Orquesta América is a Cuban charanga orchestra founded in Havana in 1942, and later based in Mexico City and California.
The band was founded in 1942 by singer Ninón Mondéjar with Alex Sosa (piano), Enrique Jorrín, Antonio Sánchez, and Félix Reina (violins), Juan Ramos (flute) and others.
[2] Success, in Cuba, came in 1953 with Orquesta America's recording of Jorrín's "La engañadora", on the Panart label.
However the success of the band led to Mondéjar and Jorrín over whether the bandleader or songwriter should take the credit for the invention of the cha-cha-chá.
In the 1990s leadership of Orquesta America passed to Jorge Machado Durán.