4. The Year Fania got Political
6/16/202645 min
By 1973, drummer Ray Barretto is determined to make a high-stakes comeback and to make a political statement about the role of Salsa in the activism of the time. He’s set on performing at Fania’s most ambitious concert yet, at Yankee Stadium. The day of the concert, a frenzy erupts. But despite the wild turn of events, this night cements Fania as the leading label for salsa music. And whether the label wants to be or not, the very presence of Latino youth in Yankee Stadium – one of the most storied venues in the city – makes Fania political.
Listen to The Music Behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York playlist here.
Archival courtesy of The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library, Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA, Mary Kent’s Salsa Talks interviews, Aurora Flores Hostos Interview and Craft Recordings, a Concord company. This episode also utilizes fair use clips from US National Archives, American Archive of Public Broadcasting, ABC, Internet Archive / formerly Radio Aeropuerto, Rockefeller Archive Center, Third World Newsreel Film Collective, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, WNET, and WMCA Radio.
Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ and you can binge the entire season of “Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York” right now. Plus, get exclusive episodes, sneak peaks and behind-the-scenes chisme on all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRosie Perez· Host0:00
Before we get started, I wanna let you know that you can listen to the entire season of Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York right now ad-free, plus exclusive episodes on Futuro Plus. Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York was made possible by the Mellon Foundation, which seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Heads up, this episode contains some explicit language. [Instrumental music plays] Futuro.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:39
No sooner has one New York skyscraper risen above its neighbors than another is on its way to reach a little higher, the towers of the World Trade Center.
Rosie Perez· Host0:54
Back in 1973, if you focused your attention on downtown Manhattan, you might think that New York City was on top of the world.
Speaker 2· Soundbite1:04
These towers are becoming a world headquarters, a United Nations of world trade.
Rosie Perez· Host1:10
But if you made your way uptown to East Harlem or the boogie down Bronx, the city told a different story.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:18
The South Bronx, highest crime, poorest people, greatest unemployment.
Speaker 4· Soundbite1:23
Harlem, every urban problem that plagues this country is represented here.
Rosie Perez· Host1:29
Ralph