The Cultural Expression of Puerto Ricans in New York: a Theoretical Perspective and Critical Review

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Abstract
I am Puerto Rican. I came to this country in 1952 with my three brothers and one sister. My father and mother were here already working and saving money to send for us. My father, who is dead now, was a mechanic but had to do work in a plastic factory to earn a living. He earned extra money by fixing cars in his improvised shop right on the street. My mother was a seamstress in the garment district, and when she came home she would prepare dinner and afterwards do part time work sewing women's hats in a shop that operated out of a small store front across the street from where we lived. In 1969 I was very much influenced by the takeover of City College by a third world student coalition which was demanding Puerto Rican Studies and other relevant pro grams geared to their needs. Right then and there and with the direct contact of other musicians such as myself, I realized for the first time that I wanted to play a music that related to today's realities, not yesterday's. I was concerned in reaching an audience that related to these experiences. The music that grew out of this experience became hard, violent and heavy with resist ance. It was rarely performed. It just got stored up — so when it came out, it sounded more like one big mass noise of incoherent sound. It was a dual process — on the one hand it served as a cleansing process and on the other it did away with antiquated pat terns and built new ones to take its place. New musical ideas were forged, integrating itself with known popular forms. It renewed the process of music playing and made it vital and important again. Music to me then is more than just performing. It's studying, organizing around young men and women musicians such as the Lexington Avenue Express Percussion Work shop whose concept is to help develop better learning procedures and healthy attitudes, to learn through the history of music what we, as third world people, have in common and by nourishing from other musics, we enrich all. That is why the history of this pro cess is the key to knowledge, education and real proletarian culture. Joe Falcón, Street Musician New York City

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