A lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you.

So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America.

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.

A lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you.

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.

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

I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe.