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.

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

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

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.

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.

Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music.

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.