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" We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened. "
Ruben Blades
Say
People
Had
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" In general, both in Spanish and English, the quality of the entertainment media is horrible. "
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" Tortured characters are, I think, an actor's dream. "
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" 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. "
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" I collected the 'Walking Dead' comics. "
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" So that when I came to New York again, it was, I'm not too sure right now, but it was '74 or '75. I went to Miami in '74 and then I came to New York, I think, at the end of '74. "
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" In those days the big U.S. labels didn't have any particular interest in the Latin market. "
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" What I do not accept is the fact that so many people's talents were ripped off. "
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" So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America. "
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" A lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you. "
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" Yes, I was going to law school and it was closed in '69. "
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" So that in 1974, when I graduated as a lawyer, I figured I'm not going to be a lawyer under a military regime. "
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" I was always interested in trying to find how different genres would affect the lyrics that I'd written. Salsa is where most of my songs have been recorded, the genre of salsa. It's very frenetic, fast-paced. And I felt that the lyrics sometimes were being lost. "
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" But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood. "
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" Basically, I would like to be considered for roles that are well-written. I think that part of the problem that we've had as actors is that they insist on looking at us as Latino actors and not as actors, period. "
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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. "
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Born
I Was Born
July
" And, 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. "
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" It was very interesting, and we went to Germany and we toured Germany like we were a German band in 1985. "
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" 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. "
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" I 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. "
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" It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law. "
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Law
Sense
Place
" People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being. "
Ruben Blades
Credit
People
Smarter
" So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with. "
Ruben Blades
Without
Family
Left
" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" I decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band. "
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" At a certain point, people in Panama thought that everything was going to be solved as soon as Noriega was gone. Of course, the disappointment was huge. "
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