Puerto Rico's First Popular Music: Salsa

 

Salsa

 

 

Salsa, its name literally is interpreted as the "sauce" that makes parties happens. Salsa is the rhythm of the islands.  Salsa was developed within the Puerto Rican community of New York; it draws heavily from the musical origins of the Cuban and the African-Caribbean experience. Salsa rhythm is hot, urban, rhythmically sophisticated, and fascinating. The first great salsa musician was Tito Puente.

Tito Puente was born in New York City to Puerto Rican immigrant parents. He was known to be the “King of Latin jazz” or “El Rey”. He was a bandleader, percussionist, composer, and arranger. Puente studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music. Once he finished with school, he then went on to establish his own band. His band was named Puente's Latin Jazz Ensemble. His band has been heard by a lot of people from all around the world. His best-selling album was Dance Mania. Tito added some mixture of different rhythm including cha-cha, and merengue. Among his notable songs are “Babarabatiri,” “Ran Kan Kan,” and “Oye Como Va.”

Tito Puente "Ran Kan Kan"

Salsa has definitely made Puerto Rico famous in the world of international music. If you listen closely to the music, salsa consists of maracas, bongos, timbales, conga drums.

It is certain that if you go to a party that is held by Puerto Ricans, you will hear salsa most of the night. Willie Colón, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, and Hector Lavoe are on everyone's list as the "Grand Masters of today's salsa beat."

 

Willie Colon "Idilio"

 

Hector Lavoe "Aguanile"

 

Gran Combo de Puerto Rico "Timbalero"

 

 

Today's Salsa Music:

 

Marc Anthony "Tu Amor Me Hace Bien"

 

The way you dance salsa.

 

 

 

 



Racial Advertisement

Racial Adevertisement

 

 

As you can see these are the eyes of three white males and one black male. I feel like this is a racial ad because if you look at the picture and study the image, you will see that all of the white male eyes are clear and looks like they are smiling with their eyes. However, for the black male his eyes are red and he has a very aggressive look. Some might say he looks mean, mad, or looks like a killer. Why didnt they have a white male eyes looking like that? Yet, because they feel like blacks are more likely to look like this or act such way than the white folks. This is not just about race, but they are stereotyping black people.

 

 

 

This image looks ridiculous. Why do they have six officers, (which five of them are wearing customs), pointing not just a gun, but more like riffles on just one black male? Just because he is black, I bet you. Once again they are stereotyping black people. They seem to think that they have to have more than two police officerw, more like a SWAT team on the scene when they have to deal with black people.

 

Questions on Film

1.    How different or similar do you think are the values and ideas of today’s immigrant from those of the past?

I believe that the values and ideas of today’s immigrants from those of the past are both similar and different. Some of the immigrants are all still trying to live a better life for themselves here in the U.S and also for their family back in their countries. However, I think the difference between some of the past and new immigrant is that they think they can get a free ride here in America. Also some come to America and commit a crime the sends them back to their country.

 

2.    How are the values and ideas of the immigrants portrayed in the film different or similar to traditional American values of discipline, hard work industriousness, and individual freedoms? 

           The values and ideas of the immigrants portrayed in the film are no different to tradition American values of discipline, hard work industriousness and individual freedoms. The reason why I say such thing is because I feel like they all want what we value and that is labor and freedom. They come here to find work and get some money to try and maintain their family back at home. It’s similar in the way of if they get caught they would be deported back to their countries empty handed.

My Opinion on Racial Category

Racism is not anything new. Racism has been continuously proceeding for years. Currently it is still going on, believe it or not. I truly believe every human being has the right to be entitled to their own opinions or beliefs. It shouldn’t matter about the color or race. Just because they may be more on the poor side doesn’t mean it’s right to exclude them out in anything.

Given the civic and sociological thinking at the turn of the century, it is not surprising that race definitions could include subgroups of immigrants who were in some way be different from the native-born majority. Racial categories could be said to have both good and bad outcomes. The reason why I say it can have both positive and negative outcome is because first, it helps the people in racial categories get resources. For example, there are scholarships for African American students, Latinos, Haitians and etc. In certain places they have a program for just for black women. The only requirements are that you are a black female. The negative is that it continues the stereotype of people. It also continues the racism and in the past this has led to segregation. 

To conclude, I believe that counting people in racial category both help and diminish for people who fall in this category. It has a little of both pros and cons. Therefore we cannot completely eliminate the categorizations process. We can just try to curve the thinking of those who have negative feelings towards certain races.

 

My Beautiful Name

 

           Across the entire United States a total of 1,529 people bear the same name as me. Mayra consists of five letter two syllables. Such a popular name, Mayra is of a Spanish origin and it means “Combination of Maya/Myra/Mara”. In Spanish Mayra means ungida which is anointed in English. I don’t know how true that is. My name was spelled the Spanish way, therefore my name can be pronounced in two ways. It could be pronounced as Myra or May-ra. I prefer it to be pronounced as Myra. My mother, Ana was the one who came up with my name. One day I was in her bedroom lying down in her bed next to her and we were talking about baby names. So I thought about the name she gave me and asked her why you gave me my name? She responded that when she was pregnant with me she would watch her favorite novela, which is a soap opera. As my mother watched her show she had a favorite actor and her role was to be a beautiful, strong, and smart woman. Once my mother heard her name, not only did she fall in love with the role she played but also the beautiful name she had which was Mayra. So my mother touched and rubbed her belly and said out loud, “Your name is going to be Mayra”.

 I, Mayra Vega am Hispanic. I was born here but both my parents were born and raised in Puerto Rico. My last name Vega is also from a Spanish origin, and I took that name after my father’s last name. My father took his father last name also. I asked my father were did the name Vega come from and he only responded that his mother gave him his father name. My grandfather passed away when my father was about nine, therefore my father doesn’t know anything about the name. Since both my parents, and both side of my grandparents were born and raised in Puerto Rico my ethnicity has not change at all.

           What I learned about this is that every name does have a meaning. Also, I not knowing too much about my background ethnicity makes me want to ask question and want to know where my name really came from. Every race has their different culture. Some usual and some unusual, but we should all be able to respect every race, ethnicity and culture and be able to talk about our own.