Puerto Ricans Sing Out for Justice.

Before the arrival of Colombus and the Spanish, Puerto Rico was peopled by the Taino tribe.  They’d called it home – and paradise – for over 1,000 years, having come either from the Amazon river basin, or maybe from the Colombian Andes before they arrived on the island.  In our March episode, we talked about the Jones Act – a law made during the Wilson presidency.  The chief goal of that act was to help the U.S. shipping industry recover after World War I.  It also annexed Puerto Rico, and gave citizenship to everyone living there.  

U.S. citizenship started major migration to the U.S. mainland.  At first, Puerto Ricans settled into East Coast cities like New York and later Miami where mostly they were stuck in the bottom end of the labor market, working as domestic workers, in manufacturing jobs (back in the old days when we still had those in America, and maintenance industries.  

Puerto Rican Americans, on both sides of the US coast, have contributed beautiful music to the American Song jukebox.  These songs echo the rich cultures that became Puerto Rico, their love for their island home, their struggles in the United States and their determination to succeed, despite the hardships.  

Today's episode builds on what I began in March, adding more current sounds to the mix.  I think you'll find it equal parts fascinating, and entertaining!

In This Episode:

Bomba street musicians in Old San Juan Puerto Rico
Fiel a La Vega
Field Recording of La Tierruca (old Puerto Rican woman)
Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
Hector Carrasquillo Sr.
Original Cast from West Side Story
Pablo Milanés 
Piri Thomas
Ricky Martin
Roy Brown
Steven Colbert
Taina Asli

Transcript

0:16

Before the arrival of Columbus and the Spanis, Puerto Rico was peopled by the Taino

0:21

Tribe;  they'd called it home and paradise for over a thousand years, having come either

0:26

from the Amazon river basin or maybe from the Colombian Andes before they arrived on the island,  we're not

0:32

quite sure yet.  Even today,  Puerto Rico's culture is a blend of

0:37

Taino, Spanish and African traditions.  You can still see the three strands in

0:42

daily Puerto Rican life.  In our March episode, we talked about how our music from that part of the nation

0:49

reflects their rich heritage.  The lives that America's native peoples led, throughout North America, before

0:56

European contact, are the stuff of dreams in lots of ways and we've got diary

1:01

entries from folks like Captain John smith from the Virginia colony who wrote

1:06

about it.  But imagine living in the beauty of the Caribbean,  in the organic peaceful way

1:13

that these people lived!  Even some of the words we use today, in English and Spanish

1:20

whispered to us of what that lifestyle was like we've got words that stem from the original tenoan language like

1:26

barbacoa barbecue amaca hammock kanoa canoe

1:34

like all native cultures they lived completely in balance with nature

1:39

they farmed only what they needed and they only took as much meat from the land and sea as they required

1:46

the days were warm and so were the waters and the people relaxed and played more than they worked

1:52

the Taino understood god in the natural world they saw all around them

1:58

they had two major gods yakahu and atabay

2:03

and their worship of them reflected their dependence on cassava their staple food

2:08

and fresh water their god was the god of storms

2:14

so imagine living a simple life with your children depending on your gods to bring you everything you needed basking

2:22

under a warm tropical sun and living happy free lives before columbus the Taino lived this way

2:29

for a thousand years

2:38

welcome to ameRican song season 2 episode 23

2:44

Puerto Ricans sing out for justice

3:48

this is a song called salimos veki let's get out of here by phil alavega a

3:55

band from Puerto Rico i'll translate some of the lyrics for you i think it's

4:00

a great way to open this section of today's podcast

4:05

we came out of a crack from a nearby street since then we sleep tossing and turning

4:12

in bed we left a piece of heaven for the rotten apple

4:17

we left the dance the bottle and the deck we came out of a dream

4:22

a saltwater dream we left the trash and the rivers and the combat and the

4:27

piccadille and from fanaticism and soccer games and to the church into the

4:33

pocket we came out of a hole where there is no more water we left a town that we

4:39

silently loved we leave where they meet all caravans we came out of a mountain

4:45

with spikes on the feet we came out of a forest of sugar and coffee we went away

4:52

from the center and the heat in the machismo and we traded love for conformity and we went away from

4:59

coriander and the frying pan and a wave that runs backwards let's get out of

5:05

here from the side of the road let's get out of here from this lost paradise

5:10

let's get out of here from the privileged pearl and the associated shadow from the envy of the Caribbean

5:18

away from island stupidity to feel undervalued for being from here and so

5:23

we went out barefoot and so we learned unintentionally to eat the s's when we

5:30

speak and that's all there is to know we are the ones who sing with their tongues

5:36

tied we are the ones who buy coca-cola and mavi we are from the tribe that is

5:42

lost in its country looking at life through the rear-view mirror from song

5:47

to song learning with taste and we don't believe in dictionaries or in religious

5:52

tracts not even in the happy patriotism with wine glasses lifted making toasts

5:59

let's get out of here this is not where we want to be let's get out of here i'll

6:05

tell you easily let's get out of here from love on the beach and cement houses

6:11

let the teardrops fall we live to survive we live to survive we

6:19

live to survive we live to survive we left the kiss of our forgotten goddess

6:28

so what is this song about you guys when the us took control of Puerto Rico

6:35

its island economy morphed into a consumer market big time agribusiness took hold and

6:41

sugar and coffee plantations replaced native forests and so did big industries like battery

6:48

manufacturers and textile firms and along with that came chemical spills

6:54

heavy metal sewage spills coal ash contamination all of that

7:00

worked together to pollute Puerto Rico's water and bleach its coral reef more recently you can also add long droughts

7:06

brought on by climate change to hasten deforestation and beach erosion

7:12

and it's no wonder they're singing let's get out of here i mean imagine having to

7:18

live like that in our march episode we talked about the jones act

8:09

alarm made during the wilson presidency the chief goal of that act was to help the u.s shipping industry recover after

8:17

world war one and it also annexed Puerto Rico and it gave citizenship to everyone living

8:23

there u.s citizenship started major migration to the u.s mainland

8:30

at first Puerto Ricans settled into east coast cities like New York and later

8:35

Miami where mostly they were stuck in the bottom end of the labor market working as domestic workers and

8:41

manufacturing jobs back in the old days when we still had those in america remember manufacturing

8:48

jobs and maintenance industries officials in New York were concerned that the Puerto

8:53

Rican migrants were not well prepared for the major life adjustments that they had to make they came here with very few job

9:00

prospects and just a little smattering of English so as a result when in 1976 the u.s

9:07

commission on civil rights published a standard of living report that parsed the data out by ethnicity and country of

9:14

origin it showed that Puerto Ricans were having the hardest time economically of

9:20

any group living in the nation quote from that report poverty and unemployment it said is more

9:27

severe for Puerto Ricans than any other ethnic group in the united states end

9:33

quote and if it wasn't for the jobs though Puerto Ricans would have probably preferred to stay back in Puerto Rico

9:40

in those days the environmental issues were not what they've become and so when they came they didn't see themselves as

9:47

immigrants coming to start new lives and with the intent of settling into the ameRican dream you see for the most part

9:53

the goal was that they were going to make as much money as they could and then go back home to Puerto Rico someday

10:00

but the jobs that they got when they got here were not really that much to write home about either

10:06

conditions were harsh in all capital letters harsh

10:12

they worked in the worst environments and they got the least paid doing jobs like domestic work

10:18

servants in hotels in the meat packing industry

10:23

baking and hard industrial work in the clothing electrical and furniture assembly industries

10:31

now petey thomas the Puerto Rican and cuban author he wrote about the immigrant experience in

10:37

his book down these mean streets and he said quote in writing down these mean

10:44

streets it was my hope that exposure of such conditions in the ghetto would have

10:49

led to their improvement but 30 years later the sad truth is that people caught in the ghettos have not made much

10:56

progress and in fact have they moved backwards in many respects the social safety net

11:02

is a lot weaker now unfortunately it's the same old mean

11:07

streets only worse now here's petey thomas reciting his

11:13

performance piece softly Puerto Ricans you're not alone let's take a listen

14:39

so very Puerto Ricans dug into the political machine and the major political parties on their part pretty

14:46

much ignored them but if you don't have representation you don't get the things that your

14:52

community needs so the Puerto Ricans themselves took to the streets in protest

15:03

in places like philadelphia and Chicago and New York Puerto Ricans protested the

15:10

conditions in the city slums and eventually things got better for

15:16

them at least stateside but not as much back on the island

15:21

think about how even as recent as the year 2017 and hurRicane maria

15:29

trump at the time said he didn't quote want to spend another single dollar

15:35

on the island end quote

17:13

meanwhile Puerto Ricans remained as they pushed past New York or Florida

17:18

and they settled into what's now become the Rust Belt like Buffalo and Cleveland and Detroit and you can

17:26

hear their love for their island home in poems like tirauka

17:31

homeland by the Puerto Rican poet vergilio davila this version of it comes

17:37

from the library of congress recorded in 1939 and part of a collection of field

17:43

recordings commissioned by the smithsonian institute and again i'm going to translate a few of the lyrics for you

18:32

from my parents was the cradle and she holds my deepest affection i

18:38

would never trade this land where i had the privilege of being born

18:43

for anywhere else

19:27

between the late 40s and the early 60s trovaldores or cuban troubadours revived

19:34

a 19th century folk music style of ballads the music combined british rock

19:40

brazilian bossa nova Spanish pop and some elements of Latin ameRican folklore

19:46

in the music the lyrics caught the flavor of the tines with songs about socialism and injustice

19:53

sexism colonialism racism and a bunch of other isms

20:01

although new songs were inspired by ameRican protest artists like bob dylan

20:06

and joan baez nueva trova criticized the us foreign policy and

20:11

their aggression towards Latin ameRican countries on the other hand

20:16

the beatles chilean revivalist violetaparra uruguayan singer songwriter

20:24

daniel vicliati and the catalan protest singer tuan manuel serrat also

20:30

influenced the movement and its singers so by the time of the fall of the soviet

20:35

union nuevra started to fade lyrics of those songs which had felt

20:41

relevant in the 60s and 70s now felt redundant and irrelevant

20:46

but the movement had reminded the world again about the profound role that music can play in the way people think about

20:53

what's going on in society and politics and making issues known to

20:58

the entire world milanese known as the bomb dylan of cuba was

21:05

possibly the most important performer in the category foreign singer milanese has stayed the

21:12

most connected with her traditional roots of cuban music still you can definitely hear his other

21:18

influences which range from brazilian music to blues his themes also range

21:24

from gritty political anthems to lush love songs a lot of young radicals mad about the

21:31

way the us likes to butt into other countries business in Latin america see

21:36

him as the spokesperson for anti-imperialism although he's hardly made a dent in the

21:42

u.s music industry except among Latin ameRican expats milanese sells out all

21:49

his shows in the Caribbean in Spain italy and Latin america and this is his

21:55

song yo vila or i saw a child bleed

22:24

written in protest to the bombing of vietnam and a loose translation of one of the

22:31

verses would go like this i saw the blood of a child flow i have seen a child under a dark sky

22:39

shouting to the future when you have to arrive and while other parents

22:44

other children under an open sky they sing about things that should not happen

23:44

all the while the music was influencing singer-songwriters elsewhere in the Caribbean

23:49

separated from cuba by haiti and the dominican republic Puerto Rican singers

23:54

like roy brown antonio caban ballet and the group haciendo punto and notre son

24:00

found fame for themselves of course the issues that informed nueva trova in

24:05

Puerto Rico were unique for instance since 1935 the u.s has used the tiny

24:11

island of vieques a dot on the map to the east of the main island

24:16

for military training but you see the problem is vieques has people living on it and uncle sam was

24:24

using live rounds and radioactive bombs civilians were killed

24:30

and those that lived are sick vieques has illness rates for diabetes

24:36

heart disease and cancer that far exceed anywhere else in Puerto Rico

24:42

in the 1970s whenever there was a big protest rally in Puerto Rico you could find roy brown guitar in hand

24:48

lending his voice to the movement regardless of the personal toll it took on him

24:54

this is what he's written about those years quote the hippies

24:59

vietnam war 20 year olds and not knowing who i was

25:04

Puerto Rico is a small island without a history worth singing about and so blessed the people followed and pursued

25:11

me they said i was a terrorist and they wanted to fight the governor my friend was in jail because he didn't want to

25:18

fight asians my mom died and i was living with rats my father and brother

25:24

wouldn't speak to me i was fired from my job at the university end quote

25:30

but going through all that he still managed to put out three excellent albums in less than five years this is

25:37

his song el negrito bonito the nice little black boy i'll translate the first verse for you

25:44

the nice little black boy is going to san juan looking for work

25:49

looking for more bread he doesn't really know what he's going to do but this thing he knows

25:56

he is not going back to pick sugar cane in the flare fighting with nothing without knowing

26:02

why

27:06

for nearly 50 years haciendo punto and notroson has been a vital force in

27:12

Nueva Trova music their roots were originally in Puerto Rico's underground

27:17

all five members playing in different bands audiences who heard their early gigs and clubs located in the lattea

27:24

neighborhood of san genman received them warmly and it was here that they worked out the arrangements and the

27:30

compositions that became their first album which is now considered a classic in Puerto Rico in 11 years they recorded

27:37

14 albums and they created a huge following in Puerto Rico in the dominican republic cuba mexico and

27:45

cities in the united states where they've got large Hispanic populations

27:51

reformed again in the 90s playing concerts in san juan and they remain active today even

29:03

and Puerto Rican musicians have also made a major mark in the ameRican music market too and i mean mass market

29:10

and across many genres from pop to rap to jazz and everything in between a short and absolutely incomplete list of

29:18

Puerto Rican artists that have become household names would have to include Ricky Martin from

29:27

was one of those songs that seemed to be just everywhere for a while around the turn of the century

29:33

singer guitarist Jose Feliciano his biggest songs were light my fire and

29:38

Feliz Navidad but overall he's released 50, count them, 50

29:45

albums since first arriving on the scene in 1962. jose who has created a signature sound

29:51

and a position in music as an innovative crossover artist with soul folk and rock influences

29:58

fuel injected with Latin rhythm and he's remained successful throughout his career he's won multiple Grammys and

30:04

he's got a star on the Hollywood walk of fame rappers Daddy Yankee, Nikki Jam

30:10

are all Puerto Rican as well

30:16

Latins have made important cultural contributions in the Americas since the

30:21

very beginning their culture is woven into the fabric of our nation and they have a right to

30:27

share in the promise of our country just like every other group that's come to call it home

30:33

to think of mexicans or Puerto Ricans as anything less than fully equal with any other group here is to ignore the facts

30:40

of history only somebody really ignorant would make that mistake

30:46

i hope you've enjoyed this episode you can dig deeper into the themes that we've been talking about when you visit

30:51

the podcast's Facebook fan page just go to ameRican song podcast on Facebook

30:57

you'll find interesting links to the research i did this month and you'll learn more about some of the artists

31:03

that we talked about today until next time everybody hasta pronto

31:08

take care y'all

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