Alana Casanova-Burgess, co-creator, host and producer of "La Brega" from WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios, talks about season two of the podcast, which explores the music of Puerto Rico.
[music]
Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll take a journey down to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. Maybe you've heard of it. Often when we think about Puerto Rico, we're reminded of its colonial history and its current status as a United States territory. We're not going to open up the 'Should Puerto Rico become a state?' debate today, although I'm sure we'd get lots of calls. Instead, let's explore how colonial status has shaped the music of the island. That's the premise of WNYC Studio's latest season of La Brega.
In it, host Alana Casanova-Burgess takes us through a playlist that tells the story of the island and its people. We're going to listen to music in this segment, and we're going to invite your music requests in this segment, like on old music radio station we'll take requests. The first episode launched yesterday in both English and Spanish. Let's take a listen to the first minute and change of the season.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Not long ago, I was on a flight to San Juan. I was sitting on the left side of the plane with a clear view over the orange glow of streetlights and traffic below. As the wheels touched down, everyone who was grateful to be back in Puerto Rico applauded, as we always do. Then, while we were sitting there, taxiing or whatever, I heard someone just a few rows behind me start to sing. I rushed to record it on my phone.
[background singing]
A few people craned their necks, a few stood up.
[background singing]
Every passenger was under a spell, listening to Preciosa, the most Puerto Rican of songs, come from nowhere.
[background singing]
[applause]
Brian Lehrer: The music and the happy passengers. Joining us now is Alana Casanova-Burgess, who you just heard in that clip. She's the co-creator, host, and producer of the podcast La Brega from WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios, and she's a former Brian Lehrer: Show producer. Local girl makes good. Alana, thanks for joining us again.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Hi, Brian. Good morning.
Brian Lehrer: Listeners, Puerto Ricans, here's our invitation to you. What songs fill you with love for the island? Is it new, old, a remake, an original? Is it salsa or reggaeton? Which songs bring you immense national pride? What is the song that transports you immediately to Puerto Rico every time you hear it? Keeping with the bilingual spirit of La Brega, feel free to give us bilingual answers. Call us at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet @brianlehrer. Alana, why did you choose to focus this whole season on music, on Puerto Rican songs? How does the music tell the story of the island and its people that you're trying to communicate?
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Just listening to that clip on your air, I'm thinking there are probably a lot of people listening who can relate to that. Right? Anytime they go back home, that applause, maybe people sing on the plane as well. To answer your question, you'll remember that our first season was a lot about the colonial relationship with the US. We had episodes really interrogating that history and how Puerto Rican life is shaped by the link to the US. That's important. We're proud of that. This season, we wanted to also explore how Puerto Rico sits with the rest of the world, as part of the Caribbean, as part of Latin America.
We thought music is such a big part of that. We have Puerto Ricans in New York who really shaped salsa. We have these boleros who are sung in other Spanish-speaking countries. We wanted to dig into that music, to think carefully, "What are the stories behind these songs and these genres? What are the messages in the lyrics, for example?" Also, just to celebrate the Puerto Rican experience as well. Puerto Rico is always punching above its weight in terms of musical talent. Think about Bad Bunny, the biggest artist on Earth right now. Don't @ me, anyone. We're also just basking in that musical talent just all season long.
Brian Lehrer: I'm going to play another clip of you from the series talking about Preciosa the song we just heard sung by a random passenger on your flight to San Juan. The question here is, who wrote it and why is it the first song featured in this season of La Brega? Listen.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Preciosa is about how beautiful Puerto Rico is, [Spanish language]. It's like a love song to a place instead of to a lover.
[music]
Preciosa te llaman las olas
Del mar que te baña
Alana Casanova-Burgess: "The waves from the sea that bathe you, call you, Preciosa
Because you are a delight.
You are an Eden.
I will always call you Preciosa.
[music]
Siempre la llamaré "Preciosa"
Alana Casanova-Burgess: I have this recording from July of 2019 in old San Juan of thousands of people singing Preciosa at a protest to get rid of the governor. They were singing the Mark Anthony cover. There's a long part at the end that he improvises, [Spanish language]. It's epic.
[music]
Brian Lehrer: Nice and so well produced with your beautiful narrative and the music underneath. I understand Preciosa almost became the national anthem of Puerto Rico. Why isn't it the national anthem if it's so beloved?
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Well, so there's this line in the song-- as you heard, it is this love poem, not to a person but to a place. There is this line in it, "No importa el tirano te trate Con negra maldad," which basically means that you'd be beautiful even if the tyrant treats you with black malice. Not very veiled reference to the United States in there, but people love it anyway. There's a lot of disagreement in Puerto Rico, obviously, about status and the relationship to the US, but it kind of doesn't matter because everybody loves the song.
As you mentioned, in the 1950s, the then governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, had a very cozy relationship with the US. He was looking around for an official anthem, and he asked the composer, the songwriter, Rafael Hernandez, to change that lyric. Like, "Can we take that-- Can we edit out [laughs] this dagger of a line, so as not to offend the US?" Rafael Hernandez said, "Nope." Absolutely declined, an uncompromising move. We ended up with what is now the real anthem, which is called La Borinqueña, which is as we mention in the episode, it's so colonial, Brian. [laughs] It's actually about Columbus.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, wow.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: I think a lot of people have a special place in their heart for Preciosa.
Brian Lehrer: All right, again listeners, Puerto Rican listeners, what songs fill you with love for the island? Is it new? Is it old? Is it a remake or the original? Is it salsa? Is it reggaeton? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @brianlehrer with Alana Casanova-Burgess, host and producer of the new season of the podcast La Brega. Felix in Astoria, you are on WNYC. Hi, Felix.
Felix: Hi. How are you? I am a born and raised New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent as millions of us are. My personal favorite music is the old-school '70s Hispania all-stars. That was just like the soundtrack to my youth, just hearing my mom and my aunts and uncles listen to that all the time. The song that resonates with me the most emotionally is Mi Viejo San Juan, sort of the old ballad. I'm not going to sing it because I'll start crying, and I can't sing.
[laughter]
Brian Lehrer: Two good reasons.
Felix: I grew up in a very religious household, and church every weekend, mass, Spanish language mass growing up, altar boy, the whole nine yards. Every year on the feast day of Our Lady of Divine Providence, the parish was very Puerto Rican and the priests would end the mass with this big singing of Mi Viejo San Juan. I just remember seeing all of the older Puerto Rican women come to tears. They've been in New York since the '40s, the '50s, the '60s and just remembering what was and what they left behind.
Me being 12, 13 years old at the time, seeing this and seeing my mom who's now in her mid-70s, even she would be crying singing the songs, thinking about how beautiful the island is. I play it. I now have three kids and I play it for them and I get choked up thinking about it.
Brian Lehrer: Yes. I hear you. Felix, any last thought before we move on to another caller?
Felix: I'd just say, for such a small island, our influence on global popular culture is, it's like the boxing term. Another thing we're very good at, sort of the pound-for-pound champion.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you for a great call, Felix. Appreciate it. Alana.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Oh man, I love live radio. [laughs] I knew someone would call in with that one. That's my mom's favorite, too. Yes, a lot like Preciosa. Preciosa was composed while Rafael Hernández was in Mexico, so it has this sense of nostalgia, this yearning for home. This song has it, too. En mi Viejo San Juan, he's just singing about wanting to be in, remembering old San Juan.
Brian Lehrer: Why are Puerto Rican songs often filled with nostalgia? I think that's a theme of the podcast, right?
Alana Casanova-Burgess: It is. Yes. When we think about the Puerto Rican experience, it's so tied to the diaspora. There are more people living outside of Puerto Rico than in it, as your listeners know, as Felix's story tells us. Soñando Con Puerto Rico is another example of this dreaming of Puerto Rico. Boricua en la Luna is another song. They're all about not being in Puerto Rico. It's nostalgia. It's beautiful. Again, it's like thinking about your home in this very romantic way.
Brian Lehrer: Sheldon in Forest Hills, you're WNYC. Hi, Sheldon.
Sheldon: Hello. Can you hear me?
Brian Lehrer: We can hear you. Can you hear me?
Sheldon: I used to live in Puerto Rico for 11 years. I'm a reverse commuter. I was born in New York, United States, but I lived in San Juan for 11 years and I identify closely with the island. My favorite song is Choferito done by Sabu Martinez. Let me play a little bit for you.
[music]
Brian Lehrer: Live DJ'ing from Forest Hills.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Live DJ'ing.
Brian Lehrer: I love it. You could be a shadow producer of this season of La Brega. [laughs] Sheldon, talk about that song. Why do you love it?
Sheldon: That's a plena, and I got introduced to it at a fiesta patronal. That's a feast day in Catalina. Catalina was a formerly all-black community, now it's changing. The fiesta patronal I was at, there were maybe 3,000 or 4,000 people in a town square. Sabu Martinez, who was a leading conguero, played this song with his group and the place just went wild. It has since become a classic. If you go to YouTube, and you punch in Sabu Palo Cango you will see the album cover and listen to this principal song called Choferito.
Brian Lehrer: Sheldon, we're going to leave it there. That was fabulous, Sheldon.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Amazing.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. We're going to go right to Linda in the Bronx next. Linda, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Linda: Hi. For me, it's the the original lyric to La Borinqueña, which was the revolutionary song in 1868 that was composed really a poem by Lola Rodríguez de Tió, who along with Mariana Bracetti were the mothers of the revolution. It goes like [sings]. It was the first time that there was a call for revolution in Puerto Rico.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. We've got live DJ'ing on the show, and we've had live singing now, Alana.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: I know. I don't even know what's next. That song, we also talk about it in that first episode. There's this alternate version of La Borinqueña as she said, and yes, it calls for a revolution. It does not mince words. There's a reference to machetes in there, [Spanish language], "Wake up Puerto Ricans." There's so much going on in our music.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, let's see how many of these remaining calls we can get to. Here's Wendy in the Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Wendy.
Wendy: Hi, I love your show. Alana, I love, love, love the podcast. I listened to the first season and I shared it with so many people. I'm really looking forward to listening to the second season. With respect to the song Preciosa, that was one of my grandmother's favorite songs. Even at the age of 95, she would dance along to it and she just passed away almost a year ago. Her name is Aurora and she is one of the first waves of Puerto Ricans moving into New York because my family arrived here in the 1920s.
Then with respect to the focus on the music, I love that you're doing that this season, because it is so important for the diaspora, but also just for the back and forth dialogue of just love for the island remains, even for people that maybe have never spent a lot of time on the island. In the Bronx, Orchard Beach, it's like a critical cultural location. Every weekend, you will see old school Puerto Ricans out there on the beach. There's a section near where the tennis courts are, where people will set up and there will be salsa music playing.
I think it's maybe Sundays they do this. It's like all day, people are just dancing salsa. Then even in the winter, there's this core group of folks that come out when the beach is not officially open, and they just hang out in the parking lot with their congas near their cars and they're just playing the music and dancing with each other. The music is just so critical to that sense of Puerto Rican identity. I'm a Nuyorican, I've been to Puerto Rico maybe three or four times in my life, but I still feel that connection through the generations and through the music.
Brian Lehrer: Wendy, thank you.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: That's so beautiful. Oh, sorry, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Alana.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: No, no, I was just going to say thank you for sharing that. Orchard Beach is such an important cultural place for Puerto Ricans. I was talking to my mom recently, she was born in Puerto Rico, but the first time that she saw the ocean, she told me it was at Orchard Beach, and I just thought that was incredible. That thing that you mentioned about keeping the connection with the island. We're a little overachievers here in La Brega world, but we have also commissioned covers of a lot of these songs.
We're putting out an album in March. We wanted to hear some of these songs in other people's voices. We asked some of our favorite Puerto Rican contemporary musicians to do covers. Xenia Rubinos, who's a incredibly talented singer based here in New York, she did a cover of Preciosa and she talks to me about how connected she feels to the island even though it's never been her home, literally. That really resonates.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Wendy. Let's do one more. Glenda in the Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Glenda.
Glenda: Hello. I just wanted to highlight Adoracion by Eddie Palmieri and Lalo Rodríguez. [Spanish language], it's a 1973 gold album. It's one of the best tracks for salsa dancing. I was taught salsa dancing by my mom, who was born in Spanish Harlem. We're back-and-forthers in my family. I was born on the island, but raised mostly here. That's just one of the best tracks ever for salsa dancing. It's a long one and it's just really awesome. Adoracion.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. All right, in just a second, we're going to go out with a little reprise of Preciosa. Alana, why don't you start to wrap up by telling everybody a little bit more about what's in this season of La Brega. Certainly, we've been talking about the heart of it, the music connecting with what the island means to people and how they can hear it.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Yes, absolutely. You can find La Brega on whatever podcast platform you use or also at labregapodcast.org. Next week, we talk aboutEl gran varón which is a song by Willie Colón. It's very complicated song about queer identity. We also have an episode about [Spanish language], which I'm sure everybody has heard. It's a Merengue from Elvis Crespo.
That's where we talk about the Dominican community in Puerto Rico. We talk about Lisa Lisa's I Wonder If I Take You Home. Yes, Lisa Lisa was Puerto Rican. That's a song about sexual freedom. Even the season we have a fiction episode where we take the song Boricua en la Luna and we reimagine it in a world in which the first person born on the moon is a Puerto Rican boy. They drop every Thursday. First episode is already out. Folks can find it anywhere you get podcast.
Brian Lehrer: Awesome. Alana Casanova-Burgess, congratulations on another great season of La Brega. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Alana Casanova-Burgess: Thanks, Brian.
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