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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.