Ruben Blades
So that in 1974, when I graduated as a lawyer, I figured I'm not going to be a lawyer under a military regime.
Ruben BladesI was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.
Ruben BladesAnd, we watched the Beatles one week after they showed up on the Ed Sullivan Show because of the U.S. Southern Command TV network.
Ruben BladesAnd, he'd seen me in Panama, and he talked about maybe doing something in New York so I hooked it up when I came here and I recorded in 1969 my first album with Pete Rodriguez.
Ruben BladesI was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe.
Ruben BladesThey're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel.
Ruben BladesBut, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood.
Ruben BladesPeople are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being.
Ruben BladesI decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band.
Ruben BladesSo everything that ever happened, we knew about in Panama.
Ruben BladesEvery band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models.
Ruben BladesThere was no television, so the radio provided you with everything.
Ruben BladesI was the first person to come into New York with a Latin American point of view which was also very much influenced by political happenings in Latin America.
Ruben BladesIt doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law.
Ruben BladesA lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you.
Ruben BladesIn those days the big U.S. labels didn't have any particular interest in the Latin market.
Ruben BladesRock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.
Ruben BladesThe grandmother, the mother, the worker, the student, the intellectual, the professional, the unemployed, everybody identified with the songs because they were descriptions of life in the city.
Ruben BladesThis is important to clarify, because a lot of people don't understand that I came in '69 and then went back to Panama to finish school.
Ruben BladesI think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.
Ruben BladesWe had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.
Ruben BladesWhat is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another.
Ruben BladesIt's almost as if people think that in Latin America we're not hip to what's happening here.
Ruben BladesI think in New York we had respect and we would pretty much fill up the places where we went, but I never got the sense that we really were Number 1 here in New York among the Latin crowds.
Ruben Blades
