We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.

Everyone comes back. It makes no difference how far we wander, we always have our country, our land, in our souls and our minds.

They're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel.

And, he'd seen me in Panama, and he talked about maybe doing something in New York so I hooked it up when I came here and I recorded in 1969 my first album with Pete Rodriguez.

What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another.

I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.

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.

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

So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America.

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

Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music.

Sometimes the enemy walks beside you, holds your hand and kisses your pretty lips.

The determination of your own destiny is a choice that is yours alone to make.

I had a dream that I knew it all…but then I woke up and appreciated the fact that I didn’t know everything because then there would be nothing left to discover in life.

Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.

Clutter in its highest and most organized form is called collecting.

Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering.

The mind is the greatest of all human forces. Control the mind and you control the body.

I like to get in among a set of people and get to know them very well.

What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?

This is the big one! You hear that, Elizabeth? I'm coming to join ya, honey!