Latinos have delivered a major jolt to American pop culture. Whether it’s a Chihuahua uttering “Yo quiero Taco Bell” on a TV commercial, Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek spicing up the screen in “Wild Wild West” or Antonio Banderas strumming a flamenco guitar in “Desperado,” anything and everything Latin is making noise.

According to a recent Newsweek article, the population of Hispanics in the United States has hit 31 million and is projected to reach 96 million by 2050.

The Latin influence has injected itself into American culture and music has taken a powerful dose.

“The increased influence of Latin music on American culture, not only is it a trend, it’s a mega trend. I think it’s here to stay,” says Mike Tierney, vice president of music programming for VH1. “The Latin culture traditionally celebrates music and obviously dance, and I think that everybody’s kind of in the mood for some of that right now.”

A longtime supporter of Latin acts like Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada in the past, VH1 has continued to provide a voice for Latin music.

The support peaked in August when the station transformed itself into VH-Uno for a day, playing hours upon hours of Latin music-related programming. Latino actor Jimmy Smits hosted a special titled “The Latin Explosion,” which documented the best of Latin music both old and new.

“There was a growing taste for Latin music styles both among the nation’s growing Latin population and among the Anglo population,” he says. “It was kind of in response to something that was already happening but also anticipating a trend that was gonna get bigger, which it has.”

The Major Players

Leading the pack in Latin-influenced music is Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican-born artist whose song “Livin’ La Vida Loca” became a summer anthem, inspiring a mass of previously unexposed listeners to turn their ears toward the Latin sound.

“‘La Vida Loca’ was the first really big Latin crossover song,” Tierney says. “Videos have captured the energy, the fun and sexy intensity that the music has … visually they really capture the spirit of the Latin music explosion.”

Playing a significant role in the re-emergence of Latin music, the video for “Livin’ La Vida Loca” has been nominated for nine MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Video of the Year.

“[Ricky Martin] is doing a great service by popularizing Latin music,” says Peter Sherman, owner of Boheme, an all-ages Ames venue that features Latin music and dance nights. “Only in the past year has America discovered it, and I’m all for it.”

Currently, five Latin albums are climbing the charts and experiencing heavy sales. Ricky Martin, Santana, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias and Buena Vista Social Club have all claimed spots within the Top 100 on this week’s Billboard albums chart, according to the publication’s official Web site.

With sales as high as they are, Tierney says there’s no doubt these artists are reaching beyond their usual audiences.

“Who’s buying these records? Right now it’s everybody. It’s Latinos, Blacks, Asian Americans, males, females, old, young,” he explains. “Anything that sells a million copies, you can’t do that just by being a niche performer.”

The phenomenon stretches international boundaries as well. The Ricky Martin official Web site provides updates in several languages including Spanish, English, French, German and more.

Springing into the spotlight is Enrique Iglesias, whose single “Bailamos” is currently the No. 1 single on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart. Jennifer Lopez’ debut album, “On the 6,” just reached platinum status, and Martin has sold 5 million copies of his self-titled English-language debut.

Bailamos

Pop music isn’t the only Latin style creating a buzz.

From New York to London, Madrid to Miami and in between, Latin dance music is hot, vibrant and erupting. Everywhere on the planet, people are dancing salsa and merengue, livin’ la vida loca and loving it.

Even in Iowa.

At Boheme, experts collide with novices when the venue hosts Latin dances every Thursday night.

“You go to Boheme, and it’s crowded. People are dancing to Latin music, even people who don’t know what they’re doing,” says Latin dance instructor Alma Castillo, who teaches a class at the Memorial Union.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Castillo says salsa and merengue are an essential part of life in Latin America.

“It’s everywhere you go. It’s on the TV, it’s on the radio. Everywhere you go, people are doing salsa and merengue,” she says.

Although it may not be quite as widespread in the Midwest yet, Castillo says enthusiasm for Latin dance has grown incredibly on the coasts.

“I went to California in February and I went to some salsa clubs and everybody, everybody was doing the salsa. It was amazing.”

According to the All Music Guide, Salsa originated in Cuba in the 1940s as a style characterized by syncopated bass patterns. While the music had been around for nearly three decades, the term “salsa” was not used until the 1960s, when it was applied to artists like Tito Puente.

“There was a group of Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans living in New York and they combined African rhythms, Caribbean rhythms, all of these rhythms and they came up with salsa,” Castillo says.

Going against the ’90s trend of dancing apart, Latin dances focus on a more up close and personal approach.

“The hip motion is very particular of any Latin dance,” Castillo says. “It has an element of sensuality to it and communication. When people that really know each other dance, you can see there is a lot of give and take between the dancers, a lot of non-verbal communication and connection.”

Sherman agrees.

“It’s really great to see young people dancing together,” he says. “It’s a very sexual, interactive dance.”

Iowa may seem like an unlikely place for salsa to garner popularity, but here in Ames, people are enrolling in Latin dance classes.

Castillo’s class at the Union has been full every time it’s been offered since it was first launched last spring.

“We had a guy who came all the way from Des Moines this summer to take the class, and we had to turn him down because we were full,” she says.

As the public’s awareness has increased, Sherman adds, more people have discovered Boheme as a hot spot for Latin dancing. The club offers both salsa and tango lessons, alternating every week on Thursdays.

The New Revolution

Beneath the flashy, power-pop sound of Ricky Martin and his compadres lies a deeper, new generation of Latin musicians.

Argentina’s Todos Tus Muertos pump hard-core tunes that rival the uninhibited power of Rage Against The Machine.

L.A.’s Ozomatli combine the unlikely elements of salsa, hip hop and jazz-funk.

Cafe Tacuba mixes Mexican folklore with punk, ska and electronica to create a sound like no other.

And Mexico City’s Molotov pound out industrial strength rap-metal more hard-core than Limp Bizkit.

It’s called Rock en Espanol and if you ask journalist Martin Albornoz, it’s the wave of the future.

As co-publisher of Frontera, a magazine geared towards Latino arts and entertainment, Albornoz is plugged into the Latin underground scene.

“Latin musicians blend a lot of different musical styles to create a seamless blend,” he says. It goes way beyond the Latin pop of Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez.

“Those artists are really pop musicians. There’s pop music in Latin America and they’re exposing that. They’re not doing serious Latin music,” he said.

The Wadcha Tour was launched in the tradition of the Vans Warped Tour to provide an alternative to the Latin mainstream. Albornoz sees the success of that tour as a premonition of the coming revolution.

“We as Latinos are joining the mainstream. We’re speaking English. We’re assimilating. We are influencing the whole country,” Albornoz says.

Recorded Latin dance music is constantly reinventing itself as well. “I think it’s a social phenomenon that’s constantly changing,” Sherman says. “A lot of Arabic music is being mixed with the Latin and at the same time a lot of more current Latin music comes out of African music.”

When any style of music generates a national buzz, critics usually arise, arguing that the new wave of musicians only create a watered-down representation of the previous version.

But with Latin music, the supporters outnumber the critics. Even among Latinos, Albornoz says, the majority seems to be rooting the artists on, hoping they will open the doors for purer styles.

“They see it in the movies or on TV, they identify it and sooner or later, they lose some of their inhibitions and start appreciating some of the more pure Latin music,” Sherman says of the average MTV or VH1-viewer. “When I play Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ they go crazy here.”

It will obviously take some time before the general public takes notice of the Latin underground, but meanwhile, the scene can use the time wisely, preparing itself for the revolution.

“These artists, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Shakira, are artists that without ever getting played on a single English-speaking radio station could sell-out the biggest arenas in America without a big percentage of the population ever having heard of them,” Tierney says. “The market for Spanish language Latin music in America is only gonna go up.

“The Ricky Martin thing is not a fad, it’s a phenomenon. It’s irreversible and anyone who can’t deal with that is just gonna have to get used to it,” he said.