Ruben Blades Quotations

We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.

I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.

And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day.

So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.

There was a lot of stuff happening in Havana that was being heard and appreciated by New Orleans musicians because of this situation. And vice versa.

Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.

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.

There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything.

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.

It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law.