Even before I became a recording artist, I did other things in music. I was a teacher, I did studio work, and I was an arranger and a producer.

I was a teacher for a long time. I taught at a community college: voice, theory, humanities. And nowadays, music education is a dying thing. Funding is being cut more and more and more.

I might be a Cuban American, but I'm also an Afro-Cuban American.

I'm a big believer in education, period.

A real active music set, based and really concentrated on what the music's all about. That's what I'm all about - singing and a really good strong music set.

It happened in Miami, in Coral Gables, a great big ol' Cuban wedding. It was pretty intense.

If there was any other place I would live, other than Miami, it would be California. It's beautiful. The weather is just gorgeous, I love being here, too.

I have a bachelor's and a master's in jazz.

I write in English first, and then I translate to Spanish. I've always felt more comfortable with the English side of things first.

So, when I got the contract for my album, even though it was an English record, my manager insisted on making sure we would record in Spanish as well, and it worked out really well for me.

This record has a lot of influences that I'd love to cover, like Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind and Fire. Maybe I'll do some covers of my major influences during my live show.

Hope is the hardest love we carry.

Shall I confess it, Mr. Hartright? I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.

Snooty knew measly talked muchly.

My mom had Julia Child and 'The Fannie Farmer Cookbook' on top of the refrigerator, and she had a small repertoire of French dishes.

Just because one of Arlene's husbands was a murderer is no reason for me to be ugly

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves.

It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance

If life becomes hard, soften it with random acts of kindness.

You are never really with a person unless you are alone with him.

And I'm sort of deconstructing the process of what marks came first, what came later. Every aspect of the image is interesting to me to dissect and understand.