Ismael Rivera

Ismael Rivera a.k.a. "Maelo" (October 5, 1931 – May 13, 1987), was a Puerto Rican composer and singer of Puerto Rican music.

Early life

Rivera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, a sector of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was the first of five children born to Luis and Margarita Rivera. His father, Luis, was a carpenter and his mother a housewife. As a child, Rivera was always singing and banging on cans with sticks. He received his primary education at the Pedro G. Goyco Elementary School and then went on to learn carpentry at a vocational school. He also shined shoes to help his family financially and when he was 16 years old, he worked as a carpenter. During his free time he would hang around the corner with his best friend Rafael Cortijo and sing songs. La Fundacion Ismael Rivera In 1948, Rivera and Cortijo joined El Conjunto Monterrey, where Rivera played the conga and Cortijo the bongos. Rivera was unable to work full-time as a musician because of his work as a carpenter.

Musical career

Rivera

Rivera is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. The border with Brazil joins it with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, which is only a street away from it. Together, they form an urban area of around 200,000 inhabitants. As of the census of 2011, it is the sixth most populated city of Uruguay.

Location

The city is located on the border with Brazil at the north end of Route 5.

History

On 21 March 1860 a pueblo (village) named Pereira was created by the Act of Ley Nº 614.

On 7 May 1862, it was substituted by the villa (town) named Ceballos and founded by the Act of Ley Nº 704, in honour of the Spanish viceroy Pedro de Cevallos. In July 1867 it took on the official name Rivera and was recognized as a villa. The Brazilian town Santana do Livramento already existed just across the border. On 1 October 1884, it became capital of the Department of Rivera by the Act of Ley Nº 1.757. Its status was elevated to ciudad (city) on 10 June 1912 by the Act of Ley Nº 4.006.

In 1943, the Plaza Internacional Rivera-Livramento (see photo) was built to celebrate the Fifth Conference of the Commission Mixta for Mixed Limits and as a hope for the future integration of the two towns, claimed to be the only international square in the world. From 1851 to this day, inhabitants of both communities are free to move in both sides. Customs and checkpoints are located outside the cities. Today, duty-free shops are one of the main economic resources of Rivera.

Mixtape

A mixtape (also mix-tape or mix tape) is a home-made compilation of music (typically copyrighted songs taken from other sources) recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto an audio cassette, though CD or MP3 playlist formats are now more common. The songs can be sequential, or by beatmatching the songs and creating overlaps and fades between the end of one song and the beginning of another the tape may become a seamless whole. Compilations may include a selection of favourite songs, or music linked by theme or mood, perhaps tailored to the tape's intended recipient.

Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien has called the personal mix tape "the most widely practised American art form".

History