Ruben Blades

They're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel.

— Ruben Blades

In those days the big U.S. labels didn't have any particular interest in the Latin market.

— Ruben Blades

What I do not accept is the fact that so many people's talents were ripped off.

— Ruben Blades

So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money…

— Ruben Blades

There was a lot of stuff happening in Havana that was being heard and appreciated by New Orleans musicians because of this…

— Ruben Blades

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.

— Ruben Blades

So everything that ever happened, we knew about in Panama.

— Ruben Blades

Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on…

— Ruben Blades

There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything.

— Ruben Blades

I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe.

— Ruben Blades

Everyone comes back. It makes no difference how far we wander, we always have our country, our land, in our souls and…

— Ruben Blades

So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America.

— Ruben Blades

And, he'd seen me in Panama, and he talked about maybe doing something in New York so I hooked it up when…

— Ruben Blades

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

— Ruben Blades

The grandmother, the mother, the worker, the student, the intellectual, the professional, the unemployed, everybody identified with the songs because they were…

— Ruben Blades

It was very interesting, and we went to Germany and we toured Germany like we were a German band in 1985.

— Ruben Blades

So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.

— Ruben Blades

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

— Ruben Blades

What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries…

— Ruben Blades

I didn't do drugs, I never did do drugs. Never. I don't have any story of drugs, you know, to speak of.…

— Ruben Blades

I decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band.

— Ruben Blades

We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.

— Ruben Blades

Yes, I was going to law school and it was closed in '69.

— Ruben Blades

And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day.

— Ruben Blades

I was the first person to come into New York with a Latin American point of view which was also very much…

— Ruben Blades