The " down beat " is the 1 and 3 of each bar; combining the 1st and 2nd beat in the bar, thus occupying more " time ", is given a SLOW value. " 2 " is contra tiempo and occurs on 2 and 4.
If you mean that some songs seem more "1" than "2" oriented, yes, that does happen ,and some more of a "2" , particularly in Salsa, BUT, that, does not change the basic principle of the music structure.
For e.g. in Cuban Son, the stressed "4" is its signature , but ,its still breaks on "2", contra tiempo, with a very identifiable "1" in the bar .
Latin music is very complex, and can even change mid stream in a song, going from a 3/2 clave to a 2/3 .