Juan Carlos Roque Garcia

How many happenstances were needed so that Omara, Ibrahim, Compay, Eliades, Rubén, Cachaito and Juan de Marcos, among others, would come together in Amsterdam’s Carré Theater and Carnegie Hall in NewYork? How much musical genius and how much of chance was needed to make the Buena Vista Social Club the most successful international Cuban phenomenon? How could such an occurrence make El Cuarto de Tula resonate in the walls of the White House? By design or by chance, is this is a unique event? How Cuba put the World to Dance: Twenty years of Buena Vista intertwines the "official" story with unpublished testimonies and documents by the protagonists and witnesses of this world phenomenon.

English translation: Juan A. Domínguez
Transcription of original interviews: Mirtha Esther Guerra Moré
Photographs: Juan Carlos Roque y Eli Silvrants
Cover illustration: Ángel Manuel Ramírez