Ramón Torres is a Dominican bachata artist born in 1949 in Higüey, La Altagracia, who belongs to the pioneering generation that developed bachata from its rough acoustic origins into a recognizable and ultimately beloved genre. Growing up in the eastern Dominican Republic, Torres was part of the cultural environment that produced both Los Hermanos Rosario and a significant number of other important Dominican artists. His work in bachata during the genre's formative decades contributed to establishing the conventions and emotional vocabulary that later artists would inherit and transform. Bachata's journey from stigmatized music of the poor to one of the world's most recognized Latin genres owes something to every artist who committed to it before it was fashionable, and Torres is among those whose contribution deserves recognition.