They had to practice it in secret from basically 1960 through maybe 2000. But I went to a Tambor in Old Havana when i was there and probably 40 - 50 people from the neighborhood (almost all black) rolled through like it was a family reunion.

And Brazilian music is extremely deep, but because it's the only Portuguese speaking country in Latin America, there wasn't as much of a market for it outside of Brazil or maybe Buenos Aires before Bossa Nova came along.