MUSIC AND MEMORY: Que Le Pongan Salsa!
We here at News and Notes LOVE listening to music... We love everything from hip hop to punk rock to jazz to one of my favorites, SALSA music.... Yes, SALSA music... But, I'll get back to that in a minute....
This shared love of music is what inspired us to create our Wednesday staff song pick of the week segment where each week we share with YOU some of our favorite songs. Our inaugural segment featured one of Farai's favorites, Billie Holiday's song "Don't Explain". I chose hip hop artist Mims' song,"This is Why I'm Hot" as my first song pick a few weeks ago.
This week I was called up to bat again. After combing through my mental playlist of favorite songs, I finally chose the song "Brujeria" by El Gran Combo. It's a song that brings back fond memories from my childhood.
What few people know about me is that in addition to being biracial (my mother was white, my father was black) I am also in many ways tricultural. I was raised for most of my childhood by my white biological mother, but I spent a good portion of my childhood in the home of our Puerto Rican neighbors, Marie and Josie Cosme.
As a child, their house was quite simply my favorite place to be. Titi Marie and Grandma Josie (as I've always called them) consistently provided a respite from my less than stable life at home with my mother. During my teenage years they stepped in and became my foster parents and I lived with them until I graduated from high school.
Simply put, I can't remember a time as a child when they weren't around just as I can't remember a time when I was unable to recognize the smell of my favorite dish arroz con gandules con habichuelas (rice with peas and beans) cooking on the stove. I don't remember a time when I wasn't listening to salsa music. So it made perfect sense to me to pick "Brujeria" by El Gran Combo for my song pick as an homage to the Cosmes, who helped raise me.
I am a big believer that music in many ways provides us with the soundtrack for our lives. In upcoming weeks, you will hear from more of our staff members who will share with you the songs that help make up theirs. Some of these songs have served as inspiration, while other songs have literally changed their lives... and some we hope will just be downright fun.
Over the course of the past week, many of you blogged about YOUR favorite Sly and The Family Stone song. We even read a couple of your posts on the air during our interview with Larry Graham and Rose Stone. Now we want you to tell us which song(s) make up your life's soundtrack. What song reminds you of an old love? What song has inspired you? What song has helped you through hard times? Tell us the story.
On a lighter note, over the course of the past few days since my song pick has aired, many of my fellow Noters have been teasing me about one line in the piece in which my Titi Marie commented that I was such a beautiful child. Quite a few of these colleagues (and some of my friends) have had the audacity to demand proof! So to satisfy their curiosity (and now yours) and to defend my Titi Marie's comments, I dug deep (REAL DEEP) to find these pictures of me as a child with my Titi Marie:
12:28 PM ET | 05-18-2007 | permalink
Add a Comment
Please note that all comments must adhere to the NPR.org discussion rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login | Register
More information needed to participate in the NPR online community.. Add this information