Rubén Blades quotes

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance. (Rubén Blades)
A lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you. View quote
Rubén Blades
I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe. View quote
Rubén Blades
So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America. View quote
Rubén Blades
I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang. View quote
Rubén Blades
Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music. View quote
Rubén Blades
There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything. View quote
Rubén Blades
Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models. View quote
Rubén Blades
So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami. View quote
Rubén Blades
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. View quote
Rubén Blades
People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being. (Rubén Blades)
But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood. View quote
Rubén Blades
What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another. View quote
Rubén Blades
And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day. View quote
Rubén Blades
Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation. View quote
Rubén Blades
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. View quote
Rubén Blades
I was the first person to come into New York with a Latin American point of view which was also very much influenced by political happenings in Latin America. View quote
Rubén Blades
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. View quote
Rubén Blades
We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened. View quote
Rubén Blades
It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law. View quote
Rubén Blades
What I do not accept is the fact that so many people's talents were ripped off. (Rubén Blades)
They're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel. View quote
Rubén Blades
I didn't do drugs, I never did do drugs. Never. I don't have any story of drugs, you know, to speak of. Never did drugs, never was interested in drugs and then I wasn't interested in the people around the drugs. View quote
Rubén Blades
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. View quote
Rubén Blades
Yes, I was going to law school and it was closed in '69. View quote
Rubén Blades