Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been through so much.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It takes away your energy and you feel like, yeah,
like you're stuck, but at the same time, like we
have to find a way to give each other strength.
I was focusing more on the courage that I feel
that we all have inside of us. That is actually
what makes us react and gives us the strength and
(00:25):
the impulse that we need to send the message that
we want to send.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
From Futuro Media and pr X, it's Latino usay, I'm
Maria nor Hoosa today. Puerto Rican singer songwriter Ile on
the evolution of her music.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
As a form of protest.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
For Puerto Rican singer songwriter Ileana Cabra, better known by
her stage name Ile, music has always been a way
to understand the world around her, even from a young age.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I was a little one in the house where I
grew up, so I kind of absorbed all that musicality
that my whole family was listening to.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Ille remembers listening to salsa and boleros with her family,
often taking note of the political messages in the lively
danceable songs.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
My dad always likes to try to find the background
of songs that he likes, so I remember, for example,
there's a song from Ruin Blades that is called Tiburon,
and he wrote it in Puerto Rico, and it is
very connected to the history and our situation still being
(01:44):
a colony from the United States.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
In Tiburon, Ruben Blades things about a ruthless shark symbolizing
the United States. It prais on the Caribbean, and for Ele,
songs like this cemented the relationship between the musical and
the political. They often went hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Even though you enjoy it and you danced to it,
when you sing the lyrics, it is very powerful.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
When Ele was a teenager, she began to sing with
her older brothers, Rene Perez and Eduardo Cavra, also known
as Residente and Misitante from the rap duo Gaye. Under
the stage name PG thirteen. Ile performed with Gaietrece through
(02:49):
her mid twenties, but even as Ele was touring the
world with Gaietrece, she continued to explore the rich legacies
of music in the and in twenty sixteen, she decided
to go solo, releasing her debut album Ileviabre with lush
(03:09):
boleros and Latin jazz grooves. The album has the feel
of a different era, but through her lyricism, Ile captures
the feminist spirit of her generation.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
La gobardiafa sore.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Ile often sings about power Baya. Her second album, al Madura,
was released in twenty nineteen, and Ile wrote these songs
in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
And the album draws from a vast range of Caribbean
musicality to talk about the politics of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Her home No Ninguno, I've goneak now Yes, Elimpia.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Romanoquio composed in the throes of the pandemic. The twenty
twenty two album by Elay called Nakarile Now finds her
looking within.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Thenlcorazon, expresto stot.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
The album brings together the personal and the political, getting
introspective about how she moves through patriarchy and colonialism without
losing hope. We had Elay on the show back in
twenty twenty three, and we're happy to bring her to
you today. Let's listen to Elay as she takes a
look back at her own artistic journey and how she
(04:43):
embodies resistance through her music.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So skam alkancer simero demasia. My name is ele I
am from Puerto Rico and I am a singer. Is
where I grew up, there was a lot of music
going around, like from different types.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Of genres as Puerto Rico's.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We listened to salsa and boleros, but at the same
time we heard like rock music and also throw a
like more folklore from Puerto Rico Latin America, and also
there are a lot of protest songs.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I think maybe in.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
My teenage years, suddenly I feel that I was missing
out on listening female singers in this type of music
like salsa and boleros that I've heard so much.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
And I remember having that transitional moment in my life
where my dad presented me to U La lupe Yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It was like, oh my God, Like she's like, this
is deep stuff, what she's singing, the way she's doing it,
like there was a lot of emotion going on that
I wasn't expecting, And I remember that I felt her
so real and so passionate and so breath taking. The
(06:16):
way she sang and the way she interpreted the song
she was singing was like a shock for me, and
it captured my attention a lot to listen to this real,
feminine powerful voice, and I've always sang since I was little,
but I've always seen singing as more of a hobby.
(06:39):
Little by little, I started digging more into more female
voices in that genre of Saxain Boletto, and I keep
digging even more, and I've learned from them, you know,
even if I've never met them before, I feel like
I do in a way, like they.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Are my teachers.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
In my first album, I was coming from a big
transition in my life. I was like ten years touring
with my brothers with their group. I really wanted to
experiment on side of me that I've always wanted to
play with that Polero very more classic. But for me,
(07:30):
the risky part was how to play with all that
in this moment, you know, in this time where I
feel very different from the songs that I listen to,
you know, even though I enjoy them and I feel
a lot listening to them, I'm in another moment, you know,
from another generation.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Sees.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So I was thinking a lot in myself, you know,
as a woman, but mostly the women in my family,
the women that surround me, and how normal it has
been for us as women to struggle so much.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And I think especially.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
In relationships, you see so many abusive patterns, So yeah,
maybe represents more that side of me of just like
confronting the reality that the tough reality of what it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Is to be a woman in this world.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
But kilas well, in Almadura, I wanted to play with
my roots as a Puerto Rican Caribbean soling body though
(08:57):
natural I've always enjoyed so so much like percussion.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I love percussion and I love rhythm.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And for me, it was connected to the way that
I was feeling as well. When I was creating that album,
I was very angry.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Towards Hurraga Maria.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But it was like kind of disgusting to see the
way the US government as well as the Puerto Rican
government were managing the whole situation. You felt not taken
care of at all, and it was like a big
shock for us as a country to just realize that, Okay,
like we are not going to receive the help or
(09:43):
the attention that we were expecting, so we need to
find a way to do it on our own. And
that's what we did in Hurakan Marian. That's what we
keep doing. Like I just needed to let all that out,
and that's what I did with with Almlura.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Finding a way to heal myself at.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
The same time, and for example, Contrato for me is
the song that best defines the whole album.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Is the way.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
We've been through so much.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It takes away your energy and you feel like, yeah,
like like you're stuck, but at the same time like
we have to find a way to give each other strength.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I was focusing more on the courage that I feel
that we all have inside of us.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That is actually what makes us react and gives us
the strength and the impulse that we need to send
the message that we want to send. Especially after Maria,
I feel that many people felt the obligation of having
to leave the country and it was very painful to watch.
(11:33):
Tiagi is a song that speaks about people that stay
and people that leave their country. Nadal saka siam that
it says like no one gets us out of here
(11:53):
if here is where we were born. It's a very
important phrase for me because nowadays we are really really
feeling that we in Puerto Rico are being totally the
plasas displaced. The dugid yeah yea, the yucky, the duga
(12:17):
yeah yucky. Twenty twenty the year that we all thought
was going to be amazing, incredible. I was actually going
to tour, you know, with Almadura that year.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Suddenly everything changed drastically.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
In the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Like I was with myself a lot, and I couldn't
go anywhere, you know, so I was just looking at
the window and trying to escape a little from there
and composing and writing and trying to understand why I
was feeling the way I'm feeling.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I think that this album focused on me a little, You.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
And Suh.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
Better or not important Yoda contra.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
You know sometimes when you feel so so so angry
that you start crying. I don't know if that happens
to you, but that happens to me a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And I feel that I was like in this album,
each song plays with a vulnerability of mind. I feel
like this album became very personal and more introspective, like
for me, because like I spoke about things that I
was like more afraid to talk about and that sometimes
(13:59):
we feel as changed to speak about, but we shouldn't be,
because it's it's normal.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
It's part of life, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
The song that for me maybe represents the whole album
is Ning. The song that I did with Treno. It
defines how I was actually feeling, you know, Lado than
(14:39):
coming and so run a guerda kiren report a keno second.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
He said control. He took the song where he needed
to go.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You know. It was incredible because he made it about
a fight with yourself and how to end up triumphants
from that fight, cost them and get them and look
at the rot. I never expected to have so many
(15:16):
collaborations in this album.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
The whole collaboration process was very new to me.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm used to working on my own. It was incredible
to work with other people and the experience of hearing
O their colors, other textures, voices, words, you know, like
another brain with you was.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Was an incredible experience to have. Working with Ev was incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It was like my female reference when I thought about
Regaton female singers. I mean when I was little, like
she was my only reference. She was not only just
a woman doing I mean she was speaking from a
feminine perspective and she was very firm and very straightforward
about it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I still can't believe that she's in this album. For me,
it is great. And also this song that for me
is so powerful honey, don't.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Honey.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Natarilla comes from Puerto Rican phrase that we use a
lot in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
The whole phrase is nakari.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Oriente like a kind of not with a lot of attitude.
And I love that phrase, like we sometimes used it
like la caille or sometimes we say in nakinaki.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And it was like my way of transcending a.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Little the process of making this album that was in
another difficult moment, like in the pandemic, with the quarantine
and all that. So for me, Nakaili is just like
a way of thinking all that in a way. But
at the same time, you know, I'm not staying there
the way that I protest through my music. I'm not
(17:30):
sure how it has evolved exactly, but I'm more focused
in what I believe in. Sometimes we expect change to
happen quickly, and I'm part of.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That, you know, sometimes I feel that way.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
But when I try to focus my perspective in the
changes that are really happening, we have to.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Start from somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That's how everything develops, and for me, I think maybe
has evolved a little from that, not focusing on how
little it may seem, but how powerful the change can be.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
This episode was produced by Julia Rocha with help from
Elizabeth Lowenthal Torres, who was edited by Alejandra Salasad and
mixed by Julia Caruso. The Latino USA team includes Victoria Estrada,
Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez, Cruzado, Gloori, mar Marquez, Marta Martinez,
Mike Sargent, Nor Saudi and Nancy Trujillo. Benilee Ramirez is
(18:45):
our co executive producer. Our director of Engineering is Stephanie Lebau.
Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was
composed by Sanie Robinos. I'm your host and co executive
producer Mariao Posa. Join us again on our next episode.
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(19:05):
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Speaker 7 (19:13):
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Speaker 5 (19:35):
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