Passage I

Rubén Blades’s Salsa Conciente

While music and politics are an unusual career combination, salsa singer Rubén Blades has tightly interwoven the two. “Music can do more than offer an escape,” said Blades. “It can help bring people together and change their lives.” Blades’s music, known as “salsa conciente” (salsa with a message), deals with the same political issues on which he based his 1994 campaign for the presidency of Panama.

In Blades’s 1977 hit song “Pablo Pueblo” tells the story of a man returning from work, hungry and tired, struggling to survive on inadequate wages. Conversely, the song’s popularity extended beyond Panama. It’s lyrics resonated throughout Latin America, where, according to United Nations standards, more than a third of the people lived in poverty.

After a series of military dictatorships seized control of Panama in the early 1980s, Blades wrote songs denouncing the governments’ violence and corruption. His 1984 album Buscando America is a call for reform, Blades believed this would be possible only if Panama were freed from then dictator Manuel Noriega’s oppressive regime. Blades believed this change should come from within Panama. Thus, when the United States ousted the dictator in 1989, Blades opposed the outside interference, though he was living in the U.S. at the time.

[1] To inspire his fellow Panamanians, Blades wrote songs that celebrated the beauty of his homeland. [2] Many now considering his song “Patria,” a second national, anthem. [3] Expressing deep national pride, the song compares the country to “the sun in endless springtime” and “the laughter of a newborn sister.” [4] This sense of pride in our country and in its people were a driving force behind Blades’s presidential campaign. [5] Blades’s music, however, wasn’t always critical. (14)

Although he didn’t win the 1994 election, Blades’s political career wasn’t over. In 2004, he was appointed Panama’s Minister of Tourism. His dual background in music and politics uniquely positioned Blades to promote Panama’s culture and develop economic opportunities for its citizens.