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Glossary: G - L

guaguancó

a musical genre developed in Cuba and a precursor to salsa, featuring a polyrhythmic structure using a 2/3 clave, and danced by male-female couples (in its traditional folkloric setting). The typical instrumentation includes: tumbadoras (congas) or cajones (boxes), palitos (sticks) or cucharas (spoons), claves, and marugas (shakers).

guaracha

A lively and highly danceable music style with lyrics, originating in Spain. Characterized mostly by its rhytm, it is generally played with a bolero section in 2/4 time and a clave section in either 6/8 or 3/4 time, although the order of these sections is sometimes reversed. Typically, a guaracha ends with a sensual rumba section.  La Negra Tomasa composed in the 1940's, is an interesting (only vocals and percussion), example of this genre. Another example is  Corneta sung by Daniel Santos. The guaracha came to Puerto Rico from Cuba in the mid-19th century, and developed into the jíbaro style that most closely approaches contemporary Latin dance rhythms.

güiro	a notched, hollowed-out gourd, which was adapted from a pre-Colombian instrument, played by scraping with a metal tool with multiple tynes
habanera	precursor to the danza, from the name of Cuba's capital city, La Habana. The habanera was danced by couples in a very free, improvisational manner
jibaro	a term used to describe a Puerto Rican peasant; anyone from the countryside

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