[On March 9th,
Raúl Juliá
would have turned 76. To honor one of the most famous and talented Puerto Rican
artists, this week’s series will feature a handful of Boricua blogs, leading up to a special weekend
post on Puerto Rican statehood!]
On the linked
but divergent paths of two of the most famous Puerto Rican American musicians.
It’d be
difficult to argue that the most prominent Puerto Rican American musician of
all time wasn’t Tito
Puente; anybody known as “The
Musical Pope” and “The
King of Latin Music” has a pretty good initial argument on his behalf, and
Puente’s more than half a century of recording, performing, and bandleading—as
well as his lifelong advocacy for fellow Latin American musicians and
artists—backs up the claim. But right below the King, as the unofficial Prince
and Princess of Puerto Rican (and perhaps even contemporary Latin) American
music, I’d have to locate two of the 21st century’s most successful
recording artists, and a pair who happened to spend ten years as husband and
wife: Jennifer
Lopez and Marc Anthony. Born in New York City less than a year apart, Lopez
and Anthony’s biographies and careers have had numerous similar moments and
arcs, even if we leave aside their decade of marriage—but there’s also a key
difference that reflects two distinct possibilities for Puerto Rican and Latin
American artists.
Perhaps the
clearest link between Lopez and Anthony is how they’ve redefined success within
their respective cultural and artistic fields. Lopez was the first woman, and
only the second artist period (after Prince), to have a #1
album and the #1 film at the box office in the same week, with 2001’s J. Lo and The Wedding Planner respectively; indeed, I would argue that Lopez
is one of a
very short list of artists who have had extended successful careers in both
music and acting (rather than being best known for one and occasionally
venturing into the other, as is the case for most folks on that hyperlinked
list). Anthony is generally considered the most popular salsa artist of all
time, whether judged by the total sales of Spanish-language albums such as Otra Nota (1993) and
Todo
a Su Tiempo (1995), by his triple-platinum English-language solo debut Marc
Anthony (1999), or by a single like “Vivir Mi Vida” (2013),
which spent a record-breaking 18 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard salsa
charts. Although the notion of artistic crossovers—whether between
media and genres or between languages and
cultures—is of course not new to the 21st century, it’s become
far more prevalent and central to our current moment than ever before, and no
artists embody that narrative better than Lopez and Anthony.
Yet on that
second type of crossover, between languages and cultures, there’s a striking difference
between the two. Ten of Anthony’s twelve albums to date have been recorded in
Spanish (and the first of the two English-language ones was an early career
collaboration with Puerto Rican artist Little Louis Vega), compared to only
one of Lopez’s eight albums. Again, the difference can’t be explained in terms
of origin or geography, as both artists were born in New York City to parents
who had migrated from Puerto Rico. Musical genres and niches have played a
role, as Anthony’s choice to work in the more overtly Spanish genre of salsa (compared
to Lopez’s pop/dance emphasis throughout her career) has likely necessitated
more connection to that language. Yet at the same time, I would argue that
Anthony’s and Lopez’s respective recording choices and arcs reflect the
complex, evolving, and hugely critical 21st century question of
Spanish’s place within our shared American landscape—a question, of course,
with which the
American territory of Puerto Rico has dealt for well more than a century. I
can’t pretend to be able to do that question justice in a sentence or two, so
will just add this: starting last year, my boys’ elementary school requires two
Spanish classes per week for every student (as part of their standard school
day), and I couldn’t be happier.
Next Puerto
Rican post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other PR connections you’d highlight?
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