CheCk Out This Year’s
Event Highlights
Explore the sights of New York, experience bachata legends Dani J and Pinto Picasso live in concert, train and perform with the Mambo King himself…
and so much more!
The New York International Salsa Congress has partnered with Big Bus Tours to to bring you a New York City sightseeing experience at a discounted price!
Get 20% off any New York Big Bus Tour ticket with our affiliate link here.
You can also join Brianna Rios for a special Big Bus Tour experience on Thursday, August 29th. Get the details and sign up here.
Miguelito “Pachá” Pozo was born in Oriente, Cuba. He arrived in the United States in 1958 at the age of three. Pachá always enjoyed music and took up percussion, focusing on drums and later got involved in Salsa music playing timables and bongo. Pachá started to play with bassist Glen Vargas in a band called “La Contraria” from the Lower East Side of New York City.
In 1976, Pachá began to play with Orquesta Realidad from New Jersey. After a few years performing with Orquesta Realidad along with other local bands, Pachá learned that the great flute player Jose Antonio Fajardo was looking for a timbalero. After several calls to Fajardo, Pachá played his first gig with them in August 1890. Pachá recorded live, in the studio, and traveled with Fajardo Y Sus Estrellas until Fajardo’s death in 2001. Pachá rejoined the band playing guiro in 2002 under the direction of Fajardo, Jr.
He then played with a band named “Son Moderno” from Jersey and played with them for around 5 years before he got a call to join a disco band called “Tight and Juicy.”
Pachá has shared the stage with many greats in Latin music including Tito Puente, Machito, Larry Harlow, Tipica ‘73, Orquesta Broadway, Hector LaVoe, Charanga America, Tipica Novell, Adalberto Santiago and his Orchestra, Conjunto Libre, Johnny Pacheco, Ray Barretto, Pupi Lagaretta, Alfredo de la Fe, Dave Valentin, Javier Vasquez, Jose Alberto “El Canario”, Conjunto Clasico, Gruo Facinaction, Hector Casanova, and many others during his long career.
In early 2016, Pachá decidedt o move from the back of the stage to the front as a bandleader. He came out with two songs “Prestame tu Mujer” and “Mulato Rumbero” and is currently out there keeping the Charanga tradition alive with his band “La Charanga Pachá”. La Charanga Pachá was the first Charanga band to perform in the New York International Salsa Congress. He was given “The David Melendez Award” at the Congress for Lifetime Commitment to Latin Music.