Look up madera in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Madera is the Spanish word for lumber. It may also refer to several different places:

• Madera, Chihuahua, in Mexico
• Madera, California, in the United States
  • Madera AVA, California wine region
• Madera County, California, in the United States
• Paterna del Madera, Albacete, Spain
• Madera, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland)
• Madera, Łódź Voivodeship (central Poland)
• Madera, Pomeranian Voivodeship (north Poland)

See also[link]

• Madeira (disambiguation), the Portuguese word for lumber

This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades in concert, Connecticut, 2005
Background information
Birth name	Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna
Born	(1948-07-16) July 16, 1948 (age 63) Panama City, Panama
Genres	salsa, latin Jazz, Latin Pop, world music
Occupations	actor, singer, songwriter
Instruments	vocals, guitar
Years active	1960's–present
Labels	Fania Records, Elektra, Sony, Columbia
Associated acts	Willie Colón, Fania All Stars
Website	Rubén Blades' website

Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈruβen ˈbleðz];^[1] born July 16, 1948) is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, actor, Latin jazz musician, and activist, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres. As songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance music. Blades has composed dozens of musical hits, the most famous of which is "Pedro Navaja," a song about a neighborhood thug who appears to die during a robbery (his song "Sorpresas" continues the story), inspired by "Mack the Knife." He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider their second national anthem. The song is titled "Patria" (Fatherland).

He is an icon in Panama and is much admired throughout Latin America, and managed to attract 18% of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos for a five-year term. He holds a law degree from the University of Panama and a master's in international law from Harvard University. He is married to singer Luba Mason.^[2]

Family history and early life[link]

Blades was born in Panama City, Panama, the son of Anoland Diaz (Diaz was his mother's artistic surname, not her real name, which was Bellido de Luna), a Cuban pianist, singer, and actress, and Ruben Daro Blades, Sr., a gifted athlete, percussionist and later a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in Washington, D.C. His mother's great-uncle Juan Bellido de Luna was active in the Cuban revolutionary movement against Spain and was later a writer and publisher in New York. Blades's paternal grandfather, Reuben Blades, was an English-speaking native of St. Lucia who came to Panama as an accountant. His family is not quite sure how the Blades family ended up in St. Lucia, but when his grandfather relocated to Panama, he lived in the Panamanian Bocas del Toro Province. Ruben Blades thought until recently that his grandfather had come to Panama to work on the Panama Canal, as he tells in the song "West Indian Man" on the album Amor y Control ("That's where the Blades comes from") (1992). He explains the source and the pronunciation (/ˈbleɪdz/) of his family surname, which is of English origin, in his web show Show De Ruben Blades (SDRB).^[3]

In Blades' early days, he was a vocalist in Los Salvajes del Ritmo with fellow university students including Antonio Jose Guzman, and also a songwriter and guest singer with a professional Latin music conjunto; Bush y sus Magníficos. His strongest influence of the day was the Joe Cuba sextet and Cheo Feliciano, whose singing style he copied to the point of imitating his voice tone and vocal range.

1970s - 1980s[link]

Blades earned degrees in political science and law at the Universidad Nacional de Panama and performed legal work at the Bank of Panama as a law student. Upon his graduation in 1974, Blades moved to the United States, staying temporarily with his exiled parents in Miami, Florida before moving to New York City. Perhaps his first profesional "gig" as singer and composer was with Pete Rodriguez La Magnifica Orchestra, under the musical direction of trumpetist Tony Pabon, including song hits such as "Descarga Caliente" and "De Panama a NewYork", recorded on Alegre records label around 1970 in New York City. Blades began his formal musical career in New York writing songs while working in the mailroom at Fania Records, perceived as a talented songwriter who still had to develop a singing style of his own. The mailroom job was a good opportunity to stay close to the company until the right opportunity came along. Soon Blades was working with salseros Ray Barretto and Larry Harlow. Shortly thereafter, Blades started collaborating with trombonist and bandleader Willie Colón, and they recorded several albums together and participated in albums by plena singer Mon Rivera and the Fania All Stars.

Blades' first notable hit was a song on the 1977 album Metiendo Mano that he had composed in 1968: "Pablo Pueblo," a meditation about a working-class father who returns to his home after a long day at work. The song later became his unofficial campaign song when he ran for president of Panama. The Colón and Blades recording on the same album of Tite Curet Alonso's composition, "Plantación Adentro," which dealt with the brutal treatment of Indian natives in Latin America's colonial times, was an enormous hit in various Caribbean countries. He wrote and performed several songs with the Fania All Stars and as a guest on other artists' releases, including the hits "Paula C," written about a girlfriend at the time; "Juan Pachanga," about a party animal who buries his pain for a lost love in dance and drink; and "Sin Tu Cariño," a love song, featuring a bomba break. The latter two songs feature piano solos by Papo Lucca.

In 1978, Blades wrote the song "El Cantante"; Colón convinced him to give the song to Colón's former musical partner, Héctor Lavoe, to record, since Lavoe's nickname was already "El Cantante de los Cantantes" ("the singer of singers"). Lavoe recorded it that same year, and it became both a big hit and Lavoe's signature song; a biographical film, El Cantante from Lavoe took the same title. (The film El Cantante told a fictionalized version of this story, in which Blades tells Lavoe he wrote the song for him.)

The Colón and Blades album Siembra (1978) became the best-selling salsa record in history. It has sold over 25 million copies, and almost all of its songs were hits at one time or another in various Latin American countries.,^{[citation needed]}

Blades became dissatisfied with Fania and tried to terminate his contract, but was legally obliged to record several more albums. Maestra Vida and its follow-up Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos are highlights. In 1984, Blades signed with Elektra and assembled a top-notch band (known variously as Seis Del Solar or Son Del Solar) and recorded a number of albums with them including the Grammy Award-winning albums Escenas and Antecedente. Fania continued to release recordings compiled from their archives for some years afterwards.

In 1982, Blades got his first acting role in The Last Fight (film), portraying a singer-turned-boxer vying for a championship against a fighter who was played by real-life world-champion boxer Salvador Sánchez. In 1984, he released Buscando América, and in 1985, Blades gained widespread recognition as co-writer and star of the independent film Crossover Dreams as a New York salsa singer willing to do anything to break into the mainstream. Blades also began his career in films scoring music for soundtracks. Also in 1985, he earned a master's degree in international law from Harvard Law School. He was also the subject of Robert Mugge's documentary The Return of Ruben Blades, which debuted at that year's Denver Film Festival.

After winning his first Grammy Award for Escenas in 1986, he recorded the album Agua de Luna based on the short stories of famed writer Gabriel García Márquez in 1987. The next year he released the English-language collaboration Nothing But the Truth with rock artists Sting, Elvis Costello, and Lou Reed the same year as the more traditionally salsa Antecedente, another Grammy Award winner.

The English-language album received disappointing reviews, but he answered his critics, "I do not believe in the notion that one is condemned to do something because he looks in a certain way or speaks a certain language. To me, music is a universal thing, and I have always been interested in the directions offered me by music in English, directions I could not find, concretely in terms of construction, with the Afro-Cuban rhythms I'd always worked with. I also wanted to leave testimony of the meeting of urban tropical music with rock 'n roll".

Blades had also contributed guest vocals in English to "Bitter Fruit" a song on the 1984 album Freedom - No Compromise by Little Steven.

1990s - 2000s[link]

During the 1990s, he acted in films and continued to make records with Seis/Son del Solar. In 1994 he mounted his unsuccessful presidential bid, founding the party Movimiento Papa Egoró. The album that followed this experience was La Rosa de los Vientos with songs by other Panamanian songwriters, using all Panamanian musicians.

In 1996, Blades along with Son Miserables performed "No Te Miento (I Don't Lie [to you])" for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin produced by the Red Hot Organization.

In 1997, Blades headed the cast of singer/songwriter Paul Simon's first Broadway musical, The Capeman, based on a true story about a violent youth who becomes a poet in prison, which also starred Marc Anthony and Ednita Nazario.

His many film appearances include The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Two Jakes (1990), Predator 2 (1990), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Color of Night (1994), and Devil's Own (1997). In 1999, he played Mexican artist Diego Rivera in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. In the 2003 film Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas, and Willem Dafoe, he played the role of a retired FBI agent.

Blades' 1999 album Tiempos, which he recorded with musicians from the Costa Rican groups Editus and Sexteto de Jazz Latino, represented a break from his salsa past and a further rejection of commercial trends in Latin music. Ironically, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album. Even more eclectic was the 2002 album Mundo with the 11-member Editus Ensemble and bagpiper Eric Rigler, which incorporated instruments from around the world. The same year, he guested on world music artist Derek Trucks' album, Joyful Noise.

In 2003 he followed the World Music Grammy and Latin Grammy winner Mundo with a web site free-download project. As he said in 2005 when receiving the ASCAP Founders Award about his non-commercial choices, "That's the way I think."

In 2004, he put his artistic careers on hold when he began serving a five-year appointment as Panama's minister of tourism. Beginning in June 2007, however, Blades turned some of his attention back to his artistic career, presenting an "online tv show" titled Show de Ruben Blades (SDRB) on his website.^[4]

During the summer of 2008 he took a leave of absence for a mini-tour in Europe, backed by the Costa Rican band Son de Tikizia. When his government service was completed in June 2009, he reunited the members of Seis del Solar for the 25th anniversary of Buscando America in an ambitious tour of the Americas.

Discography[link]

• A Las Seis - con Los Salvajes Del Ritmo - Panamanian conjunto banda
• From Panama to New York (1970) - Rubén Blades & la Orquesta de Pete Rodriguez
• Barretto - with Ray Barretto orchestra (1975)
• La Raza Latina - Salsa Suite with Larry Harlow and his orchestra Harlow (1977)
• Fania All Stars Tribute To Tito Rodríguez (1976)
• Jorge Dalto - Chevere (1976)
• Metiendo Mano (1977) - Rubén Blades & Willie Colón
• Fania All Stars Spanish Fever (1978)
• Siembra (1978) - Rubén Blades & Willie Colón
• Fania All Stars Crossover (1979)
• Bohemio y Poeta (1979) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Maestra Vida: Primera Parte (1980) - Rubén Blades (produced by Willie Colón)
• Maestra Vida: Segunda Parte (1980) - Rubén Blades (produced by Willie Colón)
• Fania All Stars Commitment (1980)
• Canciones Del Solar De Los Aburridos (1981) - Rubén Blades & Willie Colón
• The Last Fight (Album) (1982) - Rubén Blades & Willie Colón
• El Que La Hace La Paga (1983) - Rubén Blades
• Buscando América (1984) - Rubén Blades & Seis del Solar
• Mucho Mejor (1984) - Rubén Blades
• Crossover Dreams (1985) soundtrack
• Escenas (1985) - Rubén Blades y Seis de Solar
• Doble Filo (1986) - Rubén Blades
• Agua de Luna (1987) - Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar
• Antecedente (1988) - Rubén Blades
• Nothing But the Truth (1988) - Rubén Blades
• Oliver and Company (soundtrack) (1988) - Buscando Guayaba
• With Strings (1988) Rubén Blades
• Live! (1990) Rubén Blades y Son del Solar
• Caminando (1991) - Rubén Blades y Son del Solar
• Best of Ruben Blades (1992) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Amor Y Control (1992) - Rubén Blades y Son Del Solar
• Poetry: The Greatest Hits (1993) -
• Poeta Latina (1993) - Rubén Blades (UK Fania compilation)
• Mucho Mejor [Westwind] (1995) - Rubén Blades
• Tras La Tormenta (1995) Rubén Blades & Willie Colón
• La Rosa de Los Vientos (1996) - Rubén Blades
• Greatest Hits (Rubén Blades album) (1996) - Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar (Elektra compilation)
• Sus Más Grandes Exitos (1998) - Rubén Blades ( Fania compilation)
• Tiempos (1999) - Rubén Blades y Editus
• Sembra Y Otros Favoritos Salsa Para Siempre (2001) - Rubén Blades & Willie Colón (Fania compilation)
• Best (2001) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Salsa Caliente De Nu York (2002) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Mundo (2002) - Rubén Blades y Editus Ensemble
• Joyful Noise (2002) - The Derek Trucks Band (Ka-Ma-Lay)
• rubenblades.com/cd (2003) Rubén Blades etc. (download project)
• Una Decada (2003) - Rubén Blades (Sony compilation)
• Experencia Ruben Blades (2004) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Lo Mejor, Vol. 1 (2004) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation, import as O Melhor Vol. 1)
• Lo Mejor, Vol. 2 (2004) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation, import as O Melhor Vol. 2)
• Across 110th St. (2004) - Spanish Harlem Orchestra featuring Rubén Blades
• Ganas (2005)
• Maestro de la Fania (2005) - Rubén Blades (Fania compilation)
• Cantares del Subdesarrollo (2009) - Rubén Blades
• Todos Vuelven Live, Volume I & II (2010) - Rubén Blades & Seis del Solar

Filmography[link]

• The Last Fight (1983) - Andy 'Kid Clave'
• The Return of Ruben Blades (1985) - himself
• Crossover Dreams (1985) - Rudy Veloz
• Critical Condition (1987) - Louis
• Fatal Beauty (1987) - Carl Jimenez
• The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) - Sheriff Bernabe Montoya
• Homeboy (1988) - Doctor
• Dead Man Out (1989) (TV) - Ben
• Disorganized Crime (1989) - Carlos Barrios
• Heart of the Deal (1990)
• Mo' Better Blues (1990) - Petey
• The Two Jakes (1990) - Mickey Nice aka Michael Weisskopf
• The Lemon Sisters (1990) - C.W
• Predator 2 (1990) (as Ruben Blades) - Danny "Danny Boy" Archuleta
• The Josephine Baker Story (1991) (TV) - Count Giuseppe Pepito Abatino
• One Man's War (1991) (TV) - Perrone
• Crazy from the Heart (1991) (TV) - Ernesto Ontiveros
• The Super (1991) - Marlon
• Miracle on Interstate 880 (1993) (TV) - Pastor Beruman
• Life with Mikey (1993) (uncredited) - Angie's Dad
• A Million to Juan (1994) - Bartender
• Color of Night (1994) - Lt. Hector Martinez
• Joseph and His Brothers (1993) - Rubén Blades & Strunz & Farah (narrator of animation video)
• Scorpion Spring (1996) - Border Patrolman Sam Zaragosa
• The Devil's Own (1997) - Edwin Diaz
• Chinese Box (1997) - Jim
• Cradle Will Rock (1999) - Diego Rivera
• Gideon's Crossing (2000) TV Series - Dr. Max Cabranes
• All the Pretty Horses (2000) - Hector de la Rocha
• Assassination Tango (2002) - Miguel
• The Maldonado Miracle (2003) (TV) - Cruz
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) - Jorge FBI
• Imagining Argentina (2003) - Silvio Ayala
• Spin (2003) - Ernesto Bejarano
• Secuestro express (2004) - Carla's Father
• Spoken Word (2009)
• Cristiada (2011) - President Plutarco Calles
• Safe House (2012) - Carlos Villar

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website (Spanish)
• Blades/Colón discography and reviews
• Rubén Blades at the Internet Movie Database
• Rubén Blades Discography & Song Reference
• Interview with Paula C in English & Spanish
• Library of over 170 Interviews & Articles in English & Spanish 1978-present

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento
Rubén Darío has been praised as "The prince of Castilian letters" and "Father of Modernism"
Born	(1867-01-18)January 18, 1867 Metapa, today known as Ciudad Darío, Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Died	February 6, 1916(1916-02-06) (aged 49) León, Nicaragua
Pen name	Rubén Darío
Occupation	Poet, journalist, and diplomat
Nationality	Nicaraguan
Literary movement	Modernismo
Spouse(s)	Rafaela Contreras, Rosario Murillo, Francisca Sánchez del Pozo
Influences Díaz Mirón, Julian de Casal, José Martí, José Asunción Silva
Influenced Giannina Braschi, Pablo Antonio Cuadra
Signature

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2011)

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867, Metapa, Matagalpa, Nicaragua – February 6, 1916, León, Nicaragua), known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío has had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish literature and journalism. He has been praised as the "Prince of Castilian Letters" and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement.^[1]

Life[link]

Manuel García and Rosa Sarmiento were married on April 26, 1866 in León, Nicaragua after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Candida Rosa, who died a few days after being born. The marriage deteriorated again to the point where Rosa left her husband and moved in with her aunt, Bernarda Sarmiento. After a brief period of time, Rosa Sarmiento established a relationship with another man and moved with him to San Marcos de Colón, in Choluteca, Honduras. Although, according to his baptism, Rubén's true surname was García, his paternal family had been known by the surname Darío for many years. Rubén Darío explained it as follows in his autobiography:

According to what some of the old people in that town of my childhood have referred to me, my great-grandfather had Darío as his nickname or first name. In this small town he was known by everyone as "Don Darío" and his entire family as the Daríos. It was in this way that his and all his family last name began to disappear to the point where my paternal great-grandmother already replaced it when she signed documents as Rita Darío; becoming patronymic and acquiring legal stand and validity since my father, who was a merchant, carried out all his businesses as Manuel Darío...^[2]

The catedral-basílica de la Asunción, in León, Nicaragua, where the poet spent his infancy. His remains are buried in this church.

Darío spent his childhood in the city of León. He was brought up by his mother's aunt and uncle, Félix and Bernarda, whom Darío considered, in his infancy, to be his real parents. (He reportedly, during his first years in school, signed his assignments as Félix Rubén Ramírez.) He rarely spoke with his mother, who lived in Honduras, or with his father, who he referred to as "Uncle Manuel". Although little is known about his first years, it is documented that after the death of Félix Ramírez, in 1871, the family went through rough economic times and they considered sending young Rubén as a tailor's apprentice. According to his biographer Edelmiro Torres, he attended several schools in León before going on, during 1879 and 1880, to be educated by the Jesuits.^{[citation needed]}

A precocious reader (according to his own testimony, he learned to read when he was three years old^[3]), he soon began to write his first verses: a sonnet written by him in 1879 is conserved, and he published for the first time in a newspaper when he was thirteen years old. The elegy, Una lagrima, which was published in the daily El Termometro (Rivas) on July 26, 1880. A little later he also collaborated in El Ensayo, a literary magazine in León, garnering attention as a "child poet". In these initial verses, according to Teodosio Fernández,^[4] his predominating influences were Spanish poets contemporary to José Zorrilla, Ramón de Campoamor, Gaspar Núñez de Arce and Ventura de la Vega. His writings of this time display a liberalism hostile to the excessive influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as documented in his essay, El jesuita, which was written in 1881. Regarding his political attitude, his most noteworthy influence was the Ecuadorian Juan Montalvo, whom he deliberately imitated in his first journalistic articles.^[5]

Around December 1881 he moved to the capital, Managua, at the request of some liberal politicians that had conceived the idea that, given his gift for poetry, he should be educated in Europe at the expense of the public treasury. However, the anti-clerical tone of his verses did not convince the president of congress, the conservative Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro, and it was resolved that he would study in the Nicaraguan city of Granada, but Rubén opted to stay in Managua, where he continued his journalistic endeavour collaborating with the newspapers El Ferrocarril and El Porvenir de Nicaragua. In the capital, he fell in love with an eleven year old girl, Rosario Emelina Murillo, whom he wanted to marry. A little later, at the petition of his friends who wanted to delay his marriage plans, in August 1882, he embarked for El Salvador.^{[citation needed]}

In El Salvador[link]

In El Salvador, Darío was introduced to the president of the republic, Rafael Zaldivar, by Joaquín Mendez, a poet who took him under his wing. There, he met the Salvadoran poet Francisco Gavidia, a connoisseur of French poetry. Under the auspices of Gavidia, Darío attempted, for the first time, to adapt the French Alexandrine verse into Castilian metric.^[6] Although he enjoyed much fame and an intense social life in El Salvador, participating in celebrations such as the centenary of the birth of Simon Bolivar, things began to get worse. He encountered economic hardships and contracted smallpox. In October 1883, still convalescent, he returned to his native homeland. After his return, he briefly resided in León and then in Granada but he finally moved again to Managua where he became an employee of the Biblioteca Nacional de Nicaragua (the Nicaraguan National Library) and he resumed his romance with Rosario Murillo. In May 1884 he was condemned for vagrancy and sentenced to eight days of public work, although he managed to evade the fulfillment of the sentence. During that time he continued experimenting with new poetic forms, and he even had a book ready for printing, which was going to be titled Epístolas y poemas. This second book also did not get published, it would have to wait until 1888 when it was finally published as Primeras notas. He tested his luck with theatre, and he released his first play, titled Cada oveja..., which had some success, but no copy remains. He found life in Managua unsatisfactory, and prompted by the advice of some friends, opted to embark for Chile on June 5, 1886.^{[citation needed]}

In Chile[link]

After making a name for himself with love poems and stories, Darío left Nicaragua for Chile in 1886, and disembarked in Valparaiso on June 23, 1886. In Chile he stayed with Poirier and a poet by the name of Eduardo de la Barra. Together they co-authored a sentimental novel titled Emelina, with which they entered in a literary contest (although they did not win). It was because of his friendship with Poirier that Darío was able to obtain a job in the newspaper La Época, in Santiago on July 1886.

Juan Valera, novelist and literary critic, whose letters, addressed to Ruben Darío in the periodical El Imparcial, decisively consecrated Rubén Darío.

During his stay in Chile, Darío had to endure continuous humiliation from the Chilean aristocracy that scorned him for his lack of refinement and for the color of his skin.^{[citation needed]}Nonetheless, he managed to forge a few friendships, like the one with the son of the then president, the poet Pedro Balmaceda Toro. Soon after he published his first piece, Abrojos, in March 1887. He lived in Valparaiso for several months until September 1887 where he participated in several literary contests. In the month of July 1888, Azul, the key literary work of the modernist revolution that had just begun, was published in Valparaiso.^{[citation needed]}

Azul... is a compilation of a series of poems and textual prose that had already been published in the Chilean media between December 1886 and June 1888. The book was not an immediate success, but it was well received by the influential Spanish novelist and literary critic Juan Valera, who published in the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial, in October 1888, two letters addressed to Darío, in which, although reproaching him for the excessive French influence in his writings (Valera's used the expression "galicismo mental" or 'mental Gallicism'), he recognized in Darío "[a] un prosista y un poeta de talento" ("a prose writer and poet of talent").^{[citation needed]}

Journey in Central America[link]

The newly attained fame allowed Darío to obtain the position of newspaper correspondent for La Nación of Buenos Aires, which was at the time the most heavily circulated periodical in Hispanic America. A little after sending his first article to La Nacion, he set off on a trip back to Nicaragua. During a brief stop in Lima he met the writer Ricardo Palma. He arrived at the port in Corinto on March 7, 1889. In León, he was received as a guest of honor, but his stay in Nicaragua was brief, and he moved to San Salvador where he was named director of the periodical La Unión which was in favor of creating a unified Central American state. In San Salvador, he was married by law to Rafaela Contreras, daughter of a famous Honduran orator, Álvaro Contreras, on June 21, 1890. One day after the wedding there was a coup d'état against president (and general) Menéndez. The coup was mainly engineered by general Carlos Ezeta, who had been a guest at Darío's wedding, which ended with the death of his wife, which led him to remarry for a brief period, only for him to separate very shortly thereafter.^{[citation needed]}

He decided to leave El Salvador despite job offers from the new president. He moved to Guatemala at the end of June, while his bride remained in El Salvador. Guatemalan president Manuel Lisandro Barillas was making preparations for a war against El Salvador. Darío published, in the Guatemalan newspaper El Imparcial, an article titled Historia Negra in which he denounced Ezeta's betrayal of Menéndez. In December 1890 he was tasked with directing a newly created newspaper, El Correo de la Tarde. That same year the second edition of his successful book Azul..., substantially expanded, and using Valera's letters, which catapulted him to literary fame, as prologue (it is now customary that these letters appear in every edition of this book), was published in Guatemala. In January 1891 his wife reunited with him in Guatemala and they were married by the church on February 11, 1891. Three months later, the periodical which Darío was editing, El Correo de la Tarde, ceased receiving government subsidies, which forced it to close. He moved to Costa Rica and installed himself in the country's capital, San Jose, in August 1891. While in Costa Rica, where he was barely able to support his family, haunted by debt despite being employed, his first son, Rubén Darío Contreras, was born on November 12, 1891.^{[citation needed]}

Travels[link]

In 1892, he left his family in Costa Rica, and traveled to Guatemala and Nicaragua, in search for better economic prospects. Eventually, the Nicaraguan government named him a member of the Nicaraguan delegation to Madrid where events were going to take place to commemorate the fourth centennial of the discovery of America. During the trip to Spain, Darío made a stop in Havana, where he met Julián del Casal and other artists, such as Aniceto Valdivia and Raoul Cay. On August 14, 1892, he disembarked in Santander, where he continued his journey to Spain via train. Among those with whom he interacted frequently were poets Gaspar Núñez de Arce, José Zorrilla and Salvador Rueda; novelists Juan Valera and Emelia Pardo Bazán; erudite Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo; and several distinguished politicians such as Emilio Castelar and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. In November, he returned to Nicaragua, where he received a telegram from San Salvador notifying him of his wife's illness, who died on January 23, 1893.^{[citation needed]}

At the onset of 1893, Ruben remained in Managua, where he renewed his affairs with Rosario Murillo, whose family forced Darío to marry her.^[7][8][9]

In Argentina[link]

Bartolomé Mitre, to whom Darío dedicated his ode: Oda a Mitre.

Darío was well received by the intellectual media of Buenos Aires. He collaborated with several newspapers: in addition to La Nación, to which he was already a correspondent, he published articles in La Prensa, La Tribuna and El Tiempo, to name a few. His position as the Colombian consul was merely honorific, since, as Darío has stated in his autobiography: "no había casi colombianos en Buenos Aires y no existían transacciones ni cambios comerciales entre Colombia y la República Argentina."^[10] In the Argentinian capital he led a bohemian life-style and his abuse of alcohol led to the need for medical care in several occasions. Among the personalities with whom he dealt were the politician Bartolomé Mitre, the Mexican poet Federico Gamboa, the Bolivian poet Ricardo Jaimes Freyre and the Argentinian poets Rafael Obligado and Leopoldo Lugones.

His mother, Rosa Sarmiento, died on May 3, 1895. In October 1895, the Colombian government abolished its consulate in Buenos Aires depriving Darío of an important source of income. As a remedy, he obtained a job as Carlos Carlés' secretary, who was the general director of the institution handling mail and telegrams in Argentina. In 1896, in Buenos Aires, Darío published two of his most crucial books: Los raros, a collection of articles about the writers that most interested him, and second, Prosas profanas y otros poemas, the book that established the most definite consecration of Spanish literary modernism. However popular it became, though, his work was not initially well received. His petitions to the Nicaraguan government for a diplomatic position went unattended; however, the poet discovered an opportunity to travel to Europe when he learned that La Nación needed a Correspondent in Spain to inform about the situation in the European country after Spain's disaster of 1898. It is from the United States military intervention in Cuba that Ruben Darío coined, two years before José Enrique Rodó, the metaphorical opposition between Ariel (a personification of Latin America) and Calibán (a monster which metaphorically represents the United States of America.)^[11] On December 3, 1898, Darío decamped to Europe, arriving in Barcelona three weeks later.

Between Paris and Spain[link]

Darío arrived in Spain committed to sending four chronicles per month to La Nación about the prevalent mood in the Spanish nation after the defeat it suffered to the United States of America, and the loss of its colonial possessions; Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. These chronicles would end up being compiled in a book that was published in 1901, titled España Contemporánea. Crónicas y retratos literarios. In the writings, he expresses his profound sympathy towards Spain, and his confidence in Spain's revival, despite the state of despair he observed. In Spain, Darío won the admiration of a group of young poets who defended Modernism (a literary movement that was not absolutely accepted by the most established writers, especially those belonging to the Real Academia Española.) Among these young modernists there were a few writers that would later have important roles in Spanish literature such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán and Jacinto Benavente, and some that were prevalent in their time, like Francisco Villaespesa, Mariano Miguel de Val, director of the magazine Ateneo, and Emilio Carrere.^{[citation needed]}

In 1899, Rubén Darío, who was still legally married to Rosario Murillo, met Francisca Sánchez del Pozo in the Casa de Campo of Madrid. Francisca was from Navalsauz in the province of Ávila and would be his companion through the last years of his life. In April 1900, Darío visited Paris for a second time, commissioned by La Nación to cover the Exposition Universelle that took place that year in the French capital city. His chronicles about this topic would later be compiled in the book Peregrinaciones.

Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States between 1901 and 1909

During the first years of the 20th century, Darío lived in Paris, where in 1901 published the second edition of Prosas profanas. That same year Francisca and Rubén had a daughter. After giving birth she traveled to Paris to reunite with him, leaving the baby girl in the care of her grandparents. The girl died of smallpox during this period, without her father ever meeting her. In March 1903 he was appointed as consul by Nicaragua. His second child by Francisca was born in April 1903, but also died at a very young age. During those years, Darío traveled through Europe, visiting, among other countries, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. In 1905, he went to Spain as a member of a committee named by the Nicaraguan government whose task was to resolve a territorial dispute with Honduras. That year he published, in Madrid, the third of his most important poetry books, Cantos de vida y esperanza, los cisnes y otros poemas, edited by Juan Ramón Jiménez. Some of his most memorable poems came to light in 1905, like "Salutación del optimista" and "A Roosevelt", in which he extols Hispanic traits in the face of the threat of United States imperialism. The second poem (below) was directed at then president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt:

In 1906 he participated as secretary of the Nicaraguan delegation to the Third Pan-American Conference held in Río de Janeiro where he was inspired to write his poem "Salutación del águila", which offers a view of the United States very different to that offered in prior poems:

This poem was criticized by several writers who did not understand Ruben's sudden change of opinion with respect to the United States' influence in Latin America. In Río de Janeiro, the poet was involved in an obscure romance with an aristocrat, believed to be the daughter of the Russian ambassador in Brazil. It seems that he then conceived the idea of divorcing Rosario Murillo, with whom he had been separated for years. On his way back to Europe, he made a brief stop in Buenos Aires. In Paris, he reunited with Francisca and together they spent the winter of 1907 on the island of Mallorca, which he later frequented the company of Gabriel Alomar, a futurist poet, and painter Santiago Rusiñol. He began writing a novel, La Isla de Oro, which he never finished, although some of its chapters were published in La Nación. His tranquility was interrupted by the arrival of his wife, Rosario Murillo, in Paris. She would not grant him a divorce unless she was guaranteed sufficient compensation, which Darío felt was disproportionate. By March 1907, when he was leaving for Paris, his alcoholism was very advanced and he fell gravely ill. On recuperating, he returned to Paris, but he was unable to reach an agreement with his wife, so he decided to return to Nicaragua to present his case in court.^{[citation needed]}

Ambassador in Madrid[link]

After two brief stops in New York and Panama, Darío arrived in Nicaragua where he was given an honoring welcome. Regardless of the tributes offered to him, he was unsuccessful in obtaining a divorce. In addition, he was not paid what was owed to him due to his position as consul, which made him unable to return to Paris. After a few months he managed to be named resident minister in Madrid for the Nicaraguan government of José Santos Zelaya. He had economic problems since his limited budget barely allowed him to meet all of his delegation's expenses, and he went through much economic difficulty during his period as Nicaraguan ambassador. He managed to get by, partly with to his salary from La Nación and partly with the help of his friend and director of the magazine Ateneo, Mariano Miguel de Val, who, while the economic situation was at its toughest, offered himself as secretary to the Nicaraguan delegation at no charge and offered his house, number 27 in Serrano street, to serve as the diplomatic quarters of the Nicaraguan delegation. When Zelaya was overthrown, Darío was forced to renounce to his diplomatic post, which he did on February 25, 1909. He remained loyal to Zelaya, whom he had heavily praised in his book Viaje a Nicaragua e Intermezzo tropical and with whom he had collaborated in the writing of Estados Unidos y la revolución de Nicaragua, in which the United States and the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera were accused of planning the toppling of the Zelaya government. During his time as ambassador, there was a rift between Dario and his former friend Alejandro Sawa, whose requests for economic assistance went unheard by Dario. The correspondence between them gives room to interpret that Sawa was the real author of several of the articles that Dario had published in La Nación.^[12]

His last years[link]

Porfirio Díaz, Mexican dictator who refused to receive the writer.

In 1910, Darío traveled to Mexico as a member of a Nicaraguan delegation to commemorate a century of Mexican independence. However, the Nicaraguan government changed while Dario was abroad, and Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz refused to receive the writer, an attitude that was probably influenced by United States diplomacy. Dario, however, was well received by the people of Mexico, who supported Darío and not the government.^[13]

In his autobiography, Darío relates those protests with the Mexican Revolution, which was about to occur:

For the first time in thirty three years of absolute control, the house of the old Caesarean emperor had been stoned. One could say that that was the first thunder of the revolution that brought the dethronement.^[14]

In light of the slight by the Mexican government, Darío left for La Habana, where, under the effects of alcohol, he attempted to commit suicide, perhaps triggered by the way he had been scorned. In November 1910 he returned to Paris, where he continued being a correspondent for La Nación and where he took a position for the Mexican Ministry of Public Instruction (Ministerio de Instrucción Pública) which may have been given to him as a compensation for the public humiliation inflicted upon him.

In 1912 he accepted an offer from the Uruguayan businessmen Rubén and Alfredo Guido to direct the magazines Mundial and Elegancias. To promote said publications, he went on tour in Latin America visiting, among other cities, Río de Janeiro, São Paulo, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. It was also around this time that the poet wrote his autobiography, which was published in the magazine Caras y caretas under the title of La vida de Rubén Darío escrita por él mismo; and the work Historia de mis libros which is very important when learning about his literary evolution.^{[citation needed]}

After ending his journey due to the end of his contract with the Guido brothers, he returned to Paris and in 1913, invited by Joan Sureda, he traveled to Mallorca and found quarters at the Carthusian monastery of Valldemosa, where many decades into the past figures such as Chopin and George Sand had resided. It was in this island where Ruben began writing the novel El oro de Mallorca, which was a fictionalization of his autobiography. The deterioration of his mental health became accentuated, however, due to his alcoholism. In December he headed back to Barcelona, where he lodged at General Zelaya's house. Zelaya had taken Darío under his wing when he was president of Nicaragua. In January 1914 he returned to Paris, where he entered a lengthy legal battle with the Guido brothers, who still owed him a large sum of money for the work he had done for them. In May he moved to Barcelona, where he published his last important work of poetry, Canto a la Argentina y otros poemas, which includes the laudatory poem he had written to Argentina, which had been made to order for La Nación.^{[citation needed]}

With the outbreak of World War I, Darío departed for the United States, leaving his wife Francisca and their two surviving sons behind. In January 1915, he started reading his poems at Columbia University in New York. By the end of 1915 he returned to Nicaragua. He later resigned his diplomatic post and moved to Paris where he devoted himself to preparing new books, such as Canto a la Argentina. At this point, his alcoholism caused him frequent health problems and psychological crises. His health began deteriorating enormously in the last few years of his life. He reportedly suffered frequent hallucinations and became obsessed with the idea of death.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Darío died on February 6, 1916, aged 49, in León. The funeral lasted several days, and he was interred in the city's cathedral on February 13, 1916, at the base of the statue of Saint Paul near the chancel under a lion made of marble by the sculptor Jorge Navas Cordonero.

Rubén Darío's poetry[link]

Influences[link]

Paul Verlaine, a decisive influence in Darío's poetry.

French poetry was a determinant influence in Darío's formation as a poet. In the first place, the romantics, particularly Victor Hugo. Later on, and in a decisive fashion, Darío was influenced by the parnassians: Théophile Gautier, Catulle Mendès, and José María de Heredia. The final defining element of Darianian aesthetic is his admiration towards the symbolists, especially Paul Verlaine.^[15] Recapitulating his own poetic trajectory in the initial poem of Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905) Darío himself synthesized his main influences when he affirms that he was "strong with Hugo and ambiguous with Verlaine" ("con Hugo fuerte y con Verlaine ambiguo".)

In the section "Palabras Liminares" of Prosas Profanas (1896) he had already written a paragraph that reveals the importance of French culture in the development of his literary work:

The old Spaniard with a white beard points towards a series of illustrious portraits: "This one - he says - is the great Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, one-handed genius; this one is Lope de Vega, this one is Garcilaso, this one Quintana." I ask him for the noble man Gracián, for Teresa of Ávila, for the brave Góngora and the strongest of all, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas. Then I say: "Shakespeare! Dante! Hugo...! (and in my head: Verlaine...!)"
Then, when saying goodbye: "-Old man, it is important to say: my wife is from my land; my mistress is from Paris."^[16]

Los raros is an illustrative volume regarding literary tastes, which he published on the same year as Prosas profanas, and dedicated to briefly glossing some of the writers and intellectuals towards whom he felt profound admiration. Amongst those in the book we find Edgar Allan Poe, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Léon Bloy, Paul Verlaine, Lautréamont, Eugenio de Castro and José Martí (the latter being the only one mentioned who wrote their literary work in Spanish.) The predominance of French culture is more than evident. Darío wrote: "Modernism is nothing more than Spanish verse and prose passed through the fine sieve of the good French verse and the good French prose." Setting aside his initial stage, before Azul..., in which his poetry owes a great deal to the great names of 19th century Spanish poetry, such as Núñez de Arce and Campoamor, Darío was a great admirer of Bécquer. Spanish themes are well represented in his work, already in Prosas profanas and, specially, after his second trip to Spain, in 1899. Conscious of contemporaneous Spanish decadence in politics and the arts (a preoccupation he shared with the so called Generation of '98), he frequently was inspired by characters and elements of the past. Regarding authors in other languages, it is worth mentioning that he felt a profound admiration towards three writers from the United States: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.^{[citation needed]}

Evolution[link]

The evolution of Darío's poetry is marked by the publication of the books in which scholars have recognized his fundamental works: Azul... (1888), Prosas profanas y otros poemas (1896) y Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905). Before Azul... Darío wrote three books and a great number of loose poems which make up what is known as his "literary prehistory" ("prehistoria literaria".) The books are Epístolas y poemas (written in 1885, but published until 1888, under the title Primeras notas), Rimas (1887) and Abrojos (1887). In the first of these works his readings of Spanish classics is patent, as is the stamp of Victor Hugo. The metric is classic^[17] and the tone is predominantly romantic.

Theatre Rubén Darío, Managua, Nicaragua

In Abrojos, published in Chile, the most acknowledged influence is that from the Spaniard Ramón de Campoamor.^[18] Rimas, also published in Chile in the same year, was written for a contest to imitate the Bécquer's Rimas, hence, it is not strange that the intimate tone adopted in this book is very similar to the one present in the writings of the Sevillian poet. It consists of only fourteen poems, of amorous tone, whose expressive means^[19] are characteristically bécquerian.^[20]

Azul... (1888) has as many tales in prose as poems, which caught the critics' attention through their metric variety. It presents us some of the preoccupations characteristic of Dario, such as his expression of dissatisfaction towards the bourgeoisie (see, for example, the tale "El rey burgués") A new edition of the text was published in 1890, this one was augmented with several new texts, amongst which were sonnets in Alexandrine verses. Modernism's stage of plenitude and of the Darian poetry is marked by the book Prosas profanas y otros poemas, a collection of poems in which the presence of the erotic is more important, and which contains some esoteric themes (such as in the poem "Coloquio de los centauros"). In this book, we can also find Darío's own eclectic imagery. In 1905, he published Cantos de vida y esperanza, which announces a more intimate and reflexive trend in his works, without renouncing to the themes that have become linked to the identity of Modernism. At the same time, civic poetry appears in his work, with poems like "A Roosevelt", a trend that would be accentuated in El canto errante (1907) and in Canto a la Argentina y otros poemas (1914). The intimate slant in his work is accentuated, instead, in Poema del otoño y otros poemas (1910), in which he shows an amazing formal plainness in his work.^{[citation needed]}

Assessment[link]

Roberto González Echevarría considers him the beginning of the modern era in Spanish language poetry: "In Spanish, there is poetry before and after Rubén Darío. ... the first major poet in the language since the 17th century ... He ushered Spanish-language poetry into the modern era by incorporating the aesthetic ideals and modern anxieties of Parnassiens and Symbolism, as Garcilaso had infused Castilian verse with Italianate forms and spirit in the 16th century, transforming it forever. Darío and Garcilaso led the two most profound poetic revolutions in Spanish, yet neither is well-known abroad, except by Hispanists and poets of the Spanish language including Octavio Paz and Giannina Braschi. They have not traveled well, particularly in English-speaking countries, where they are all but unknown."^[21]

In honor of the centenary of Darío's birth in 1967, the government of Nicaragua struck a 50 cordoba gold medal and issued a set of postage stamps. The set consists of eight airmail stamps (20 centavos depicted) and two souvenir sheets.

Further reading[link]

English:

• Poet-errant: a biography of Rubén Darío/Charles Dunton Watland., 1965
• Rubén Darío centennial studies/Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth, 1970
• Critical approaches to Rubén Darío/Keith Ellis, 1974
• "Rubén Darío and the romantic search for unity"/Cathy Login Jrade., 1983^[22]
• Beyond the glitter: the language of gems in modernista writers/Rosemary C. LoDato, 1999
• An art alienated from itself: studies in Spanish American modernism/Priscilla Pearsall, 1984
• Modernism, Rubén Darío, and the poetics of despair/Alberto Acereda, 2004
• Darío, Borges, Neruda and the ancient quarrel between poets and philosophers/Jason Wilson, 2000
• The meaning and function of music in Ruben Dario a comparative approach/Raymond Skyrme, 1969
• Selected Poems of Rubén Darío/Lysander Kemp, trans., 1965. ISBN 978-0-292-77615-9

Spanish:

• Miradas críticas sobre Rubén Darío/Nicasio Urbina, 2005
• La poesía de Rubén Darío: ensayo sobre el tema y los temas del poeta/Pedro Salinas, 2005
• Luis Cernuda y Rubén Darío: modernismo e ironía/James Valender, 2004
• Rubén Darío visto por Juan de Dios Vanegas/Juan de Dios Vanegas, 2003
• Rubén Darío, puente hacia el siglo XXI y otros escritos/Carlos Tünnermann Bernheim, 2003
• Rubén Darío y su vigencia en el siglo XXI/Jorge Eduardo Arellano, 2003
• Paralelismo entre Rubén Darío y Salomón de la Selva/Nicolás Navas, 2002
• Bases para una interpretación de Rubén Darío/Mario Vargas Llosa, 2001
• La angustia existencial en la poesía de Rubén Darío/Roque Ochoa Hidalgo, 2001
• Rubén Darío, addenda/José María Martínez Domingo, 2000
• Aproximación a Rubén Darío/Teodosio Muñoz Molina, 2000
• "Calibán: icono del '98. A propósito de un artículo de Rubén Darío", Revista Iberoamericana 184-185 (1998): 441-455 by Carlos Jáuregui
• "Rubén Darío y la búsqueda romántica de la unidad: El recurso modernista de la tradición esotérica"/Cathy Login Jrade, 1984
• Sus Mejores Poemas/Rubén Darío, 1929 (NOTE: freely, openly available with page images and full text from the Digital Library of the Caribbean here)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rubén Darío

Spanish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Rubén Darío

English Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Rubén Darío

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Acereda, Alberto. "Modernism, Rubén Darío, and the Poetics of Despair".
• Orringer, Nelson R. (2002) "Introduction to Hispanic Modernisms", Bulletin of Spanish Studies LXXIX: 133-148.
• Ramos, Julio (2001) Divergent Modernities: Culture and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Latin America trans. John D. Blanco, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, ISBN 0-8223-1981-0
• Mapes, Edwin K. (1925) L'influence française dans l'oeuvre of Rubén Darío Paris, republished in 1966 by Comisión Nacional para la Celebración del Centenario del Nacimiento de Rubén Darío, Managua, Nicaragua OCLC 54179225
• Rivera-Rodas, Oscar (1989) "El discurso modernista y la dialéctica del erotismo y la castidad" Revista Iberoamericana 146-147: 45-62
• Rivera-Rodas, Oscar (2000) "'La crisis referencial' y la modernidad hispanoamericana" Hispania 83(4): 779-90
• Schulman, Iván A. (1969) "Reflexiones en torno a la definición del modernismo" In Schulman, Iván A. and Gonzalez, Manuel Pedro (1969) OCLC 304168 Martí, Darío y el modernismo Editorial Gredos, Madrid
• Ward, Thomas (1989) "El pensamiento religioso de Rubén Darío: Un estudio de Prosas profanas y Cantos de vida y esperanza" Revista Iberoamericana 55: 363-375.
• Ward, Thomas (2002) "Los posibles caminos de Nietzsche en el modernismo" Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. 50(2): 489-515.

• Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin America. London England, University of California Press: 1992.
• Skidmore, Thomas E. & Smith, Peter H. Modern Latin America. New York, Oxford University Press: 2005.

Tito Puente
Background information
Birth name	Ernesto Antonio Puente
Also known as	Tito Puente "El Rey de los Timbales" The King of Latin Music
Born	(1923-04-20)April 20, 1923 New York City
Died	June 1, 2000(2000-06-01) (aged 77) New York City
Genres	Afro-Cuban jazz, mambo, salsa
Occupations	Musician, producer
Instruments	Timbales, Vibraphone
Years active	1946 - 2000
Labels	Fania Records, Sony Discos, RMM Records
Associated acts	La Lupe

Tito Puente, (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000)^[1], born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and salsa musician and composer. The son of native Puerto Ricans, Ernest and Ercilia Puente, living in New York City's Spanish Harlem community, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" (The King of the timbales) and "The King of Latin Music". He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that helped keep his career going for 50 years. He and his music appear in many films such as The Mambo Kings and Fernando Trueba's Calle 54. He guest starred on several television shows including Sesame Street, The Cosby Show and The Simpsons.

Early life[link]

Tito Puente was born on April 23, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City.^[2][3] His family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in the Spanish Harlem area of the city.^[2] Puente's father was the foreman at a razorblade factory.^[4]

As a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complained of hearing seven-year-old Puente drumming on pots and window frames, his mother sent him to 25 cent piano lessons.^[4] By age 10, he switched to percussion, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa.^[4] He later created a song-and-dance duo with his sister Anna in the 1930s and intended to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury prevented him pursuing dance as a career.^[4][3] When the drummer in Machito's band was drafted to the army, Puente subsequently took his place.^[4]

Career[link]

Tito Puente Sr. served in the Navy for three years during World War II after being drafted in 1942. He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation for serving in nine battles on the escort carrier USS Santee (CVE-29). The GI Bill allowed him to study music at Juilliard School of Music, where he completed a formal education in conducting, orchestration and theory. In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian.^[5]

During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity, and helped to bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds, like mambo, son, and cha-cha-cha, to mainstream audiences (he was so successful playing popular Afro-Cuban rhythms that many people mistakenly identify him as Cuban). Dance Mania, possibly Puente's most well known album was released in 1958.^[6] Later, he moved into more diverse sounds, including pop music, bossa nova and others, eventually settling down with a fusion of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres that became known as "salsa" (a term that he disliked). In 1979, Puente won the first of five Grammy Awards for the albums A Tribute to Benny Moré, On Broadway, Mambo Diablo, and Goza Mi Timbal. In 1990, Puente was awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal. He was also awarded a Grammy at the first Latin Grammy Awards, winning Best Traditional Tropical Album for Mambo Birdland. In 1995, he appeared as himself on the Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" In early 2000, he shot the music documentary Calle 54, wearing an all-white outfit with his band.^[7] After a show in Puerto Rico on May 31, he suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery to repair a heart valve, but complications developed and he died during the night of May 31 – June 1, 2000.^[8] He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Tito Puente's name is often mentioned in a television production called La Epoca, a film about the Palladium era in New York, Afro-Cuban music and rhythms, Mambo and Salsa as dances and music and much more. The film discusses many of Tito Puente's as well as Arsenio Rodriguez's contributions, and features interviews with some of the musicians Puente recorded with such as Alfonso "El Panameno" Joseph, Luis Mangual, Julian Lianos and others.

Puente's youngest son, Tito Puente, Jr., has continued his father's legacy by presenting many of the same songs in his performances and recordings, while daughter Audrey Puente is a television meteorologist for WNYW and WWOR-TV in New York City.

Awards and recognition[link]

• During the presidency of Sen. Roberto Rexach Benítez, Tito Puente received the unique honor of having both a special session of the Senate of Puerto Rico dedicated to him, and being allowed to perform in his unique style on the floor of the Senate while it was in session.
• On September 10, 2007, a United States Post Office in Spanish Harlem was named after him at a ceremony presided by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Rep. José Serrano (D-NY).
• An amphitheatre was named in his honor at Luis Muñoz Marín Park, next to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• Puente performed at the closing ceremonies at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The timbales he used there are on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
• In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[9]
• In 1990 he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. (ref Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce)
• In 1984 he received an honorary Decree from the Los Angeles City Council.
• On June 5, 2005, Puente was honored by Union City, New Jersey with a star on the Walk of Fame at Union City's Celia Cruz Park.^[10]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Puente In Percussion (1956)
• Dance Mania (1958)
• El Rey: Bravo (1963)
• El Rey: Tito Puente & His Latin Ensemble (1984)
• Percussion's King (1997)
• Selection of Mambo & Cha Cha Cha (1997)
• 50 Years of Swing (1997)
• Tito Meets Machito: Mambo Kings (1997)
• Cha Cha Cha Rumba Beguine (1998)
• Dance Mania '98: Live at Birdland (1998)
• The Very Best of Tito Puente (1998)
• Timbalero Tropical (1998)
• Yambeque (1998)
• Absolute Best (1999)
• Carnival (1999)
• Colección original (1999)
• Golden Latin Jazz All Stars: In Session (1999)
• Latin Flight (1999)
• Latin Kings (1999)
• Lo mejor de lo mejor (1999)
• Mambo Birdland (1999)
• Special Delivery featuring Maynard Ferguson (1999)
• Rey (2000)
• His Vibes & Orchestra (2000)
• Cha Cha Cha for Lovers (2000)
• Homenaje a Beny Moré. Vol. 3 (2000)
• Dos ídolos. Su música (2000)
• Tito Puente y su Orquesta Mambo (2000)
• The Complete RCA Recordings. Vol. 1 (2000)
• The Best of the Concord Years (2000)
• Por fin (Finally) (2000)
• Party with Puente! (2000)
• Obra maestra (2000)
• Mambo Mambo (2000)
• Mambo King Meets the Queen of Salsa (2000)
• Latin Abstract (2000)
• Kings of Mambo (2000)
• Cha Cha Cha for Lovers (2000)
• The Legends Collection: Tito Puente & Celia Cruz (2001)
• The Complete RCA Recordings, Vol. 2 (2001)
• RCA Recordings (2001)
• Puente caliente (2001)
• The Best of... (2001)
• King of Mambo (2001)
• El Rey: Pa'lante! Straight! (2001)
• Cocktail Hour (2001)
• Selection. King of Mambo (2001)
• Herman Meets Puente (2001)
• Undisputed (2001)
• Fiesta (2002)
• Colección Diamante (2002)
• Tito Puente y Celia Cruz (2002)
• Live at the Playboy Jazz Festival (2002)
• King of Kings: The Very Best of Tito Puente (2002)
• Hot Timbales! (2002)
• Dr. Feelgood (2002)
• Carnaval de éxitos (2002)
• Caravan Mambo (2002)
• We Love Salsa (2006)

As sideman[link]

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Rhythmstick (1990)

Filmography[link]

Selected Feature Films[link]

• Armed and Dangerous (1986)
• Radio Days (1987)

Documentaries[link]

• Tito Puente: The King of Latin Music (2000)^[11]
• PROFILES featuring Tito Puente Jr. (2007)
• Latin Knights (2005)
• Calle 54 (2000)^[12]

Concert films[link]

• Tito Puente - Live in Montreal (Montreal Jazz Festival) (1983) (2003)

Quotation[link]

^[13]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Steven Loza (1999) Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music, University of Illinois Press
• Josephine Powell (2007) "Tito Puente:When The Drums Are Dreaming", (Authorhouse 2007)

External links[link]

• Tito Puente at NPR Music
• Tito Puente on the Internet Movie Database
• Tito Puente at Find a Grave
• "Tito Puente: The Complete 78s (1949-1955)" by Ted Giorgia (Jazz.com)
• Tito Puente - King of Latin Music, by Jim Payne and Tito Puente

Isabel Toledo
Isabel Toledo at the Anne Klein fashion show. Photo by Ed Kavishe, Fashion Wire Press
Born	(1961-04-09) April 9, 1961 (age 51)
Nationality	Cuban-American
Education	Fashion Institute of Technology
Occupation	Fashion designer
Awards	Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, 2005

Isabel Toledo (born April 9, 1961) is a Cuban-American fashion designer based in New York.

Personal life[link]

Isabel Toledo was born in Cuba and moved to New Jersey where she attended high school and met her future husband and collaborator, Ruben Toledo. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) and Parsons School of Design (NY) where she studied painting, ceramics, and fashion design. An avid seamstress from a young age, Toledo's work reflects not only a distinct design sense but a keen understanding of garment construction and appreciation for the geometric intricacies of pattern shapes.

In 1984, Toledo married artist Ruben Toledo.

Career[link]

In 1985, Toledo presented her first collection. In 1998, she stopped presenting biannual collections, instead choosing to create on her own schedule. Toledo was named creative director of Anne Klein in 2006 after more than twenty years of working solely under her own name. Toledo made her debut with Anne Klein at New York Fashion Week in February 2007.^[1] Toledo and Anne Klein parted ways later in 2007.

Awards[link]

Along with her husband, Ruben Toledo, Isabel was the recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for their work in fashion in 2005.

Toledo was also the recipient of an Otis Critics' award named for her at the Los Angeles-based Otis College of Art and Design.

On September 3, 2008 Isabel Toledo was presented with the third annual Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion from the Museum at FIT in New York's Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center.^[2]

Famous Clients[link]

Michelle Obama first wore a Toledo design on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 for an appearance at a New York City fashion world fund-raiser. Obama had been a fan of her work from buying her clothes in Chicago at Ikram Goldberg's store.

Toledo designed a lemongrass yellow wool lace shift dress with matching overcoat which First Lady Michelle Obama selected to wear at the Inauguration of Barack Obama^[3]

Exhibitions[link]

• "Isabel Toledo: Fashion From the Inside Out". The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). http://www.fitnyc.edu/6084.asp.  June 16 through September 26, 2009.
• "Isabel and Ruben Toledo: A Marriage of Art and Fashion". Kent State University Museum. March 2000. http://www.kent.edu/museum/exhibits/exhibitdetail.cfm?customel_datapageid_2203427=2274481.  Traveled to other museums including the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design 2002), 1999^[4]
• Interpretation: 20th Century Clothing and Illustration, Ohio State University/Ohio Arts Council, 2000
• Isabel and Ruben Toledo: A Marriage of Art and Fashion, Kent State University Museum, 2000 [1]
• Spirals & Ellipses: Clothing the Body Three-Dimensionally, Kent State University Museum, 2005 [2]

External links[link]

• Isabel Toledo designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• Borrelli, Laird (February 9, 2007). "Anne Klein Fall 2007 Collection by Isabel Toledo". Style.com. http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/F2007RTW/review/AKLEIN. 
• Yvette, Mar (Summer 2007). "Isabel Toledo Interview". Clear Magazine. http://www.marpop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=207&Itemid=40. 
• "Isabel & Ruben Toledo Speak with Rose Brantley at Otis". Otis College of Art and Design. 11 March 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVST97Wy9P4. 
• "[http://www.kent.edu/museum/index.cfm Kent State University Museum"]. http://www.kent.edu/museum/index.cfm. 

References[link]

1. ^ Horyn, Cathy (September 13, 2007). "Designers in a Time of Many Dresses, Some Terrific". The New York Times. p. B.8. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/fashion/shows/13REVIEW.html.  Quote: Ms. Toledo’s tunics and sundresses, by contrast, will probably find fewer customers. They were complex in color and pattern, surprising in their design, and for that reason more interesting.
2. ^ Peden, Lauren David (4 September 2008). "Toledo's FIT Fete". British Vogue. http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/080904-isabel-toledo-honoured-by-fit.aspx. 
3. ^ Betts, Kate (Jan. 20, 2009). "Michelle Obama's Dress: A Bold Choice in Designer Isabel Toledo". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1872763,00.html. 
4. ^ "The Otis College of Art and Design - Brief Article". Art in America. Jan 2002. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_/ai_82012926. ^{[dead link]}