Annotations for People: Estefan-gloria

One of the featured musicians on Gloria Estefan's recent recording of traditional Cuban music, "Mi Tierra", is Israel Lopez. Also known as Cachao, Lopez now in his seventies, is just beginning to gain recognition for creating many of the familiar rhythms associated with styles like the mambo and el cha-cha-cha. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro prepared this musical profile.

[Transition--Cuban Music]

(Background music) In his younger days, Israel Lopez was known for his interpretation of traditional Cuban musical styles, like el son and danzón. Lopez comes from one of Cuba's oldest musical families and got his nickname, Cachao, from his grandfather, a one-time director of Havana's municipal band. Cachao recalls how after a while he and his brother, Orestes, became bored with playing the same old traditional danzónes, and created a new dance music called the mambo.

[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]

Entonces en el año 37 entre mi Hermano y yo nos… [transition to English dub] In 1937, between my brother and I, we took care of this mambo business. We gave our traditional music, our danzón, a 180-degree turn. What we did was modernize it… [transition back to original audio] …lo que hicimos fue modernizarlo.

In the late 1950s, Cachao got a group of Cuba's top musical artists together for a set of 4:00 AM recording sessions that started after the musicians got off work at Havana's hotels and nightclubs. The group included Cachao's brother, Orestes, El Negro Vivar, Guillermo Barreto, and Alfredo León of Cuba's legendary Septeto Nacional. Cachao says he called those jam sessions descargas, literally discharges, because of the uninhibited atmosphere that surrounded those recordings.

En la descarga se presa uno libremente, cuando uno esta leyendo música no es los mismo… [transition to English dub] In the descarga you express yourself freely. When you are reading music it's just not the same. You are reading the music and so your heart can't really feel it. That's why that rhythm is so strong and everyone likes it so much… [transition to original audio] Fuerte! Y muy bien, todo el mundo encantado.

[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]

Cachao left Cuba in 1962, but his association with the descarga, el mambo, and el danzón kept him busy in this country playing everything from small parties and weddings to concerts with top musicians like Mongo Santamaria, and Tito Puente. For young Cubans growing up in the United States, the music of Cachao and other artists has served as a link to their cultural roots.

His music has inspired me over the years and has brought solace to me and many times and has been a companion for me. Anybody who knows me will know that I carry tapes of Cachao with me in my pocket.

Actor Andy Garcia is one of those young Cubans on whom Cachao's music made a lasting impact. Garcia recently directed a documentary on the musician's life titled "Cachao...Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos." "Like His Rhythm, There's No Other."

Cachao has been, in a sense, overlooked for his contributions musically to the world of music, world internationally. Musicians know of him and anyone say, "Oh, he's the master," but in terms of the general public, he's been really ignored. So it's important to document something, so somehow that would help bring attention to his contributions to music.

The documentary mixes concert footage with the conversation with Cachao. The concert took place last September in Miami, bringing together young and older interpreters of Cuban and Latin music in a tribute to Cachao and his descarga.

Very modest, extremely modest man. Quiet, shy.

One of the musicians who played with Cachao in that concert is violinist Alfredo Triff. He says, "The 74 year old maestro has lessons to teach young musicians that go beyond music."

He's such a modest person that in fact, I realized that he was the creator of this thing, this mambo thing. And I'll tell you what, not only me, I remember Paquito once in Brooklyn, we were playing, or in the Bronx, we were playing the Lehman College. And Paquito comes to the room and he says, Alfredo, you know that mambos, Cachao invented this thing.

Andy Garcia's documentary, "Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos", is bringing Cachao some long-delayed recognition. And these days, Cachao is quite busy promoting the film, working on a new album, and collaborating with Gloria Estefan on her latest effort, "Mi Tierra", "My Homeland," a tribute to the popular Cuban music of the 1930s and '40s.

[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]

The album "Mi Tierra" has become an international hit in the few weeks since its release. The documentary, "Cachao, Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos", has been shown at the Miami and San Francisco film festivals. Cachao also plans to go into the recording studio later this year to put together an album of danzónes.

Es baile de verdad Cubano, y se ha ido olvidado… [transition to English dub] It's the traditional Cuban dance, and it's being forgotten. Here you almost never hear a danzón. I wish the Cubans would realize that this is like the mariachi. The Mexican never forgets his mariachi. Wherever it may be, whatever star may be performing, the mariachi is there. It's a national patrimony, as the danzón should be for us and we should preserve it... [transition to original audio] …danzón…y debemos preservarlo también.

Cachao strongly believes in preserving Afro-Cuban culture and its musical traditions. He hopes to keep those traditions alive with his music. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]

One could say that the Latino population of the nation's capital swells around mid-September as Latino movers and shakers fly in for a number of fancy events celebrating Hispanic Heritage month. One such happening is the annual Hispanic Heritage Awards, honoring contributions in the arts, sports, literature and leadership. Latino USA sent two of our reporters to the gala occasion, Franc Contreras and Patricia Guadalupe dawn their best studs for the party.

[unintelligible] for the Hispanic Heritage Awards. My cousin from LA, Rita Moreno. [applause]

It was a black tie, long gown night of celebration for well-connected Latinos, a festive night of cultural pride in the nation's capital. With her sleek black dress and huge red earrings, mistress of ceremonies Rita Moreno was joined at one point by a surprise celebrity.

¡Hola!

Hi, hola. ¿Cómo te va?

Hello, Rita.

Mira que linda se ve. ¿Cómo te llamas?

Thank you. You too.

Tell everybody your name.

My name is Rosita la Monstrua de las Cuevas, and I am so excited to be here tonight to receive the Hispanic Hair Award.

Now before you get too excited...

Yeah.

Do you know what heritage means?

No. No.

Okay. Heritage simply means those traditions and beliefs that are passed on to us by our forebears.

Forebears. Oh, I love bears. I love panda bears, you know, with the blacks spot in the eye. And koala bears and polar bears and all that kind of bears.

No, no, no. Rosita, Rosita. I am talking about parents or grandparents, their grandparents and the [unintelligible].

On stage with Rita and Rosita, the bilingual Muppet from Sesame Street was golfer Chi-Chi Rodriguez, Sister Isolina Ferré honored for her work educating the poor, playwright and Emmy winner Luis Santeiro, civil rights leader Raul Yzaguirre and in the music category, Emilio and Gloria Estefan. Each of the five award winners spoke of concerns that drive their work. When Sister Isolina Ferré went to the podium, she offered an answer for an ongoing problem she's noticed since she first dedicated her life to community service about 60 years ago. It's the lack of educational opportunity for Latinos.

Real community development can only be achieved if a true and liberating educational process has been implemented. This process as it had been done in our centers in Puerto Rico should include programs for school dropouts, alternatives to formal education, formal and vocational education and literacy projects.

President of the National Council of Lara Raza Raul Yzaguirre won the award for excellence in leadership. He said Latinos must unite and solve their own social problems.

Our only hope is to build up our own institutions that can effectively advocate for our interests.

When the formal part of the evening ended, the stars went to a separate room for interviews with Spanish and English language media. Gloria Estefan told about her pride in her heritage about how important her family is to her and about her new album, Mi Tierra, which is in Spanish.

Why did you go in that direction?

Well, I'll tell you, first of all, I waited this long because I wanted to maximize the exposure of this music. If I would've done this album five years ago, half the world wouldn't know about it. So we really have been thinking about it for over five years, waiting for the right moment, trying to choose the right thing to do. We did new music because we wanted to bring something of ourselves to the project but celebrating a very traditional and beautiful form of Latin music. Hopefully, with this album, we'll be able to remind people a little bit of our heritage, especially my son, which is the main reason we did this album. We really wanted it for him.

Outside the media area, dozens of fans waited to see Estefan. They said it wasn't only her stardom that attracted them but what she stands for.

I look up to her a lot. I think she's great. It makes me proud to be Hispanic.

Really? Why? Tell me.

Why. Because there's a lot of riqueza en la raza. So she's a part of that.

When the stars left, the crowd went to the ballroom floor, to the food tables. There were tiny empanadas on one, some fancy fruit on another. The caterer promised the grapes were from Chile, not from California where Latino farm workers are still boycotting. And on a table over in the corner, there were tiny little tamales. The people serving them even unwrap them for you. With Patricia Guadalupe, I'm Franc Contreras in Washington.

Diez. Nueve. Ocho. Siete. Seis. Cinco, cinco cinco. Cuatro. Tres. Dos. Uno.

The MTV Cable Network has just launched MTV Latino, a new 24 hours Spanish language music network distributed throughout Latin America and to some US cities.

[unintelligible 0:18:49] caballeros. Rock and roll.

Somos Aerosmith.

For years, the entertainment industry serving the Latino market was based either in Latin America or in Los Angeles, where non-Latinos controlled much of the business. But now the bulk of the Latino entertainment industry, like the new MTV Latino network, is based in Miami where Latinos are establishing their own turf. Melissa Mancini reports.

Miami ranked 16th in US media markets, but it's the number one location for the Latin entertainment industry, headquartering, Latin television, music and print trades. The reasons are simple. Nearly 60% of Miami's population is Hispanic and the city's location is convenient to Central and South America. In addition, Miami has more reliable air transportation and telephone service than its southern neighbors. With the whole of the Hispanic media located here, entertainment attorney David Bercuson says, "Miami is the premier stop for Latin recording artists and other entertainment figures promoting their current projects."

In addition to television, it's a center hub for a lot of Spanish media, print media. So with all those things working for it and the record companies, there's a lot of symbiotic relationship. The record companies are here, they send them right over to whatever magazine it is for interviews, and then they send them right over, it could be even be the same day, to one of the major networks for television exposure where they can do 3, 4, 5 shows at one network, and the next day do a number of shows at the other network.

As the US city with the Latin American flair, Miami offers another big payoff. The amount of money pumped into the national economy via Telemundo and Univision, the two major Hispanic television networks. A recent industry study shows that TV advertisements spurred Hispanics to spend $200 billion annually on consumer goods and services, and it's estimated that number will increase 40% by the year 2000. In addition to the television and print media, Miami is inundated with Hispanic radio stations, and it's here that other Latin stations throughout the US look to when they're charting music trends. David Bercuson says, "Miami's Betty Pino is one of the most important radio programmers for Spanish pop music."

And when she programs things on her lists, those lists are carefully watched throughout the country by other Spanish radio programmers. And even if their format is not totally pop, and they only play four or five or six songs that are pop, they'll look at these lists that are put out by this one station, this one program in particular, as persuasive and controlling.

Sony Discos. No, ¿quisiera- [unintelligible 0:21:48]

Sony Discos Is the Latin music heavyweight of record labels. Established about 10 years ago in Miami, Sony Discos was the first Latin label to sign artists such as Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan, allowing it to corner the market. Sony Discos vice President Angel Carrasco.

The record business for us, in the last five years, has been very profitable. We have grown a lot and we feel that Latin music now is getting recognition from other audiences. Europe, tropical music is very big, and then artists like Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan have helped us improve our image as far as [inaudible 0:22:30] is concerned. And that has opened up a lot different markets and different audiences that are buying our records.

And because Miami is still a fledgling in the entertainment industry, the city has not yet developed the hard edges associated with New York or Los Angeles. Nicaraguan born Salsa star Luis Enrique has been with Sony Discos for five years. Enrique literally walked in off the street and was handed a recording contract. He says before that he spent years trying unsuccessfully to meet with other music executives.

I tried to do it in LA and it was hard. It was really hard to open doors, and I remember I used to go and sit down on the sidewalk at A&M recording studios and try to talk to someone.

Latin music is a $120 million a year business in the US in Puerto Rico. Although it's estimated Hispanics makeup only 10% of the total market Sony Discos' vice president Angel Carrasco says the Latin market is strong and growing.

The future is wonderful. I think in the future you'll see a lot of crossover Latin artists getting more into the Anglo market and vice versa. Also the new breed of bilingual artists, not only has Gloria made it big, but also [inaudible 00:23:53], who was also a local Cuban born guy, also produced by Emilio Estefan, has made it big. And I think the most important pop music for the Latin market is going to come out of the United States in the future.

Sony Discos is one of about a dozen Latin music labels located in Miami. At least three additional record labels are said to be considering relocating here. In addition, VH1 and Nickelodeon, both owned by MTV networks, are said to be following MTV Latinos tracks into Latin America and South Florida. For Latino USA, I'm Melissa Mancini in Miami.