European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 03, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cuba dances photographs by Earl Leaf Rumba Conga Are two forms of the Island s favorite pastime i n tropical Cuba where even mid Winter temperature rarely fall below sixty degrees dancing is a popular outdoor As Well As indoor sport. It has become so much a part of the culture of this West Indian Island that since the first years of the twentieth Century it has ranked with sugar products As one of Cuba s leading  beet sugar which is native to the Island Cuba s dances Are the result of Early african and Spanish influence. Through centuries of improvisation on orig Inal ideas the Rumba and Congo developed from hundreds of indigenous dances. In 1568 natives in the Interi or of the Sandy Island first started combining african syncopation with Spanish song and dance in what was the beginning of the Rumba. -. " from the plantations the Rumba finally moved to the cheap dance Halls and waterfront cafes in Havana Santiago and other cuban cities. But it was still socially an outcast a dance of the lower working class. Not until the Rumba had crossed the sea picked up by Visi tors to the Republic and gained popularity abroad did cuban aristocrats grudgingly condescend to accept it. Though it has finally come to accept the  As a part of the Island s deep seated culture the cuban government officially insists that abroad the Rumba has degenerated into a diluted and effeminate form. Conga weekend line of enthusiastic Plantation workers snakes through Havana dance Hall. La Conga stems from afro cuban dances. Continued on next Page april 3, 194