What's a Mambonik?

"Mambonik" was the name for a certain kind of young Jewish kid in the '40s and '50s who was nuts for Latin music -- mambo, cha-cha-chá, rumba, and the like.

The root, of course, is mambo, that most delirious precursor to salsa. But the suffix says it all -- in Yiddish, --nik denotes a partisan, an aficionado of, or a member of a group. Beatnik, peacenik, refusenik, no-goodnik are other cognates. As the Yiddish --nik modified the Afro-Latin mambo, so did Jews find in mambo a raw material to remake as their own.

"Mambonik" also rhymed with the Yiddish trombenik, a no-good troublemaker. As one proud member of the gang told me, "A mambonik was a trombenik who loved mambo."

"Mambonik" (or "Mambonick") was also a 1950 Seeco side cut by Pupi Campo, a theme song for the Puerto Rican bandleader's considerable Jewish following. Campo also delighted the kosher crowd with a rumba version of the Yiddish novelty song "Joe and Paul" (both were arranged by a young Tito Puente).