Bread and Circuses: Ani Cordero and "Panis et Circenses"

Today's song is by a rising star in the Latin music world. Panis et Circenses by Ani Cordero, a Puerto Rican-born musician who started her music career in Tucson, Arizona fronting a band bearing her own last name, Cordero. In 2000, accompanied by her husband, musician Chris Verene, Ani Cordero moved to New York, reformed the band and toured nationally with Calexico and Los Lobos, among others. By 2005, she had become quite well known in the New York rock scene, and she joined a new Latino pop and folklorico group called Pistolera. Panis et Circenses is from her first solo album Recordar: Latin American Songs of Love and Protest, in which she sings eleven songs of political and social significance in Latin America. It was released in April of 2014, and Panis et Circenses was written by the famous Brazilian artists Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and originally performed by Brazilian psychedelic group Os Mutantes.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ani_Cordero; https://www.anicordero.net/

Witchy Women: Daniel Santos and "El Baile de La Lechuza"

We have an oldie for the random song today. El Baile de La Lechuza is by Daniel Santos and the song is from around 1953. Daniel Santos was a Puerto Rican musician whose family moved when he was eight to New York City hoping to escape their poverty. He dropped out of school and starting living on his own when he was fifteen, and one day while singing in his small apartment he was overheard by a member of the group Trio Lirico, who invited him to join their group. During the 1930s, he sang with Cuarteto Flores and solo until drafted for World War II. He received a tribute upon his return to New York City after the war. An ardent Puerto Rican nationalist, he supported the island's independence movement. He also took a keen interest in Cuba and established a residence there, but fell out of favor with dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s. Despite initial support for Fidel Castro's fight against the government and being courted by the Castros and Che Guevara after the Cuban Revolution, he rejected their claims that their revolution was nationalist and declared himself anti-communist. He established a residence in Florida - but in 1991 he collapsed in New York City. He was also suffering some some mental illness including Alzheimers. He died at his ranch in Ocala, Florida in 1992. El Baile de La Lechuza can be found on the 2010 retrospective El Corneta. La Lechuza refers to the Mexican legend of witch women who can turn themselves into giant birds.