[JPL] About Rubén's surname pronounciation...

[Michelle Mobley]

Arturo - One more thing about Ruben...he's just real nice to look at.

Michelle from Peeedro

> The correct pronounciation is Blades, straight up English, however as
> Rubencito told me and as I have read and heard him say in many interviews,
> he has no problem with the Spanish speaker's pronounciation of blah dez as
> he understands why it would be said that way, so if he is called that he
> won't attempt any correction. The Blades family history is an interesting
> one, Rubén father's was a Panamanian national sports heroe as a baseketball
> player, then turned police officer in Panama City. His father was also a
> part time musician and met his wife-Rubén's mother-the Cuban Anoland Díaz
> Blades on a cruise ship where she was the pianist-vocalist in the ship's
> lounge. In the late 1950s andearly 1960s young Rubén was a huge fan of
> Frankie Lymon & the teenagers as well as rock n roll and began writing rock
> n roll songs on his guitar but then after the US invasion of Panamá circa
> 1964 he decided to folow his nation's folklore and music and began singing
> in "salsa" bands while in college. After graduating he moved to NY in 1970,
> recorded an album for Alegre Records that was a big failure and returned to
> Panamá, he then went back to NYC in 1974 and as they say-the rest is
> history. Check out his bio documentary the Return of Rubén Blades where he
> is shown graduating from Harvard with his mom in attendance, then returns to
> Panama City with his dad touring the places he used to hang out at as a
> teenager
> 
> In 1979 Blades was part of the Fania All-Stars contingent that traveled to
> Cuba to peform, while there he met his mother's side of the family members.
> This event as well as his concert in Miami with Willie Colón where he sang
> an "anti-US intervention in El Salvador" song called "Tiburón"-(shark) which
> is Latin American slang for the US, caused Blades to be banned on Miami
> radio, in fact the music distributors and retail shops created a huge pile
> of Blades LPs and cassettes(pre-Cd era) and in front of the news camera had
> a steam roller trample over them. Until the late 1990s the only way to hear
> Rubén Blades on Miami radio was on non-com outlets.
> 
> Arturo


  Michelle Mobley 
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