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.

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

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.

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.

But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood.

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

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.