My conga teacher said this weekend, of the Tao (a Buhddist term), "The tao that can be written about is not the real tao".  I think he was impying that the same holds true for rumba.  Thanks for all the input folks!

Yep, but actually the Tao preceded Buddhism by a few hundred years. The Tao Te Ching was written by Lao Tzu about 2500 years ago. I've heard that Buddhism incorporates much of the Taoist philosophy.
Anyway, it was cool of him to say..

My conga teacher said this weekend, of the Tao (a Buhddist term), "The tao that can be written about is not the real tao".  I think he was impying that the same holds true for rumba.  Thanks for all the input folks!...

HA!!! Very nice Mr. Greer. I've been following this debate for a while and I must say this strikes me as one of the wisest posts yet. I had the great fortune to study with the conguero from Maraca y Otra Vision for 6 months last year. Pretty much everything I thought I new about musica Cubano turned out to be false. So few teachers in the US truly understand the music of Cuba but they teach it like they do and we believe them.

I think, (yeah, just my opinion) if you want to really understand rumba you have to spend some time learning about the Orishas/Santeria/Yoruba/Nigeria, etc. Rumba is a deep, deep topic. I've asked Cubanos from Matanzas about rumba and I've asked Cubanos from Habana about rumba and have heard conflicting information. I think it's very cool there is a website in the US where people are debating over what rumba is. Cultural awareness is a very hip thing. I hope those inquiring continue to dig into the "truth". Some sites I found to be consistent with what my Cuban teachers have taught me below and by all mean if you're serious about learning rumba... Study the music of Los Munequitos de Matanzas!!!

http://batadrums.bigstep.com/homepage.html

http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=441

For info on all Cuban music...

http://www.timba.com/index.asp