Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. It is said to have come from funeral traditions in the Afro-Colombian community.

Cumbia traditionally uses three drums: tambora, tambor alegre, and lamador; three flutes: gaita hembra, gaito macho, and flauta de millo; and has a ²
₂ or ²
₄ meter. The sound of cumbia can be characterized as having a simple "chucu-chucu-chu" created by the guacharaca. The genre frequently incorporates brass instruments and piano.

Examples of cumbia include:

• Colombian cumbia, is a musical rhythm and traditional folk dance from Colombia. It has elements of three different cultures, American Indigenous, African, and Spanish, being the result of the long and intense meeting of these cultures during the Conquest and the Colony. The Colombian cumbia is the origin of all the other variations, including the tradition of dancing it with candles in the dancers' hands.
• Panamanian cumbia, Panamanian folk dance and musical genre, developed by enslaved people of African descent during colonial times and later syncretized with American Indigenous and European cultural elements.