Power Doesn't Corrupt, Power Unmasks

What’s happened since he ran unsuccessfully for president in 1994 is that he remained faithful to music and acting. (His fans are still eager to see more of him as Daniel Salazar in the series Fear The Walking Dead.) And he held a public service position as Minister of Tourism from 2004 to 2009, without any of the corruption or nepotism scandals that often plague Latin American politicians. In fact, as seen in the 2018 documentary Ruben Blades is Not My Name," he can still walk the streets of Panama and be greeted by people.

After being fascinated by the music of Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers in the movie Rock Rock Rock! when he was about 10, Blades entered music through a very back door in the ’70s but never left.

Although, contrary to what people who don’t know what they are talking about say, I did not leave Panama with the purpose of being a musician, I left Panama because I was not going to be a lawyer in a dictatorship, said Blades, whose parents left the country before him because of a problem with military leader Manuel Noriega. When I arrived in Florida to be with my family, there were going through a lot of hardship and I couldnt help them because my law degree didnt work in Florida. So I called FANIA, which was the largest salsa record company.

Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz from FANIA had recorded Bladess Guaguanc Triste in 1971 and he was hoping they would give him a job as a songwriter or musician. The only spot they had available was as the person in charge of the labels mail room.

I started in the FANIA mail room and Ray Barretto found me there … Someone told him, ‘That guy thats there stamping correspondence in FANIA, that guy sings and writes songs, Blades recalled. Barreto went to see me and I auditioned and he placed me in the orchestra with Tito Gmez, may he rest in peace, and thats how I started in New York in 1974.

Buscando Guayaba, Pedro Navaja, Plstico, Prohibido Olvidar, Buscando Amrica and Desapariciones are some of the songs by FANIA’s former mail clerk who, with the two trophies from Thursday, now has 10 Latin Grammys and nine Grammy Awards.

As long as I can sing and provide to the public with the level of quality that I demand of myself and that they are used to receiving from me, I will continue working. But the moment I feel that the voice or the disposition, the enthusiasm, is not there, that is the day that will I stop immediately, just the way I stopped smoking, he said. Music will never leave me because music is something that helps you spiritually, it helps you even therapeutically and keeps you in communication with the best in the universe.