Cuco Peña and Willy Rodriguez.
Photograph courtesy Worldwide Salsa Museum (ISM)
In honor of Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, the primary pop-up public exhibition centered on the late Tito Puente’s Centennial and the legacy of the Queen of Latin Soul, Cuban artist La Lupe, was held early final month on the Worldwide Salsa Museum (ISM) within the Bronx.
Based by Afro-Latinos Willy Rodriguez, Ilias Reyes, and Manny Tavarez from NYC as a nonprofit, the ISM was established to have fun the legacy and advance the tradition of salsa music. The purpose is to open an official museum facility.
Rodriguez shared that the thought happened when Reyes and Tavarez have been having a dialog about their ardour for salsa, during which Tavarez requested Reyes if there was any museum in NYC that he may go to along with his household that taught the historical past of Salsa.
“With my information and assets inside the leisure trade discipline mixed with their expertise, it’s the good trifecta to create one thing magical therefore the beginning of the Worldwide Salsa Museum,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez shared how salsa music has had on his life. “I grew up in a family the place my father and mom would at all times take heed to salsa. Each Saturday all my cousins, aunts, uncles
would come over to our NYC residence and dance all evening lengthy. From Salsa to Merengue we heard all of it,” he mentioned.
He credit salsa for main him to develop into an internationally acknowledged music producer, director and supervisor, in addition to for shaping his perspective on life.
“It made me understand that music is actually a common language. I traveled the world and to see the grins and the enjoyment that salsa dropped at individuals whereas on the similar time experiencing the humanitarian and social accountability facet of music,’ he added.
Another large moments this 12 months within the historical past of the style embody Unhealthy Bunny’s historic Coachella efficiency, which opens with tribute to Early Salsa pioneers. As well as, this 12 months is the fiftieth of Latin NY Journal revealed by Bobby Sanabria.
Moreover, this 12 months can also be the fiftieth Anniversary of Arturo Sandoval forming the band Irakere in 1973 with keyboardist Chucho Valdés and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. Sandoval will get a Latin Grammy Honor this 12 months.
“My life has at all times been about service by means of the humanities,” he continued. Rodriguez has taught music in elementary colleges and for New York Metropolis Housing Authority, along with volunteering for the Particular Olympics, and likewise at Homeless shelters and senior citizen houses.
Moreover, he feels he’s combining all his targets and desires, finally serving the world, with the ISM.
“I’m clear that because the second I used to be born, I used to be meant to serve the world in a giant means and the Worldwide Salsa Museum is aimed to do exactly that,” he said.
