baltimore and...here in Washington, D.C....It was interesting to meet a person who knew the idiom, who had a good natural ear, good…rhythm, and that was my…first meeting with him and, of course...it went on until the time we got with Paul [Hawkins].
Luis Salomé notes,
[Translated from Spanish] …María Rodríguez…was the only one who helped me, and I played with her. When I arrived from Cuba, I left many groups there...but here I was unknown in music circles….We played together in many different places…at the Lido, the 20-11, in Baltimore, at Madrilón….We also played at the Fred Astaire Academy and…Arthur Murray, a dance studio. We also played in New York…with Paul [Hawkins]…at the Palladium [Ballroom]. Yes, places like these and many more.
Flyer promoting a performance by María y sus Magníficos at the Neptune Plaza Concert Series, Library of Congress, September 18, 1986. 1986 Neptune Plaza Concert Series collection (AFC 1986/037), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Latin American immigrants infused Adams Morgan with music in the 1950s.
It was mostly Cuban. Everybody lived on Columbia Road...You’re really so close to each other that…it’s in the air, it’s in the community...
At my house, on Sundays, they used to have the rhythm sessions, so I’d cook food and they’d go down in the basement. Tito taught...Tito Contreras...from Panama....Victor Anglin, from Panama....My ear had to work with the rhythms of all these people.
…What is interesting is that one culture...learns from another because the cúmbia has gotten better, more sophisticated...What about the influence on American music? If you hear in the jazz, do you know you’re going to hear some little Latin montunos in the pianist...Radio stations WPFW and...[W]UDC have played a lot of the music, so everything is connected. We’re all one great, big human family. If we could concentrate on the music and the food, the other problems, el dinero tambien, would fall into place.
Sofrito sizzles on Mongo Santamaria's record album cover, 1976. Division of Culture and the Arts, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Nancy Santamaria. nmah_1290075
Food, too, brought people together.
The music and the food follow the immigration trends.
...I had never had any black beans [growing up]. I learned how to make the black beans from Caridad, Salomé’s wife. And the rice...I learned from a Puerto Rican girl, put a little bit of oil in it...when you cook the rice....[I]t comes out, maybe not so bunched up....there’s a glistening about it….[Y]ou make your softrito…especialmente for the beans. Onion, garlic, green pepper, tomatoes….Sofrito goes with anything. Do you remember...Mongo Santamaria had a piece called Sofrito? Canción.
….This might be terrible to say. It was a long time ago. There was no money in Washington, D.C. Nobody had any money....My instinct told me to make a great big pot of...black beans and rice. We used to have black beans and rice and bread and butter. Somebody knocked on my door [knocking sound]. I gave him some food. One of the musicians. You know musicians, always hungry. A half-hour later. [knocking sound]. It’s another musician. Always had the beans and rice. It will sustain you. Even when I was in New York in school, the meal that sustained me was not the steak, but the beans and rice. And the salad….The moral of the story: Always keep some beans and rice ready.
María Rodríguez and Paul Hawkins dance at the Musica Afro-Latina conference held in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 1995. They served on a panel and performed with LaJazz. Hawkins recruited musicians for LaJazz, including Rodríguez, who composed and arranged the group's repertoire. Black Mosaic Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Rodríguez’s connection with the Latin American community runs deep.
From the music side, from a personal side, from friendships over the years, it’s very, very, very…like my family. Like my family.
We all know each other....[W]e're talking about the social fabric and the extension of the family. I feel if I had a problem, if I needed something, I could go to them....aside from the fact that they’re good cooks. [Laughter]
Another thing I’m thinking about—all the good times that I’ve had at Salomé’s house. They used to have some fabulous parties. And, I think about many people that I’ve met who are long passed. We had a wonderful time, right here in this house....[I]t’s such a good feeling when you talk about family. These are the people that I’ve known over the years.
I didn’t feel any barrier because I am a person who has a natural curiosity and an interest in other cultures. I wanted to, years ago, be an ethnomusicologist. I’m interested in other people’s cultures.
....I never felt any separation—never.