The Mambo Kings

In the early 1950s, Cesar Castillo and Nestor Castillo—two Cuban brothers and musicians—flee Havana after a violent dispute with mobster owners of a club where they performed. They eventually end up in New York City, taking on menial jobs while trying to revive their musical careers. At a nightclub where Cesar briefly steps in for mambo star Tito Puente, they make new friends and connections, and meet cigarette girl Lanna Lake, who falls quickly into a love affair with Cesar.

[Nestor] continues to chase memories of his lost Cuban love, Maria Rivera, pouring his heartbreak into song as he writes version after version of the ballad Beautiful Maria of My Soul. By chance, he meets Delores Fuentes, a shy but attentive young woman who dreams of becoming a schoolteacher. When she becomes pregnant, they marry and begin to build a life together.

One night at a club, Nestor’s ballad catches the eye of a surprising admirer—a Cuban bandleader and American television star, Desi Arnaz Sr.. After a warm evening in Nestor and Delores’s home, Arnaz invites the Castillos to sing and act on an episode of his sitcom I Love Lucy.

Fame does not last, however. Nestor is not as ambitious as his brother and longs for something simpler: a small club of his own. He loves Delores, but his passion for Maria from the old days lingers. Cesar confronts difficult truths of the past when he learns that Maria left him for a Cuban mobster, Luis Fajardo, in exchange for cancelling a contract hit against Nestor.

Then fate intervenes one snowy night: their car veers off the road, Cesar is found in the back seat unharmed, but Nestor, who was driving, is killed. To honor his memory, a devastated Cesar opens his own small club. Delores pays him a visit and asks him to sing Beautiful Maria of My Soul once more, a moment that binds their present to the brothers’ past and leaves the door open for music to carry their story forward.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:37