Xavier Cugat, “The Rumba King,” was instrumental in the popularity of Latin music in the United States, and his orchestra paved the way for Tito Puente, Perez Prada, Desi Arnaz, and others. Born in Girona, Spain in 1900, he grew up in Havana and moved to New York City in 1915. He was a trained violinist, performing in the US and Europe in the early 1920s. He became a fixture at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, performing in “the Cugat Room” for nearly a decade. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he traveled between New York and Los Angeles, working as a conductor. His recording career spanned four decades, and included albums for RCA, Columbia, Mercury, and Decca Records. Cugat's popularity led him to appear in numerous films beginning in 1930 with In Gay Madrid. He even appeared in a series of films with Esther Williams in the 1940s. Cugat became an American citizen in 1941, however, following a stroke, he returned to Spain later in life, residing at the Ritz Barcelona Hotel and touring nationwide with a new band. The New Xavier Cugat Orchestra continued to play his music for two decades after he retired, the rights having been purchased by piano player Robert Kasha. Xavier Cugat passed away in Barcelona in 1990, at the age of 90.