Ruben Blades

You know, it was uncomfortable doing the same thing. I don't like a rut.

People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being.

What I do not accept is the fact that so many people's talents were ripped off.

The grandmother, the mother, the worker, the student, the intellectual, the professional, the unemployed, everybody identified with the songs because they were descriptions of life in the city.

And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day.

To fix Panama, you need more than charisma and records: you need a program of action.

Tortured characters are, I think, an actor's dream.

Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models.

So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with.

So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.

The first time I played was in Buenos Aires - was in 1983. The dictatorship was in position.

A lot of times you're just conditioned by what's around you.