Suave Presents: La Brega 2 — The Puerto Rican Experience in 8 Songs

Suave

Futuro Media

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Known as the island donde hasta la piedras cantan – “where even the rocks sing” – Puerto Rico is home to a dizzying breadth of musical expression. From the lyrical boleristas of the 1930s, to the electric salseros of the ’70s, to the reggaetoneros of today who have taken music from the margins and made it a global sensation, this season takes listeners on an exciting, richly-reported, cross-genre adventure that captures the ceaseless creativity, emotional resonance, and yes, la brega. We start this journey with the island’s most celebrated composer Rafael Hernandez, who wrote one of the island’s unofficial anthems, “Preciosa.” It’s a love song written for Puerto Rico that praises the island’s beauty and, remarkably, also calls out the forces that oppress it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, familia, de suave, de suave, family, what's up, what's up, what's up?
0:06.2	So I want to share something really special with you.
0:09.3	It's about music, about how music can reveal the soul of a place, about how music can show
0:15.2	us the spirit of a people.
0:18.1	So the special episode that I'm sharing with you today is special because it's season
0:22.8	2 of Laberega, which is the latest co-production between WNYC and Futuro Studios.
0:28.2	If you listen to suave and you love suave as a podcast and as a person, you know he's
0:33.6	Puerto Rican and he grew up in the South Bronx and how music was a part of his life in a major
0:40.7	way. So in this second season of Laberega, which is all about the Puerto Rican experience,
0:47.4	they're looking at how eight songs from Puerto Rico capture the Puerto Rican experience.
0:53.2	It's hosted by Alana Casanova Burgess and really it delves into what it means to be Puerto
1:00.3	Rican on and off the island. Here's Laberega, enjoy.
1:24.0	And as the wheels touch down, everyone who was grateful to be back in Puerto Rico applauded
1:30.4	as we always do. And then while we were sitting there, taxing or whatever, I heard someone just
1:36.8	a few rows behind me start to sing. I rushed to record it on my phone.
1:45.7	A few people cramed their necks, a few stood up.
1:53.9	Every passenger was under a spell, listening to Prisiosa, the most Puerto Rican of songs come from nowhere.
2:10.4	I was flying to Puerto Rico to do some reporting for the second season of Laberega,
2:23.3	a season about music where every episode will be based on a different Puerto Rican song.
2:30.0	And right away, I get this musical blessing on a plane,
2:34.0	magic. Puerto Rico is Takabrón.
2:40.9	Everyone knows that Puerto Rico is Takabrón, that Puerto Rico is fucking awesome because bad
	...

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