JUANRA FERNANDEZ


 We are not necessarily an oppressed minority. We don't necessarily come
from the ghettos, but neither are these ghettos what they used to be. The
East Village/Loisaida closet is renting for over a $1,000 a month and there
are restaurants and boutiques everywhere. The swing brought by the work
of the nuyorican community, including a literary generation and a musical
genre, was instrumental in that revitalization. The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe
has now a steady stream of tourists nightly. But the subculture still exists,
maybe much more diverse internationally and socially. It is not only
happening in the barrio and Loisaida; it is happening in many urban centers
everywhere.
 The transformation of Salsa is analogous to the nuyorican movements'
development. Salsa was created by a bunch of talented cats, not necessarily
all nuyorican in identity but in membership, who did what they had to do
(including taking money from the mafia) to keep their projects together and
producing for LA MUSICA. When the artist lost control of the projects to "el
tipo" (in this case the multinational labels), the music lost its swing. The
labels decided that a pretty face, a bunch of studio musicians recording their
tracks individually, and plenty of promotional cash would suffice. No need
to create a new "personal" sound, the same arrangements and musicians
could be recycled for each pretty boy. The result was the decay of Salsa as
a genre where no new significant orchestra has come out with its own sound
for more than thirty years.
 Today, after all those lost years, there are several projects coming out of
Puerto Rico, New York, and San Francisco which are dedicated to creating
music together and are committed to continue their work for as long as it
takes. Each member, independently of their instrument, is contributing to
the collective sound. These artists are requiring ownership over their projects
and budgets, like Jimmy Bosh who borrowed another 70s term to title his
first album, Salsa Dura.
 How many of us are there? Not many, despite our best efforts. We
attempted to take our little Cafe Theater project and produce a Festival in
the 4,000 seat Tito Puente Amphitheater with singer-songwriters, urban poets,
flamenco and bomba dancers, the best jazz composers and performers in
the island together with the most popular hip-hop artist. A beautiful event
covered by all the major newspapers in the island and yet less than 700
people showed up. A $20,000 dollar loss was absorbed by the Nuyorican
Cafe which almost threatened our subsistence, but we are committed to our
projects and those of other urbanoricans or neo-nuyoricans or whatever
the product of our work defines us as. Through our continuity we will create
our own markets.