Tag Archives: Yo Soy El Cantante

EL CANTANTE – the movie

Don’t waste your money! Don’t waste your time! This movie was no movie at all. I felt assaulted and disrespected.

Let me tell you what it was. It was one dragged out drug-ologue. Every other scene was about him doing drugs. EVERY other scene! There was no storyline whatsoever.

“I love you Pucchi” “I love you Hector” Why? Was there one scene that showed “love” or why they loved each other? No.

Why was he famous? I don’t know. I know my Mom used to play his music. That’s all I know.  That he filled up Madison Square Garden. Oh I think I saw that in a quick clip in the movie between him snorting and him shooting up.

That him and Willie Colon were friends? I guess.  All the movie showed was Willie Colon in the background in almost every scene. Why were they friends? How did they meet?

How did Hecor LaVoe become famous anyway?  Wouldn’t know from watching the movie. His first hit? Don’t know. It wasn’t in the movie. It was more important to show 3 scenes of him in the bathroom half comatose.

What was his contribution to Salsa? My Mom says he was one of the pioneers of Salsa. Really? No mention of that in the movie AT ALL.

For those that say, “But that was his life… if that’s what he was, then…” Please! He was so much more than drugs. When people packed Madison Square Garden, did they go to see him get high or did they go for his music?

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Where was the music in the movie? A few clips here and there. Him rushing on the stage – stoned and belting it out. That’s it. Tu Amor es un Peridico de Ayer Never played that song. How is that possible?

The song Yo Soy El Cantante That song should have been the triumphant culmination of the movie. Instead you feel like noooooooo. You’re just depressed by the time they get around to that song. Ruben Blades wrote the song for Hector LaVoe and in the movie he dedicates the song to “his friend” LaVoe who of course is by the bar. As Ruben Blades starts singing it, LaVoe, turns around and looks toward the stage like – Wow! What a great song! Should I take that to mean that he had a moment of soberness.

Latinos have enough drug addicts on mainstream media. We don’t need to portray ourselves in such denegration. You don’t see red-blooded Americans saying “Elvis Presley – the King – the drug addict. Wasn’t he the biggest druggie? No. We just hear about his rock and roll music, how he changed music forever, and that’s what made him KING. Not the drugs, not that he died on the freakin’ toilet bowl. (Read the bios of both LaVoe and Presley on wikipedia and see what I’m talking about.  Elvis was the KING. La Voe was strung out.)

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez with her fame and fortune could have done right by her people and given us someone to look up to. Now every time we hear, LaVoe’s version of the Puerto Rican “anthem”, Que Cante Mi Gente ” or Yo Naci en Puerto Rico all we can do is cringe.

Thanks Señora Lopez. Thanks a lot.  You also did a disgrace to your husband who is I dare say: the “Hector Lavoe” of our time. But now how can I compare if all Lavoe was an addict? But anyway, Marc Anthony has been struggling to act now for years. First he is type cast as a s p i c, gangster, drug dealer, and now you just officially graduated him to play the role of a junkie.

For those that say, “Hey she’s just trying to make money and that’s the bottom line.” If she wanted to make a quick buck you either cater to mainstream white America, or you give us a movie to be proud of. After all, WHO went to see that movie anyway? There was a line all the way around the Whitestone Multiplex in the Bronx. Was there a line at the Beverly Hills Multiplex? I didn’t think so. It was hard enough getting my Dominican friends to go. There’s no way a white person is going to say, “Let me see L Con-Ton-Tay. Not going to happen.

The movie starts off with “Nuyorican Productions”. Here I am feeling proud! Damn it! Don’t be putting my race all up on the face of Drugland.

J-Lo, ¡no sea tan tonta! It’s like someone making a movie about you 20 years from now and only talk about your mistakes. Never mentioning that you were the highest paid Latina in Hollywood. Never saying that you had a top selling movie and top-selling CD at the same time. Never saying anything except about all your failed relationships. How would you like that?!

Jenny, M’hija, ¡¿qué hicistes?