Either through Ruiz Armengol’s travels to Cuba, or Cuban musicians visiting Mexico, he met a number of musicians from Cuba; among the more notable were René Touzet, César Portillo de la Luz, and José Antonio Méndez. The last two composers, along with Ruiz Armengol and Mexican songwriter Vicente Garrido, are considered to be the leaders of the bolero filin, a Latin song style that became popular both in Mexico and Cuba during the 1950s and 60s. The Cuban bolero is a binary song style, derived from the danzón and habanera, which is characterized by long flowing melodies and was brought to Mexico by Cuban entertainers. Ruiz Armengol encouraged by René Touzet embraced the composition of his first set of Cuban dances over a span of eleven years. The first nineteen Cuban dances were composed between 1979 and 1991. The last three Cuban dances, written in 2001 and remain unpublished. Ruiz Armengol’s innovations in the Cuban dance genre in the areas of form, harmonic originality, rhythmic variety, aesthetic content, and pianistic brilliance, suggest a unique contribution in the history of the genre. Arguably, time is the greatest test of a composer’s merit and his Cuban Dances appear to be on the winning side of this test, as evidenced by the interest in his music by performers and audiences.
