VivirLatino

Raíces is a VL Friday feature saluting Latino music icons of days gone by.

I am not a musician, but as a different kind of artist, music is very important to me. The idea for Raíces comes from that; and the fact that I found that many of the Latino musicians that have most impacted my life are largely unknown by the US Latino population.

One of my most cherished artists is the late Elis Regina. An icon in Brazil, she is mostly known here in the United States because of her bossa nova recordings and collaborations with Antonio Carlos Jobim. This is unfortunate, because her range went way beyond bossa nova; indeed, some of her more inspiring music is much darker, with her voice giving life to the work of some of Brazil’s most talented poets, dealing with the topics of social complacency, politics, hopelessness and of course, love.

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