Original subtitles

[Music]

[Music]

how about it for the how about it how

about it for Suns

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

in the South Bronx District of New York

the king of Latin music Tito quente is

playing for his people they call him the

high priest of salsa music

a

a

he

he

[Applause]

muso pente and his band are playing on a

weekday afternoon in New York's poorest

District music he says keeps the Puerto

Rican

alive no one's paying pente today music

is his social

work he's joined by pist Charlie Palmer

I

a

[Music]

among those born of poor Puerto Rican

parents in the ghettos of New York was

Felipe Luciano here in New York City in

the Maine we have we're um concentrated

mainly in the service Industries we are

dishwashers we are doormen we are

assistant dishwashers we are street

cleaners we are whatever the lowest um

on the totem pole is in terms of the

service field area is what we are in the

main the working class we have an

increasingly large and visible middle

class but that middle class still is

caught up in trying to make its money

and mind its own business um in fact we

have that middle class going through

what I call cultural Amnesia if they can

forget their Puerto Rican it would be

much better they can then live their

lives and call themselves Hispanic and

not never have to worry about that term

Puerto Rican but in the main we are a

working class and very poor Community a

very large um poor

underclass it's a miserable feeling

walking into a school for example and

feeling the total sense of worthlessness

of Puerto Rican children feel and these

are beauti this is a beautiful people um

the people I'm talking about come from

all Races they are black they are brown

they are white they are they are beige

they are the colors of the

rainbow we are a a people who love music

we are people who have an acute sense of

hearing we like we we for example our

our rhythm is so complex that a lot of

people really can't understand

it here in the United States of America

we have a history of having closely Mitt

family though that's rapidly undergoing

a real transformation because of the

Urban Decay that we see here we have so

many beautiful qualities that it's very

difficult to show um it's very difficult

for our own folks to see it it's it's

it's like trying to remove the layers of

Filth that has been that have been put

in front of their faces and so that I

feel has always been my job how can we

remove the veil how can we take the

stereotypes away from my own people's

eyes so that they can see their own

Beauty

Felipe tried to activate the Puerto

Rican Community back in the 60s by

forming a gang dedicated to improving

the life of his people by peaceful or

violent means he called it the young

Lords gang and became its leader the

most important contribution that the

young Lords made to the consciousness of

Puerto Rican struggle here in the United

States was that for the first time the

Puerto Rican Community actually saw

their sons and daughters fighting a

system back fighting them back

culturally in what we taught in what we

sang and what we wore fighting them back

politically we did not believe that the

system of government that we live under

capitalism was sufficient for our needs

and fighting them back physically we

would not allow policemen to come into

our community and mercilessly beat um

people up that is we were not going to

be victims any longer and that was the

message that spread like wildfire

throughout the community for the first

time you had old ladies old men it was

it's an incredible sight actually seeing

the elders coming out to embrace um a

group of their sons and daughters who

forly they criticized for just hanging

out for having no ambition no vision no

sense of where they were going they're

embracing these children now and they're

saying you are our liberators that was

the most important role the most

important contribution that we made to

the political Consciousness here it

wasn't material you could not see it you

could just see it in the erectness of

the carriage in the way people talked

about themselves in the way Puerto

Ricans began to put themselves on the

map up till then all that was known of

Puerto Rican culture to Outsiders was

the Latin music of the New York

nightclubs and Hollywood movies

[Music]

in reality this music had migrated To

America with workers from Cuba and

Puerto

[Music]

Rico the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico

had been desperately

poor centuries ago it was colonized by

Spain and then at the turn of the

century the Americans moved in and

Puerto Rico became part of the American

Commonwealth that presented the slum

dwellers of districts like laera with

the chance to migrate to the city of New

York with dreams of riches they could

never otherwise attain they left the

islands in their thousands for a better

life what they found were districts like

the South Bronx where Puerto Rican

workers settled and raised families

[Music]

Those whom God has joined together let

no one put us under Joe conzo and Laura

are marrying in the South Bron today the

band leader Tito pente is Joe's best man

being a father of the community the

wedding would not be complete without

him that you may find Delight in each

other and grow in holy love until your

life's end may you dwell in God's

presence forever May true and constant

love Preserve

I give you this ring I give you this

ring as a sign of my love and

faithfulness as a sign of my love and

faithfulness okay

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

like other Latin workers musicians can't

afford to turn down any opportunity so

after the wedding Tito and his band will

be off to another

gig Puerto Ricans take a great pride in

their racial mixture mostly black with

Spanish but with a bit of almost

everything else thrown

in the community retained its own

identity as it grew largely through its

music jamming with Tito pente is drummer

Ray beretto

[Music]

[Music]

yeah boy

Puerto Ricans are the largest part of

what New Yorkers call their Hispanic

Community there are 2 million uh and

that is what the city tells us 2 million

Hispanics in the city now in a city of 8

million people that means we are a

quarter of the City's population that is

not to bring in the question of illegal

aliens if we brought in the whole point

about illegal aliens I can convince you

I can assure you that there are at least

in this city 3 and2 million Hispanics

and which means we are the dominant

majority we are the largest ethnic group

in this city but of course census takers

official census takers who by the way do

not go into the homes and actually

literally take down each member of the

family and who Spanish speaking people

do not trust anyway to give them correct

information so they never get it but we

know I know a million Puerto Ricans

myself how can there be a million Puerto

Ricans here in New York so I know that

that has been done purposely to keep us

from understanding our own power and our

own sense of worth um I am convinced

that we are oppressed yes uh and that is

a result of our own our own sense of

victimization once we remove that and

once our Consciousness Rises a little

that is once we begin to understand that

it is we who can stop the city at any

point we want we who can elect the mayor

we who can redress our own grievances

it's just a question of the slave

breaking his own shackles that are not

only on his hands but are more on his

mind if we can get those shackles

removed from his mind the Puerto Rican

in this city the Hispanic will be a

powerful force to be reckoned with one

of the first instruments that man ever

had in his hands was a pair of sticks I

don't blame the United States or the New

York City public school system for

making sure that our children don't

understand the music it's not their job

to do that their job is to make our kids

automatons to fit their system their

aesthetic their way of doing things

orinal it's left to musicians like

Charlie pom to educate Puerto Rican

children in their own culture

he gives music lessons after hours in a

South BR school to preserve their links

with the past play it as an instrument

because this was hung on a cow and when

they wanted to know in the field the

farmer wanted to know in the field where

his cow was he listened to the sound of

the

Bell now the bomba the plan and the Dana

are rhythms of Puerto Rico they come

from that particular Island and then

from Cuba they have a whole stack of

rhythms Cuba has the RBA ASA as the

Mambo

asaaa asuno has s and we just going to

have to pick one of them out let's pick

out uh a Roomba it's an old fashioned

Roomba

[Applause]

now we're here really to get together to

learn a word that's been used quite a

lot and the word is salsa does anybody

know what the word salsa means anybody

no you don't know what salsa means you

mean to tell me when your mother starts

cooking and she makes and she and she

makes Ain salsa you don't know what that

is it's sauce right but they have bands

that play it with modern Harmony and

they play it really together and they

use electrical instruments now they use

electric pianos so they give it a

terminology and the terminology is

called Salsa okay let's practice one 2 1

2 3 4

go oh my God I got to record

this okay now we're going to do it again

okay we're going to do a little mble all

right we're going to do a

little we're going to do a little number

that I wrote a long time it's called

Mumbo show and this is this is how it's

going to sound are you ready I hope you

are here we go here we go ready 1 2 1 2

3 4

go go keep

play

[Music]

you the same rhythms are in all salsa

music

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

salsa Superstar Celia Cruz is rehearsing

with her band to Puerto Ricans she's a

legend she's seldom seen in public but

on dis her music sells second to none

[Music]

she sings about the black roots and

rhythms of her

[Music]

music foree

[Music]

[Music]

Celia is Sal's only female star the

Latin music business is still dominated

by a macho male mentality which says

that Latin women apart from Celia can't

[Music]

sing Latin women are fine

singers but in comparison with American

girls they are very badly

pay we can't expect to be like Don Sama

in Las Vegas with a full house every

night because Latin people have to go to

work during the week and can only afford

to go to nightclubs at weekends so they

earn less but Latin women are fine

singers great singers and anyone who

doesn't think so just doesn't know what

he's talking

about her song says if a man's good to a

woman she'll be good to him but if he's

bad she'll give him nothing and if he

treats her like a slave she'll

go foree

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

but to some Puerto Ricans the smooth

sounds of commercial salsa are too far

removed from the lives and problems of

the community itself the music is used

and manipulated consciously and

unconsciously not there's no great

conspiracy to do this what happens is

that almost insidiously the music takes

on a status quo role a pacifist role

role a defusing role it takes away from

having people look at the reality of

their own lives at the [ __ ] and crusted

walls that they have to work within all

of the time the headquarters of the

salsa music industry is fa

records it's a multi-million dollar

business run not by a Puerto Rican but

an Italian American Jerry

masuchi having built the company up from

nothing he's very much a power behind

the scenes

as long as I have the hits and the

artists I'm in a powerful position you

know it's like uh it's like a baseball

team you know if you're a winning

manager and you're powerful but once the

team starts losing you're only as good

as your players you know I mean I can't

go and make the music I can tell them

what I like I can tell them what's

selling I can tell them my ideas and you

know combine the commercial aspects and

the the uh music IAL aspects but I I've

been lucky enough to note the right

talent and sign them and keep them and

uh you know and after 15 years in the

business and bringing the business up

from nothing you get a certain amount of

power fa record's power was built by

flooding the market with a successful

formula Bland lyrics with a smooth Latin

Rhythm the salsa sound

but Against All Odds one of fa's top

stars is combining commercial salsa with

a message important to the Latin

American

people Ruben blades is rehearsing a new

album with uncompromising lyrics about

the political prisoners of Latin America

the sadness of men deprived of Liberty

the violence of

[Music]

fascism

foree fore

[Music]

[Music]

can we make our lyrics speak of what I

call first-dimensional reality for our

people can our lyrics make sense we're

not asking for leftist lyrics we're not

ask asking for people to become Marxist

list we're only saying to our composers

and to our arrangers and to our

lyricists our sons and daughters are

listening to this music can we say

something about the kinds of the kind of

life that deleting about what the

options are or the lack of options can

you do that um Ruben blades is doing

that um there are others who are trying

to achieve that but they're fighting an

uphill battle and it's up to the

community to to buy the records of

course and to make that happen the irony

of of all of this is is that still the

company makes

money I think that for too long this

business has been run like by people who

don't really understand the poic you

know and they always felt that the less

you set the better you will be off in

other words don't get too deep and

people don't understand that they don't

want to be bothered by it h do it nicely

softly you know just go along they don't

they it's going to be all right and uh

also a lot of people and I'm sorry to

say this if are not too creative you

know you fall into a pattern that works

and you stay there it's comfortable you

don't want to make any ways you what

what for you know and um that's one of

the reasons as a matter of fact of why I

got involved in this in this in in this

music Sala music Sala is like an

international

Urban folklore you know salsa is the

folklore of the city but not of one city

but of all cities in Latin America and

uh there's so many themes you know there

so many things and situations and

everything that can be sung and should

be sung instead of you know just talking

two or three things you know it's always

the same themes and very short it's the

same thing and that that's one of the

reasons I got involved in this I said

this is enough of this crap you know can

you give me an example on the guitar of

the kind of thing

you well when I got to the York for

instance I I wrote this

song what is that song about it's a

Subway hurry up Dam machine I've been

here for hours and still I cannot see

the numbers six Subway number

six and it's something that you know

that song for instance I wrote that song

5 years ago people still seeing it today

why because today you still have people

waiting for the number six train and

saying where the hell is this train you

know H

songs

[Music]

[Music]

for say a man

returns he walks very

slowly so slowly that his shadow is

always behind

him and he's he's not in a hurry he

knows what to what you waiting for the

same neighborhood old neighborhood with

the same

corner with the same uh trash cans

overturn the same noise from the

bar about the same number of Puerto

Ricans live on their Island as live in

New York around 3

million the slum dwellers of laera still

live beneath the walls of the old

Spanish Castle

Spain was the colonial power that gave

the distinctive sound to the black

music and a distinctive appearance to

the

people but at the turn of the century

America invaded and Puerto Rico became

part of the American Commonwealth

neither estate nor

[Music]

independent over the past 25 years a new

middle class has evolved from the

America poured in attempting to keep the

island politically in

line Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico

and Cuba grew up as holiday Resorts and

gambling centers for Americans who built

up chains of hotels and casinos for

their own pleasure while they listened

to the latest in Latin music

today the island is still a holiday

makers

[Music]

Paradise hotels like the kado Hilton

like to give their customers what they

want

[Music]

the Cowboys of Puerto Rican Waiters

[Applause]

[Music]

in reaction to the swamping of their

culture many Puerto Ricans are calling

for independence from American

[Applause]

domination on a historic occasion four

Puerto Rican Independence Fighters have

been released from jail by President

Carter

Long Live Puerto Rico and down with

[Applause]

treason Freedom yes Yankees

no the freedom fight is just arrived in

Puerto Rico from prison in the US Victor

Kazo had shot at President Truman in

1950 l h President Truman's temporary

Washington residence naturally Drew

crowds of people as soon as word of the

attempt on his life was announced the

whole civilized world was shocked by the

news here's a firstand account of the

affair from Secret Service Chief Victor

bourman a defate PL who assassinated the

president of the United States was

foiled

today Floyd you were on the

spot you shot one of these assassins

tell me guess what happened one of the

men went by our post on the east side of

the Blair House Chief and when he was

about 10 ft away from officer bzel he

pulled his gun and started shooting at

the officer officer Davidson and I

immediately pulled our guns and started

shooting press photos show Oscar Kazo

Kazo was jailed for 29 years his three

companions including a woman Lolita

LeBron had fired pistols into the US

House of Representatives jailed for 25

[Music]

years Lolita

[Music]

LeBron people of Puerto Rico my people

how wonderful it is to be back home

after so many hardships the flag I hold

in my hand it is up to all of you to see

it is never torn down eliminated or

rejected this flag which today is

inferior to any other in the

world a Young Band dedicated to the

Puerto Rican call for Independence were

invited to greet the heroes Mendo

vidrio in Puerto Rico politics and music

go hand in hand

the eight string guitar called the

quatro is a musical symbol of Puerto

Rican Independence it's Unique to the

island their song says the Puerto Rican

will not be downcast even though she has

no home to love since our island is not

really her own

Mendo vdo's lyrics have not found favor

with the Puerto Rican establishment just

as many years earlier the danas of

rapael Hernandez had their references to

Independence removed moved today they're

safely performed on stage at the local

Holiday Inn with no lyrics at all

also traditionally Puerto Rican is the

sport of [ __ ] fighting the fights

nowadays take place in the rarified air

conditioned ring beside the big hotels

but this is a Puerto Rican national

sport and passions run as deep as ever

even if they're paid for in American

dollars

he byy

[Applause]

hey

[Applause]

much in Puerto Rico appears to be

American tax-free businesses and low

wages for workers make it a Haven for

the

multinationals but behind this facade of

short-term foreign investment some

Puerto Rican Traditions do

survive one of the Island's earliest

music forms is the planer a local story

in

song This one is about an American who

thought a Puerto Rican fish was his

friend

instead it attacked him and ate him up

maybe it came from Cuba the song

suggests fore

[Music]

[Applause]

plan music has its roots in the black

Township of Louisa ala on the coast of

Puerto Rico a large slave settlement it

was once the home of Puerto Rican black

music today in Louisa ala's Central

Square the Christianity of the Spanish

and American colonizers continues

converting people in revivalist

[Music]

meetings but behind this facade too is a

different reality a more far-reaching

link with the past

[Music]

nor is the graveyard imagery all it

seems to be it appears like the statues

in many little shops to be of Christian

Saints and historical

characters but these plaster figures

belong to santaria the religion of the

black slave aves from Africa when they

were forced to worship the church icons

of Christianity they used them as

symbols for their own African gods of

the air the Sea and the

wind the most unlikely symbolic imagery

evolved

[Applause]

the music too looks back to

Africa not just the rhythms but also the

words of Sania are from the Yura tribe

of West

Africa a secret summoning of African

Spirits for 400 years disguised behind

Saints on a public level the bomba Dance

of the African Plantation Slaves takes

its place is a tourist show in a Holiday

Inn it's about the violent death of a

slave girl at the hands of her white

owner it's an an example of the

schizophrenia of modern Puerto Rico that

while performing for American tourists

the dancers become increasingly

hypnotically possessed by the bomba

rhythms which were at the root of their

culture

he

[Music]

the bomber rhythms came to New York with

modern salsa

[Music]

today some musicians are committed to

exploring the music of their past in a

new

idiom well this uh unlike the commercial

band this is is got uh different

possibilities when you play something

commercial you already are very uh U you

are tied with how you say

uh yeah you are tied up you are tied up

with certain structures you know that

you have you can't really break them

they have to be very like for example

say disco music it's a music that got

that structure you can go out you can't

create on that it's impossible this

music is got rhythms that are salsa for

example it's Timeless these rhythms are

modern now will be modern in 100 years

from now this won't change belongs to a

culture it's actually a language every

time uh in fact that's the way that's

the way I play I play through language

but every time I play a rhythm or

whatever and I see somebody standing

over there and he's not moving you know

I want to make him move you know and I

go there's something that I know that he

can move you know and then I go B and

beautiful you it's a language all

together

a

[Applause]

our music has been able to adjust from a

country Rhythm which was slower to an

urban paced music it's been able to

survive that our music now is faster

than it was 40 years ago it's not the

same Rhythm if you compare the the clav

the rhythmic pulse of the 40s to the

clav of the 70s it's almost double the

time it's adjusted to Cars airplanes

speed of sound speed of light that kind

of thing who knows the 80s may have an

even faster clavet but the point is is

that it's the street music that survives

the music of the people because it is

the conscience of the people and that

basically is what salsa is many see in

salsa not just the music of the streets

but of big business in the discos for

young new rans a Saturday night on the

dance floors of a Latin club will mean

forgetting the drudgery of their working

week

oh

[Music]

n

[Music]

[Music]

here in New York City we are um among

the most oppressed group you've seen the

dancers um you have seen the the Rhythm

makers but that belies what the

political reality is which is that those

same people have to Laugh to Keep from

Crying

every one of the musicians that you see

is also very much a traditional music

person there's not one musician playing

cona playing trumpet um Puerto Rican or

Cuban or Hispanic who does not

understand what the roots of his culture

are not one and that is something I'm

very proud of you will see other

musicians in other cultures and this is

not to criticize them it's just to show

the extent of colonialism who have

totally had their Roots almost ripped

out of their brains if you can see a

giant claw going into the cranium and

just lifting out the the racial

unconscious of a people at least here on

the streets of New York they can feel

African rhythms they can see where the

Indians have had an impact on our

culture they can see the mixture of

those cultures and I think that our

music will be the music of the Americans

it is the music of the ' 80s and 90s it

will take an enormous amount of struggle

on our part to make that happen

Street Music will always survive it is

the music that

transcends Generations African rhythms

Street rhythms that is what's survived

because it has the intensity the energy

the music of the BOS because there just

are more Street people there are more

poor people

also the music while still not having

the lyrics that we would like has the

intensity the rhythmic intensity that

keeps our people

moving the music that we're talking

about is a double-edged

sword it is Escapist it is

trendy it is fattish but it also is

innovative it also is dynamic it also is

Progressive

what determines what will live and what

won't is the politics of a people and

their experiences what they go through

that is what determines whether the

music will live or die

I

me me

[Music]