MIAMI (AP) -- Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar -- called by some the greatest mambo dancer ever -- has died in Miami. He was 81.
His longtime dance partner Barbara Craddock says the mambo legend passed away at the Sinai Plaza Rehabilitation & Nursing Center Tuesday morning. His cause of death wasn't clear.
Aguilar was born in Puerto Rico in 1927 and grew up in the New York barrio. He picked up the nickname "Cuban Pete" in 1949 at the Palladium Ballroom in New York. The nickname referenced a Desi Arnaz song, and Arnaz himself later endorsed Aguilar's use of it.
Aguilar won many prizes for Latin dancing between 1950 and 1956 with his partner Millie Donay. He continued to dance professionally for nearly his entire life. Craddock says Aguilar came out of retirement and began dancing with her in 1998.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.
