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" I 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 Blades

Political

American

New York

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" I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe. "

" To fix Panama, you need more than charisma and records: you need a program of action. "

Ruben Blades

Action

Need

" But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood. "

" Not everybody goes to government to serve themselves and not their country. "

" My mother never finished elementary school. My father didn't, and that was a reality for many of us. "

" Tango was very popular in Panama at the time when I was growing up. In the Fifties in Panama, the radio stations played all types of music. "

" I'm planning to retire from salsa. I'm planning to do a farewell tour. "

" It was very interesting, and we went to Germany and we toured Germany like we were a German band in 1985. "

Ruben Blades

Germany

Interesting

" There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything. "

" Everyone has a black guy inside them. Mine is a Cuban sonero who is 80-something years old and sings better than I do. His name is Medoro Madera. Medoro has been recording since 1997. "

" You know, it was uncomfortable doing the same thing. I don't like a rut. "

Ruben Blades

Doing

You

" It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law. "

" I didn't do drugs, I never did do drugs. Never. I don't have any story of drugs, you know, to speak of. Never did drugs, never was interested in drugs and then I wasn't interested in the people around the drugs. "

" Every 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. "

" I don't accept ideologies that are not a product of consensus. I don't have an ideology, but I do have a sense of what's right and what's wrong. "

Ruben Blades

Wrong

Product

" I decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band. "

" I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance. "

" The 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. "

" It's almost as if people think that in Latin America we're not hip to what's happening here. "

" The first time I played was in Buenos Aires - was in 1983. The dictatorship was in position. "

" So that in 1974, when I graduated as a lawyer, I figured I'm not going to be a lawyer under a military regime. "

" I think being born in Panama was a blessing because Panama is a port city. It's a really - the mentality is that - I remember that of admitting things in. You know, ports, ideas come in and out all the time. "

" People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being. "

" What 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 Blades

Music

Interesting

" So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America. "

" Tortured characters are, I think, an actor's dream. "

" Yes, I was going to law school and it was closed in '69. "

" So everything that ever happened, we knew about in Panama. "

" What I do not accept is the fact that so many people's talents were ripped off. "

Ruben Blades

People

Off

" So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami. "