Son Dos Alas"
Anónimo Consejo featuring Tego Calderón
Participating Alfredo 'Punta de Lanza" Hernandez, Viviana Pintado & DJ Racier
Musical composition by Echo a.k.a. Paul Irrizary
Directed & Produced by M.Rivière

left: ANC in Alamar (2004) // right: Tego at United Palace, NYC (2003)
Photographs by M.Riviere

"Son Dos Alas "

The Brotherhood of Race

The song "Son Dos Alas” by Anónimo Consejo featuring Tego Calderón marks history as the first musical collaboration in the genre of hip-hop between Cuba and Puerto Rico. The artist’s objective was to highlight race as transcendental to political boundaries between their two islands. Afro-Cubanismo offers a mixed racial identity. Miscegenation is still seen as a whitening process and underlying themes of an egalitarian society have taken their toll on the lack of images, politics and recognition of race dynamics in popular media outlets in both Cuba and Puerto Rico. Both Tego Calderón and Anónimo Consejo are considered mainstream rappers in their respective island where they regularly engage with major media outlets but do not regularly see their phenotype proportionately publicized.

In reference to Cuba, the Revolution is said to have encompassed issues of racial inequality, however racism remains a common theme of Cuban rap. Due to the U.S. embargo imposed on the nation, today Cuba relies primarily on economic development via remittances and tourism. Ironically those who have family members in the US from whom Cubans receive remittances tend to be the lighter skinned population who fled the island during the inception of the Revolution. This racial dichotomy is also true of those individuals hired to work in the tourism industry, primarily the Cuban ‘mulattos.’ The exoticized charm of Cuba sold to European tourists as rum, salsa and the sexualized mulatta. This access, or lack there of, to economic opportunities created new class identities defined by race and finances in an ideally classless society.

In contrast Puerto Rico has hybridized racially as much if not more than Cuban society. It was in fact considered one of the ‘whitest’ islands of the colonial Caribbean as a colonial layover between Spain and the Americas. Today the racial mix between Taino Native Americans, Africans and Europeans permeates Puerto Rican society. Influenced by the political nature of Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status, issues of race tend to get overlooked by concerns for nationalism.

Tego Calderón redefined the sound and look of Latin hip-hop and reggaetón with the production of his debut album ‘El Abayarde’ in 2002 (White Lion Records), yielding an unprecedented Afro-Latin listening base and reifying issues that pertain to the contemporary Caribbean new Afro-Latin identity of the Americas. In general the term ‘Afro’ declaring race has been uniquely hyphenated with nationhood, such as Afro-American, Afro-Cuban or Afro-Brazilian. In Spanish such a hyphenated term simply doesn't exist. In Latin American most classifications are based as much on class as they are on race. For example, education or economic success can often times wash out racial classifications. For years Afro-Dominicans have been lobbying state authorities for the right to be categorized as "Black'' on their passports. In contrast, Afro-Latin scholars debate as to whether Afro-Argentineans even exists, and if they do whether they are an endangered group - yet in neighboring Brazil over half of the population identifies itself as pertaining to African ancestry.

During colonial times only 5% of slaves brought from Africa ended up in North America. Thus, the vast majority of African descendants were transported to Latin America. When we look at Latin America, the Afro-Latin identity is far more complex than in the US. Take for example the Mexican Government's 2005 release of a series of stamps featuring Memin Pinguin, a Jim-crow era sambo figure popularized in 1940’s Mexican comic books. Activists, both domestic and international, have criticized the government’s use of the figure citing it as offensive on a global level. While Mexico’s official response has been a denial of the racist nature of the figure. Mexican officials argue that critics don’t understand Mexican culture and that all Mexicans adore the figure.

While this controversy raises several important issues about race, one that stands out is the dichotomization of Afro and Mexican that occurred in the midst of these debates. The fact that people don’t know that black Mexicans exist, doesn’t change the fact that they do, and in fact a small number have begun to organize under the name 'Mexico Negro.' The ‘leaving out’ of black Mexico in this debate, points to a larger failure to incorporate the experience of Afro-Latinos into academic and activist dialogues about race and racism. Voicing the hyphen, as we see in Tego Calderón linguistic and imaginary performances, means precisely placing a spotlight on this 'no-longer-invisible" identity so that through music and arts we can celebrate its existence. From a marketing perspective, the concept of Afro-Latinism as a purchasable identity marker is exploited amongst these groups since they are seen as a potential new consumer group.

The United States today is a cultural ‘melting pot’ where a pan-Latin identity amongst Latino migrants of diverse backgrounds has prevailed. As previously exemplified, Panamanians who grow up in a primarily Latino neighborhood that has a predominant Puerto Rican population, create a unity amongst and between national identities (hyphens) not experienced in their respective homelands. These individuals live the hyphen of being Panamanian-Puerto Ricans as an integral part of their American-Latinism. These new fusions offer new identities reflected through music, religious customs, slang, fashion, etc.

Race and ethnicity are integral factors in measuring the social exclusion and poverty faced by Afro-descendants in Latin America. There is a strong correlation between race, ethnicity and access to social services such as education and health care (hygiene and access to clean water/environments), as well as sustainable development initiatives and the empowerment of role models. Latin American nations never experienced a civil rights movement equivalent to that led by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and other activists of their era. As a result many nations have suffered prolonged racial tensions made more complicated by imbedded working class struggles. In Cuba most racial issues were brushed under rhetoric of economic equality propagated by the ideals of Communism. Only today are increasing numbers of groups forming to tackle race issues.

Perception and solidarity of ‘Blackness’ is an issue of great importance in the diffusion of hip-hop into both islands. The racial aesthetics of rap offer youths an alternative source of Afro-pride and empowerment than necessarily available through the national avenues designated for celebrating Afro-Cuban or Afro-Boricua identity. Figures such as Malcolm X, Chaka Zulu, Mumia Abu Jamal, and Assata Shakur are predominant protagonists of Tego Calderón’s, Obsesión’s and Anónimo Consejo’s repertoires and music videos. This work attempts to bring to the forefront the relative themes each island’s artists are concerned with today with respect to racially defined identities and their relationship to the nation-state that more often than not works towards excluding such groups from full participation or discursively erases their presence in the social fabric. Son Dos Alas counter acts this making a clear statement – we are no longer invisible, we are here. And even if you don’t like it – you must include us because we are no longer slaves.

Since enslavement, Afro-diasporic communities have formed ‘safe’ or ‘protected’ spaces in social gathering areas. Such spaces allow for a social control that can act as witnesses of abuse or repression. These spaces act as refuge towards hostile everyday realities of racialized forms of marginalization. Within these collective spaces cultural forms prevail. We see the development of music, dance, song and oral narratives enabling an experience of in-depth social meaning. In this ethnographic production, the song itself becomes a safety zone, in which the repression from the state or the market seems irrelevant due to the far-reaching access proposed for the musical track. The more public the song, the more social vigilance can act as witness of abuse, and therefore the space in the media and through the music is perceived by artists as a safe gathering space for their lyrics. This is reminiscent of the safe space created by comedy in the face of politics, such as we saw between both islands with the case of Teatro Bufo at the turn of the century.

Tego became known as a ‘phenomenon’ by his capacity to add social, political and racial dimensions to the message of his music while keeping the music accessible and entertaining. He was the first reggaetón /hip-hop artists to sign to a major label (Billboard 2005) and is recognized as the pioneer for taking reggaetón to its current global dimensions. His incorporation to the proect brought with it the attention from his fans and media allies which guaranteed Anónimo Consejo a new secured listening audience based on Tego’s draw and an elevation in their public perception within Cuba to have gained access to record with such a major artist as is Tego. The fact that this project was completed independently, without the reliance of an Agency or any institution eased the tension that any sponsor or state institution might censor content.

Anonimo Consejo is made up of Sekou Mesiah and Kokino. The due was founded in 1996. They are well-known rappers from the town east of Havana called Cojimar, on the outskirts of Alamar that is further east. They are known for their distinct Black pride repertoire combining rap and reggae vocal forms. The rap duo forms part of the Cuban Agency for Rap catalogue since the agency was started in 2002. They have been participants of the Habana Hip-Hop festivals (1995 – 2004) and later the Cuban Hip-Hop Symposiums (2005 – present). Although their lyrics entail protest themes, these are usually metaphorically presented so as imply critiques rather than directly pointing them out which could come off as abrasive. Abrasive lyrical content suffers from potential censorship, and Anonimo Consejo have mastered the fine line of pushing lyrical content while maintaining a mainstream repertoire. They have had the opportunity to perform on stages abroad and even sold out the Apollo Theatre in Harlem in 2001.

Getting it Done

I produced “Son Dos Alas” between December 2004 and January 2006. This included recording separate portions of the song in Havana, San Juan. Initially I approached Tego with five tracks by Anónimo Consejo to familiarize him with their style and lyrical repertoire. Once Tego confirmed his interest in the project, producer Paul Irrizary, a.k.a “Echo’ donated the beat co-produced between his assistant “Diesel” and himself. I took the background beat to Cuba in January of 2005 where I rented out a space in the Electro-Acústica Studios and recorded the introductory Columbia rhythm and vocals by Alfredo ‘Punta de Lanza’ Hernández along with Anónimo Consejo’s vocals, and the scratches by DJ Racier. I initially mixed a draft of these recordings, labeled the song temporarily ‘Cuba y Puerto Rico Son” and sent the reference to Tego in Puerto Rico. Tego immediately approved the song for his inclusion and independently recorded his verse with Hyde, one of The Lab’s Studios engineer at the time and returned the a capella vocal files to me with a new reference.

Tego expressed his interest in publishing the song and at first considered putting the song in his upcoming “The Underdog” album which he announced in Primera Hora (Univision) in March of 2005. However we both agreed we wanted to make changes to the final version, a new mix and the incorporation of a different chorus that I had reconstructed from scraps of Sekou’s vocals. The public announcement that Tego had recorded with Anónimo Consejo however proved to offer controversy amongst certain crowds. Tego;s reaction was stand offish to the song, and he lost contact putting off signing the contractual consent/release form to participate in this project. It seems that the song would never blossom and Tego’s loss of enthusiasm to release the song became a marketing concern to ward off menaces of boycotts to his upcoming album from the Cuban-American community in Miami.

As some time passed I sent a copy of the reference with Tego’s lyrics to Anónimo Consejo through a third party that was traveling to Cuba. The CD I sent contained the rough mix with the old and the original chorus which was being worked on, in hopes Tego would in fact sign my release and allow the song to become public and a part of this project. Despite clear written and oral directions to not reproduce the song, in no more than a few months copies could be found throughout the island. On my following visit, I heard the song played from quinceañeras (swet 16 parties) in Cojimar to DJs in Santiago and venues in Havana. All were proudly grooving to the poorly mixed, unauthorized version of “Cuba y Puerto Rico Son.” The immediate widespread nature of the recording was overwhelming and forced me to confront Anónimo Consejos lack of professional etiquette along side explaining to Tego that with or without his signature, the track had leaked, inevitably it was a matter of weeks before Miami Cubans would get their copy from a relative on the island.

Obviously the immediate reward of being able to have a song with such a high profile feature for Anónimo Consejo by far exceeded their need for a quality version of the mix. The result of its widespread piracy forced me to consider the undefined legal terms I was facing. Anónimo Consejo didn’t mean to overlook the value of this, but after all, due to Cuba and US laws, there really was no binding nature of a contractual release. Despite beign artists who are members of the Cuban Agency for Rap they are not instructed by such institution about copyrights, publishing or even legal releases. How could I face Tego, knowing he hadn’t signed the release, to tell him that the song had inevitably leaked through out Cuba. This was deleterious to the entire project. My judgment trusting Anónimo Consejo with a copy of the reference was a bad judgment, but being my dissertation project and my bad judgment, it was my situation to fix.

At this time, I expected “Son Dos Alas” to be the only exemplary song of the ethnographic production work of this Ph.D. Therefore this awkward situation carried even greater weight on my cautions as ethnographer. Especially when forced to recognize that there was no plan b. I sent an official letter to Tego’s offices explaining the situation in the calmest tone I could draft, presenting acomplex situation with no solution and potential major boycotts from Miami for the first rap/reggaetón artist to sign to a major label on his debut album for Atlantic Records. Still to date, the letter has never been acknowledged.

“Son Dos Alas” the primary content of my ‘test tube’ awaited its destiny. I continued to develop the mix and the structure of the song, but began setting my sights on a potential new track or even a new project considering the dilemma of Tego’s unsigned release form. Portions of the song were cut to restructure a new chorus using vocals from Sekou Messiah. Viviana Pintado from Cuba, currently residing in Minneapolis, composed and recorded a new vocal harmony for the chorus to offer a layered series of vocals singing 'Son Dos Alas' and 'Cuba, Puerto Rico' which resulted in my naming the song "Son Dos Alas.\"

Tego received a copy of the completed track, and on a personal level was positive about the project and the track, however he failed to follow through with signing of the release for the song for years. Unfortunately, be it because of the label expectations while under Atlantic Records, or if it was just a case of poor organization, the release for the track was not signed until late 2007, when Tego changed labels from Atlantic Records to Warner Entertainment Latino. Mind you, he used of the intro by Alfredo “Punta de Lanza’ Hernandez which I produced as the intro to “Son Dos Alas,” in his own Atlantic Records 2006 release of “The Underdog/El Subestimado” as an isolated interlude. The credits on the CD never referenced credited the artists, nor myself as the producer, and even less, Cuba as the location where the track was recorded. It did however keep the original name of the track of for this project, Son Dos Alas. All of the sudden I had to accept that my first ‘big bang’ production and three years of hard work seemed to be presented as if created in a vacuum.

In April of 2006 I requested a live public broadcast premier of “Son Dos Alas” on the Puerto Rican radio show Hip-Hop Vox, a University of Puerto Rico program dedicated to hip-hop that is a branch project of Phantom Vox (belonging to the pop artist Robi Draco Rosa). I invited Tego to come on the air assuming such an initiative would help push his contractual as well as creative relationship to the song, and, of course its greater symbolic purpose. The broadcast was historical, Anónimo Consejo were live on the phone and on the air throughout Puerto Rico and via internet around the world. It was the first time Puerto Rico had a live broadcast from Cuban emcees. Only one thing was missing, Tego never showed up.

Back in Havana, thanks to Anónimo Consejo’s leak, the song was circulating throughout DJ sets. The reality of the professional tension went from concerning to disturbing. Much of the trust I had placed on Anónimo Consejo washed into the politics of the music business and its legal ramifications. Both ends of a single musical track, Cuba and Puerto Rico, were interpreting the same song in completely opposite ways. “Son Dos Alas” comes out of this phase of research, when I was still learning how to navigate the foreigner-Cuban divide. When I was just beginning to learn that consent forms didn’t work in this field site, but rather I should have been designing release contracts. Years later when Tego left Atlantic records I forwarded his offices a release contract with publishing percentage splits and vocal / musical composition use permission, the form was signed immediately. As if one of the major missing links was the terms and language used between the anthropologist and the producer, between academia and the music industry.

All recordings in La Habana, Cuba completed by permission from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, authorizing the Office of International Programs at the University of Minnesota, #CT-9841, licensing Melisa Rivière Ph.D.

Las grabaciones en la Habana fueron ejecutadas con el permiso y autorización otorgado a Melisa Rivière Ph.D., licencia #CT-9841, por la Oficina de Control de Capitales Extranjeros, por medio de la Oficina de Programas Internacionales de la Universidad de Minnesota.