October 16, 2024 • 34 mins
In the final episode of our Willie Colón journey, we explore his solo career and his legendary collaboration with Rubén Blades, a period that saw him at the top of his game. But as his music thrived, Willie began taking a sharp turn into politics, where he believed he could drive real change. Today, his political views have divided fans. Some of us might distance ourselves, while others still find solace in his music. Ultimately, Colón’s legacy remains in his hands, shaped by both his timeless records and his controversial views.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
If you want to support the podcast, please rate and review our show.
Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What a journey with Willie Colonne. Right after a childhood
marked by poverty and discrimination, he paired up with Hector
LeVaux for a string of genre defining albums that knocked
the Latin jazz establishments house down.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He and Hector aka The Bad Boys became FINA Records
top earners until lavaux struggle with addiction pushed Cologne to
step away.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But the following out didn't stop Cologne's rise. El Malo
helped revitalize Celia Cruz's career before finding a new musical
soulmate in Reuben Blas.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All this time, Golonne made music from a distinct New
yor Riecan perspective, mashing up melodies and rhythms from Las
Islas with lyrics that came from the streets of the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And after Salza hipchecked mambo to the side, Gologne and
the other artists under FANYA made huge inroads into Latin America.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
This was a sound that resonated with puebro Latino wherever
it was at home the Trasla Frontera or an.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Exile, and as El Pueblo embraced salsa more and more.
Willi Colonne became willing to speak for El pueblo.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And to it, starting with his music and ending with
his tweets.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
No story ever ended well, that ended with a tweet
and yes I am talking to you, DT and Elon. Anyway,
we started the series talking about all of the different
pueblos Willy Colone belongs to, an American, a Latino, a
Puerto Rican, a New Yorker, worth noting not a single
(01:37):
one of these is a monolith. Hell, Willi Cologne himself
is not a monolith.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We contain multitudes, and those multitudes can and do, but.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Heads, especially when there are politics in the mix, as
is the case for good old Willy Cologne.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Heads up, y'all. This episode's going to be a little different,
less Margarita.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
More i pa. It's going to leave a very bitter
taste in your mouth. But before that, we still have
a few of Willi Colone's later career highlights that we're
excited to explore. I'm your host Lilianavosquez.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Because we are going in the only way we know
how with buenas Vias.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Buenasriesas and a lot of opinions as we relive their
greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes
them so iconic. Wheelie's work with Rubin Vladies saw him
(03:12):
at the top of his game, but at the same time,
he was beginning to step out from the band and
establish himself as a solo artist.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You're not a chorus girl anymore, Sugar. Get out there
and show them what you got.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, what he had as a vocalist wasn't really the
most impressive by conventional standards. Critics called his vocals weak
and nasal. I'm feeling a little Shakita here. Remember she
sounded like a ghost. Mmm? Don't you remember that from like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Season one, season one, episode two point just kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
If you remember the actual episode. I was going to
be very impressed with your memory, Like an elephant anyway.
That is why on his very first album, nineteen seventy
nine Solo, his vocals are heavily accompanied by an all
female choir.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh ah, well, once a chorus girl always chorus girl. Still,
the album went gold in just three weeks after its release.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
His tour for the album a broke a record attendance
in Venezuela's Poliedro de Caracas Arena.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The record was a top seller.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But back at home, the salsa sound that really had
helped popularize was changing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Sansa dura was getting long in the tooth. The next
big thing was salsa romantica.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Whereas salsa dura was sweaty, grungy, remember the smell of
wheed and garbage, the sounds of sex worker clapping back
at that camp. Salsa Romantica was just what the name implies,
romantic love songs like slow jams m hmm, more.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Major key than minor, basically a more radio friendly satasa.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Some might even say sanitized. And in nineteen eighty one,
Willie jumped aboard the salsa romantica bandwagon with the album Fantastmas,
but he didn't completely abandon his tendency to make statement.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
He had four radio hits with Okecera, suenote A, more
verda Vero, and volar A Puerto Rico, but the first
single stands out for its hidden political message.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
O Casira was originally composed in nineteen seventy six by
Chico Buarke, a poet and playwright persecuted by Brazil's a
military dictatorship.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
The original song is part of a trilogy of songs
based on a novel by a colleague of Borguess, and
while it's a love song on the surface, many have
interpreted as a song of resistance Jews. The question went
through the song O cascera, Oh, what will be? Reflects
a desperate uncertainty at the height of the dictatorship's repression.
(05:43):
What will be? No one had the answer, so the
song was kind of a trojan horse within Sasar Romantica.
It's a love song at first blush, but for the
listeners throughout Latin America it was about solidarity.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
But Cologne wasn't above a love Songeen eighty two s
Corrasson Guerrero and nineteen eighty fours. Timpta had plenty, such
as a stone cold classic chitana.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
On this track? Will he mix different styles just like
he always had? This time flamenco guitar and salsa, And
I'll say to that is Rosalia. If you're listening to
becoming an icon, when are we getting that cover girl.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
If she's busy right now with Jeremy Allen White, I
don't think that she's in any hurry to release new
music and get out.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Of bed Asie.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I wouldn't be either, yestua.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh yeah, well are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I don't know? Oh wait, Salsa Romantica Okay, Oh yes, sorry,
I was thinking of the Calvin climat and I forgot
about Willie Colon because as much as I love his music,
don't want to see Willy in his calvins. Anyway, We've
got a big one next to focus on. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Cologne's biggest album of the Sasa Romantica period was nineteen
eighty nine's Top Secrets, a record that sent shock waves
through the Spanish speaking world.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This was thanks to a standout track on the album,
El grand Varon. The track tells the story of Simon.
Born in the summer of fifty six, Simon was the
pride and joy of a man named Andres. Finally, Andres
had a.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Son, and with that pride, Andres raises Simon with a
heavy hand. He forces his son to study as he
did and aspired to the life he had telling him
you must be ungrand Varon, a great man.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That macho parenting eventually drives Simon to run away and
find freedom somewhere far from home, somewhere where Simon can
be Simon.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Eventually Andress discovers where Simon is living. He knocks on
the door and finds a woman greeting him. She tells him.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It's me Simon to gra Varon, Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Simon and Andress never reconciled. Simon doesn't write home, and Andres
can't put aside his judgments.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
The Cornus urges listeners to avoid Ondress's mistakes and put
their judgments aside. And then the story of Simon ends
on a tragic note.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In a hospital room, just like the one he was
born in, Simon succumbs to a strange illness and dies
without anyone by his side.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
The AIDS pandemic in the US had been ignored for
years by the Reagan administration. When the government finally did
act in the late eighties, it was noncommittal, and by
then the death toll was steep and the stigma was deep.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It's to say, at a time when the gay community
was struggling to be heard Elgrand Varon was played on
radio stations around the world.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Even though Colonne and Omar Alfano, the Panamanian composer who
wrote the song, thought the subject was too taboo for
the song to be a single, but radio DJ's around
the world saw power in the song and an urgency
to raise awareness with its message.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
With attention came controversy and criticism. But two years after
the release of the song, Willie Colonne was given a
Humanitarian Award for Elgrand Baron.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
But the song was personal for both Cologne and Omar Alfano.
Alfano had penned the song for a dear friend who
had passed from the disease.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Colon's connection to the song, meanwhile, was a lost one.
Four years prior to its release, Hector LeVaux, Willi's bad
boy brother in arms, was diagnosed with HIV, and in
nineteen ninety three he succumbed to complications from AIDS. Later
in the nineties, Colon would take a break from music.
Speaking to an interviewer, he declared, sometimes writing a song
(09:47):
is not enough.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Willie Cologne was going through a bit of transformation.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And let's just jump in here and say that this
next period is full of surprise. Let's take a bousa
before we get into this next part. To our lovely listeners,
(10:14):
Joseph and I Hey are recording this show in mid August.
It is one hundred degrees in LA and eighty nine
percent humidity in NYC. But by the time this episode
hits your ears, the American presidential election will be just
twenty days away.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You right back. I'm going to go scan my aura
and see if my future self is telling my present
self anything about how things are going.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Joseph, I actually don't think that future life regressions are
a thing. That's called a progression, and that means that
you can time travel, which if you can, why the
eff are we doing a podcast and not making billions
of dollars?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, no, there you go. That's it. That's good, that's all.
That's all. That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Wait, no, you are never one to hold your tongue
by your tongue. You are a chatty cher.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Listen, listen to me. I'm going to do a wise
Cleft John song, and I'm going to say I'll be
gone till November. I'll be gone till November, like I
want nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
To after Okay, so is that because you're getting flooded
with political ads?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You know what is so crazy? What I used to
get so much mail, I used to get stuff I
used to get I get none, nothing of the sort
because I don't even via text nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I used to interesting. Do you pay attention to politics?
I'm not just talking about the general election, because we
know that's a very big, loud, important decision, but I'm
talking do you pay attention to local politics?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No? I don't even want to go there with all
of that. But no, that's the that's the truth. Okay,
we're going to change that. Love you, but we're going
to change that. We will, Okay, we will.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
But here's the I think there's a few lessons that
we can take away from the last several years of politics.
And one thing I have learned, and that I think
a lot of Americans have learned, is that every election matters. Obviously,
the big ones dominate the news cycle, but local races
are kind of where it's at. Like, if you really
(12:20):
want to make change and effect change, you got to
start locally.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And in nineteen ninety four, an unusual race was brewing
in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
June twenty fifth of that year, The New York Times
published an article with the headline politics with the Beat
of the Bronx. Willie Colonne Salza Star makes a bid
for a congressional seat.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
After bringing awareness to AIDS, poverty, and Latin American dictatorship
with his music, Golan decided sometimes writing the song is
not enough. He was running for the House of Representatives
in New York's seventeenth district.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Willi felt moved to enter politics because of deteriorating race relations.
Two years prior, in nineteen ninety two, the LA riots
that followed the beating of Rodney King had marked a
deep period of unrest, not unlike twenty twenties George Floyd protest.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Just months after the LA rights, Washington Heights saw four
days of rioting after a twenty three year old Dominican
immigrant was shot and killed by police. Amid the riots,
Willie Cologne met with then Mayor David Dinkins to serve
as a liaison for the neighborhood's Latino community.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Cologne was also moved to run for office by reductions
in school and social program funding. He viewed the incumbent representative,
Democrat Elliott engel Is out of touch with the community's needs.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
As for that community, it was more like several communities.
New York's seventeenth district had been redrawn in nineteen ninety
two to include more Black and Latino voters. It represented
the Bronx Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Pelham, and Newer Show, where
Willie Cologne lived with his fam.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
When Willy was running, the district was thirty six percent Black,
twenty six percent Hispanic, and thirty four percent white. Victory
in the primary election would mean forming a coalition amongst
these disparate groups.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Willie's plan form a bridge between the black and Latino communities.
To do that, will you hope to win endorsements from
black local elected officials, along with the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Because in those days you had to get the nod
from Al.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
These days not so much.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Meanwhile, really trusted that the Latin community had his back.
With thousands of fans hugging and kissing him at that
year's Puerto Rican Day parade, It's.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Easy to see why wait a minute, wait, just to
damn minute, didn't you ride on float in a Puerto
Rican Day parade?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I love that you know that about me, And yes,
I had my flag. I was wet, bying all up
and down Fifth Avenue, sweating my ass on.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I mean, for those of you that don't live in
New York, the Puerto Rican Day Pride Parade is a
site rowdy, is a site to behold, is what I
was going to say. If you're in the parade, if
you are not participating, if you are not celebrating, and
why aren't you. I know that it can be a lot,
but it's one of my favorite memories of living in
(15:15):
New York. It's like, I love the I love the
parade when we are when we're well behaved.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So what was on the actual float? Just very quick? Oh,
I was hotter, Yes, sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
They had snacks, they had sunscreen. I mean, there's a
lot of speakers. I was on the float with a
lot of other journalists from different media outlets all over
New York. So I had my friends from NBC, from
UNI Vicion, I had them from THENO. Yeah, it was
all of us. We were all kind of like joined forces,
obviously all Puerto Ricans. But it was super fun and
I love the Puerto Rican Day Pride Parade. I actually
(15:48):
can't wait to take Santi to the parade, and I
hope that he gets to write on the float with
me one day.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Hey, well, I already know it.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I know, I know. Okay. Back to Willie, so he
knew what kind of tone he wanted to strike as
a politician, but his policies, well those were a little murkier.
Gologne told an interviewer, I'm not going to tell the
district what our problems are. I want the people in
this district to come forward so we can develop a
progressive agenda.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
After knocking the incumbent as out of touch, will you
imagine that he would be more capable of hearing the
community and speaking for them, just as he had done
with his music.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
He went endorsements from the local hospital workers' union and
a municipal union, along with closed door encouragement from Latino
elected officials, but ultimately.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Willie got blown to smither. Riens child Angel earned sixty
two percent of the vote, leaving Elmlow with thirty eight percent.
Years later, he was sure that he never was comfortable fundraising,
putting him at a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, this wasn't the first time Willie Golong got involved
in New York politics.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Before he ran for Congress, he was part of the
board of directors of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
He also served a member of the Latino Commission on
Aids and as president of the Arthur Schoenberg Coalition for
a Better New York. Still, after Golan lost the congressional election,
he returned to music and recorded two more albums, nineteen
ninety six is yvoel Veo Traves and nineteen ninety eight
The Mascielo Corrasson.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
The albums continued in the same South s Romantica as
his previous records from the eighties and the nineties, but
politics would soon lure Willie back in an unexpected way.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
In nineteen ninety eight, the year I graduated high school,
Whelly was approached to sing the theme for the Macielo Corasson,
a Mexican political tele novela. Willie accepted on one condition, which.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Was put me on those screen bitch. Willie played Feliciano Puintor,
a Dea agent, and not only did he insist on
getting a part, he wanted his name and title on
a bad hang.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
The producer of the show talked's enthusiasm for the character
and named him an honorary police officer in New York City.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Which is a little surprising after the Washington Heights rites
like were Dominicans here for WILLI Colone the cop?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So to find that out, I think you have to
track down the Aunties who watched that novella. But remember,
Latinos are not a monolith. Even within a single neighborhood
like Washington Heights, there are differences, So I.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Know how a lot of folks we feel in about
the cops in years. Since you're telling me that it
didn't happen in Washington Heights.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, I think it's really important to remember that before
these riots even took place, Washington Heights experienced the very
worst of the crack epidemic in the nineteen eighties. I mean,
the George Washington Bridge, which was the biggest landmark in
that neighborhood, was a major artery for drug traffickers traveling
between New York and New Jersey. So saving the neighborhood
(18:55):
from violence and turf wars took a combination. It was
park community effort and park collaboration with the cops, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So it makes sense that Wally specifically played a DEA
agent aka a cop who goes after the types of
guys who terrorized his neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, and it does tell you a little bit about
how Riitty Cologne came to kind of see himself the
guy who grew up getting into these fights, being all
tough and using that toughness to defend vulnerable people like
his sister.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But it's still funny that after years of dressing up
like un Mafio so he wanted to be the good
guy who went after the game.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I mean, remember his cover albums. I mean he was
literally Al Platino and Scarface, right. But I do think
it's worth making the Daddy Yankee comparison again, which we
have done in the past. You know, Yankee also played
up his gangster image the way that a lot of
rappers do and did, but he ultimately saw himself as
the voice of the little guy, which.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Is why Willy ran for office again in two thousand
and one, this time for public Advocate. He did a
little better but still couldn't clinch denomination.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But the following year he would land a place in
the office of the newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg as
an advisor and liaison to the Latino community, and that's
where we came in the Bloomberg years. Jesus take me
back there. But also I feel so old when I
think about how long ago that was, and it reminds
(20:23):
me that I need to make a appointment for some
restallin some Philip please, or I guess I could go
oh Natural and try to get an appointment with Joseph, who,
by the way Listeners is so booked and busy that
he doesn't even have time for his co host and Brima. Okay,
I mean true, I get it. You're out here doing
(20:47):
faces of like, you know, the most elite of the elite.
I don't qualify, but we're not gonna be finding if
you don't scol you. Okay, back to blooming Apart from
that infamous soda band, do you remember that when you
couldn't get big gulps in New York?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I don't think I lived here. And I've also never
had a big gulp.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, Well, I'm from Texas, so I basically survived on
big gold.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But I actually never had a big hop. But my
friend Courtney Reno shout out to Quianna. She always had
a big golp.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well, Bloomberg said no, mas okay. So In addition to
the soda ban, he was also known for his controversial
stopped in Frisk policy.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Which empowered police to just like it sounds, stop and
frisk whoever they deemed.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Suspicious, I mean racial profiling, munch and one of the
policy's biggest critics was Bloomberg's own advisor, Willie Cologne. In
a twenty fifteen interview about the mayoral election to succeed
at Bloomberg, Colonne said that Latinos live in quote the.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Other New York quote. Stop and frisk has gone too
far in general and in the whole country in the
name of anti terrorism and fighting crime and infringing on
constitutional rights.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Golog actually threw his support behind Bill Thompson, the city
controller under the Bloomberg administration, who would ultimately lose to
build a Blasio.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
By this point, listeners might be wondering, am I listening
to the right podcast? When did this turn into a
political history show.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I know it hasn't, you guys, but we had to
give you context because we are all about educating our listeners.
We know you guys are smart, but we had to
learn this shit too, right and all we can say
to that is Wally really took a hard turn right
(22:37):
into politics. Yes, he continues to release music and play
shows in New York and around the world, but this
political arena is where he actually starts to see the
most potential for change.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
For better and for worse.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
In May of this year, a certain New York egon
held a press conference in front of Manhattan Criminal Courthouse
on one hundred Center Street. By the way, home to
my very first job on television. Anyway, I digressed no
where former President Donald Trump was standing trial for fraud.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Reading from a prepared script, this New Yorker said to
the cameras, we New Yorkers used to tolerate Trump when
he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as
a big shot. He went on to label Trump as
a tyrant and a clown.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
The New Yorker we're talking about had a career spanning decades,
capturing the decay and desperation of New York in the
seventies and immortalizing the image of the mafioso and no.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Fam It was not Guty Corlone. It was Robert de
Niro amid the police sirens and the shouts of pro
and anti Trump demonstrators outside the courthouse, The actor announced
his support for the Biden campaign before getting into an
argument with a heckler.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This event was part of the launch for Biden's now
defunct reelection campaign. It was kind of like a blip.
No one really talked about it, but we're focused on
it now because it actually involves El Malo Willie Cologne.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
After de Niro's clit made the rounds, the King of
Sasa jumped on x formerly known as Twitter, to critique
the press conference, saying.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Quote what once would have been considered beneath de Niro's
stature has now earned him a reputation as a foul
mouthed buffoon. These two New York yehitos were fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
De Niro had backed Biden in twenty sixteen and was
going to bat for him again in twenty twenty, while
Cologne had been a long time Trump supporter The hard.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
In his final tweet of the night, Gologn called Biden's
campaign launch a complete failure that revealed the side of
de Niro that many wished they had not seen. Willie,
this tweet revealed a side of you that many longtime
fans wish they had not seen y'all put your phones
down at night. Nothing good happens on x or Instagram
(25:02):
for that matter, after like nine thirty pm. I'm convinced
of this.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, Jit. When Colann posted in twenty sixteen that he
had gotten up at five in the morning without shaving,
eating breakfast, or combing his hair to go vote for Trump,
fans were at once disappointed and confused.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, and that's because just a few months prior, Cologne
had been rallying against the repression carried out by the
dictatorship in Venezuela. Now Here he was praising a would
be authoritarian. What do you mean would be well, Joseph,
this is still early on okay anyway, Many fans responded,
pointing out the inconsistency. Others proclaimed that they were going
(25:41):
to delete WILLI Colanne from all of their playlists.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm literally doing that right now Detana by Talento Television.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
My no.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Gone.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Okay, okay, okay, fine, delete it, delete it. But look,
it would be one thing if we leave for whatever reason,
just couldn't get behind democrats anymore. Like I am all
about out, you know, finding your own voice in politics,
suggesting a better alternative, but El Marlow had gone mega
maga like he was a Twitter troll. Twelve flags and
(26:13):
yard signs flying around maga.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Okay, disclaimer, we don't know about his house and yard
sign but as for the Twitter shoes, there's eight years
of receipts.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And you know we've got those receipts. Okay, the nastiest
of the receipts being a Facebook post from twenty twenty so,
shortly after the president of Goya Foods endorsed Trump's reelection bid,
cologne post in a photo with a can of Goya
black beans and posted the photo with a caption that read,
and I quoked you guys. This is not like a
(26:47):
meme or SNL sketch. Black beans matter.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Wait stop. The same guy who advised the mayor after
the Washington Heights riots was out here trolling the Black
Lives Matter book.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Trolling okay, like deep fucking troll. And also, let me
remind you this was just sixty days after George Floyd
was killed by the police. It's it's disgusting, what the
fuck is happening?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
How? I mean?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Great questions? And like the fans who wiped weey from
their playlist, it's confusing and deeply upsetting. But if we
look back, maybe we can stumble on some theories that
will help us understand how really got here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Okay, it's I'm listening.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Okay, if you're listening, turn it up, put those headphones in,
because here we go. Okay, we don't actually know what
specifically rubbed Willy the wrong way about democratic politicians from
the Bloomberg administration on. I mean, if you live in
New York, you get into politics, you deal with Democrats.
It's just how it is.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Right. Maybe he he hads s jaded with city politics
and lose his faith, or maybe he gets wind of
some shady stuff, or maybe he's just bitter that he
never won.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I mean, all of those are likely possibilities. But in
two thousand and eight he endorses Hillary for president. Then
he joins Twitter in two thousand and nine, and that's
when shit gets weird.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It's Twitter or x it's always weird.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They're all weird. The year after Willie registers as a Republican,
he gets into a long Twitter war because of a
joke he made in the wake of Hugo Chevis's death.
Chevistas blew up his replies blew up his DMS while
anti Jevistas rallied around him. Uh oh, so from there,
I think it's simple. He spent days arguing with weird
(28:46):
Chavistas on Twitter, and he got brainwormed tail as all
as time.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Wait, what the fuck is brain.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Have you ever heard of like an earworm, Like when
you hear something super catchy on the radio. You don't
hear the whole song, You just hear like a little
clip of it, or you hear somebody singing something and
then it stakes in your.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Head all day long, like Megan the Stallion's song right now.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yes, okay, so that is an earworm. A brainworm is similar.
It's like something very sticky that gets presented to you,
especially if you're spending time on social media, Like it
hits your feed over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Almost brainwashed, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
But sometimes it can be like you can almost like
curate your own brainworm because of your right because how
you're engaging on social Like I always say, you know
the problem with people speaking up today about you know,
politics or social issues is that we all live in
our own silos. Like we live in our own social silos, right,
(29:56):
Like you have blinders on, you're in an echo her.
And if you're pro whatever, pro left, pro right, and
you're constantly engaging with that content, all you're going to
be served is that content, right right, And so you're
not able to see outside of that silo. And what
happens people start to reinforce thoughts that now become beliefs,
(30:19):
that become belief systems. It's really fun become your.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
True exactly, yeah, because it becomes your truth. So this
is definitely one hundred percent brain worms.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
But let's think about this, right, We all know somebody
who's been brainwarmed. But the thing is, the more that
Willy speaks and says, the less clear it is. Who
really ever was Was he ever really sticking up for
the people that he's saying about, or was he just
singing about what was around him because he had no
(30:50):
original inspo.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Okay, okay, okay, hold on, let's just hold our horses.
I mean, it would be a big accusation to say
that he never cares, like what about Simon, you know,
el Grand Baron or ok But it is hard to
make the case that he cares now and what all
for Cannabians.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well, that Cannabians did bankroll a few of his concerts.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So are you done with Willie? Like done done?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Let's think about it this way. Everybody has a family
member or someone they know who completely goes off the
deep end, whether it's about Trump or a pyramid scheme
like herbal life, or some other wormhole at the crossroads
of conspiracy and tech addiction. And the thing is, the
person you liked or love is still in there somewhere.
(31:42):
They look similar, talk similar, But if they don't get
help or help themselves, that person gets pushed farther and
farther down, like a pearl at the bottom of a landfill.
You still have your memories of that person, and of
course everything they've done in the past for you and
yours still stands. But once it's become clear that this thing,
(32:04):
the obsession, the addiction, the sickness, whatever it may be,
once it gets in the way of the love they
used to be able to give. That means you have
some choices to make.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
WILLI walked away from Hector LeVaux, some of us might
want to walk away from.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Willy, and some of us might still actually enjoy listening
to his music. Like listen, Willy and I are not
voting the same. Let's be very clear. But I will
tell you that one of my favorite songs in the
world is Balento de la vision from trasla Tormenta. It's
(32:40):
a song that, like my dad introduced me to, that
I've loved since I was a little girl. And because
my dad loves that record and we share memories of
that record, I will always associate that record more with
my father than I do with WILLI Right, And there's
a million situations like this, right, Like the song is
not the song, the artist is not the artist. It's
(33:01):
about the memories that the music triggers in you. We
talk about this all the time, right, Joseph. And here's
the thing. Other memories about Willie might fake, They might
stay buried in a landfill of mean tweets and hateful comments.
And ultimately, Willie's legacy is in his own hands, like
the fans don't get to decide.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It, as much as we wish we could.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
I Know, I Know. On the next, Becoming an Icon,
the Queen of Latin pop's magical, heartbreaking Capital D dramatic upbringing,
the one the only Dahlia Becoming an Icon is presented
(33:47):
by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael dudda podcast network. Listen to
becoming an icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
What a journey with Willie Colonne. Right after a childhood
marked by poverty and discrimination, he paired up with Hector
LeVaux for a string of genre defining albums that knocked
the Latin jazz establishments house down.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He and Hector aka The Bad Boys became FINA Records
top earners until lavaux struggle with addiction pushed Cologne to
step away.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But the following out didn't stop Cologne's rise. El Malo
helped revitalize Celia Cruz's career before finding a new musical
soulmate in Reuben Blas.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All this time, Golonne made music from a distinct New
yor Riecan perspective, mashing up melodies and rhythms from Las
Islas with lyrics that came from the streets of the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And after Salza hipchecked mambo to the side, Gologne and
the other artists under FANYA made huge inroads into Latin America.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
This was a sound that resonated with puebro Latino wherever
it was at home the Trasla Frontera or an.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Exile, and as El Pueblo embraced salsa more and more.
Willi Colonne became willing to speak for El pueblo.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And to it, starting with his music and ending with
his tweets.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
No story ever ended well, that ended with a tweet
and yes I am talking to you, DT and Elon. Anyway,
we started the series talking about all of the different
pueblos Willy Colone belongs to, an American, a Latino, a
Puerto Rican, a New Yorker, worth noting not a single
(01:37):
one of these is a monolith. Hell, Willi Cologne himself
is not a monolith.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We contain multitudes, and those multitudes can and do, but.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Heads, especially when there are politics in the mix, as
is the case for good old Willy Cologne.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Heads up, y'all. This episode's going to be a little different,
less Margarita.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
More i pa. It's going to leave a very bitter
taste in your mouth. But before that, we still have
a few of Willi Colone's later career highlights that we're
excited to explore. I'm your host Lilianavosquez.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Because we are going in the only way we know
how with buenas Vias.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Buenasriesas and a lot of opinions as we relive their
greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes
them so iconic. Wheelie's work with Rubin Vladies saw him
(03:12):
at the top of his game, but at the same time,
he was beginning to step out from the band and
establish himself as a solo artist.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You're not a chorus girl anymore, Sugar. Get out there
and show them what you got.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, what he had as a vocalist wasn't really the
most impressive by conventional standards. Critics called his vocals weak
and nasal. I'm feeling a little Shakita here. Remember she
sounded like a ghost. Mmm? Don't you remember that from like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Season one, season one, episode two point just kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
If you remember the actual episode. I was going to
be very impressed with your memory, Like an elephant anyway.
That is why on his very first album, nineteen seventy
nine Solo, his vocals are heavily accompanied by an all
female choir.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh ah, well, once a chorus girl always chorus girl. Still,
the album went gold in just three weeks after its release.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
His tour for the album a broke a record attendance
in Venezuela's Poliedro de Caracas Arena.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The record was a top seller.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But back at home, the salsa sound that really had
helped popularize was changing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Sansa dura was getting long in the tooth. The next
big thing was salsa romantica.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Whereas salsa dura was sweaty, grungy, remember the smell of
wheed and garbage, the sounds of sex worker clapping back
at that camp. Salsa Romantica was just what the name implies,
romantic love songs like slow jams m hmm, more.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Major key than minor, basically a more radio friendly satasa.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Some might even say sanitized. And in nineteen eighty one,
Willie jumped aboard the salsa romantica bandwagon with the album Fantastmas,
but he didn't completely abandon his tendency to make statement.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
He had four radio hits with Okecera, suenote A, more
verda Vero, and volar A Puerto Rico, but the first
single stands out for its hidden political message.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
O Casira was originally composed in nineteen seventy six by
Chico Buarke, a poet and playwright persecuted by Brazil's a
military dictatorship.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
The original song is part of a trilogy of songs
based on a novel by a colleague of Borguess, and
while it's a love song on the surface, many have
interpreted as a song of resistance Jews. The question went
through the song O cascera, Oh, what will be? Reflects
a desperate uncertainty at the height of the dictatorship's repression.
(05:43):
What will be? No one had the answer, so the
song was kind of a trojan horse within Sasar Romantica.
It's a love song at first blush, but for the
listeners throughout Latin America it was about solidarity.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
But Cologne wasn't above a love Songeen eighty two s
Corrasson Guerrero and nineteen eighty fours. Timpta had plenty, such
as a stone cold classic chitana.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
On this track? Will he mix different styles just like
he always had? This time flamenco guitar and salsa, And
I'll say to that is Rosalia. If you're listening to
becoming an icon, when are we getting that cover girl.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
If she's busy right now with Jeremy Allen White, I
don't think that she's in any hurry to release new
music and get out.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Of bed Asie.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I wouldn't be either, yestua.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh yeah, well are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I don't know? Oh wait, Salsa Romantica Okay, Oh yes, sorry,
I was thinking of the Calvin climat and I forgot
about Willie Colon because as much as I love his music,
don't want to see Willy in his calvins. Anyway, We've
got a big one next to focus on. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Cologne's biggest album of the Sasa Romantica period was nineteen
eighty nine's Top Secrets, a record that sent shock waves
through the Spanish speaking world.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This was thanks to a standout track on the album,
El grand Varon. The track tells the story of Simon.
Born in the summer of fifty six, Simon was the
pride and joy of a man named Andres. Finally, Andres
had a.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Son, and with that pride, Andres raises Simon with a
heavy hand. He forces his son to study as he
did and aspired to the life he had telling him
you must be ungrand Varon, a great man.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That macho parenting eventually drives Simon to run away and
find freedom somewhere far from home, somewhere where Simon can
be Simon.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Eventually Andress discovers where Simon is living. He knocks on
the door and finds a woman greeting him. She tells him.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It's me Simon to gra Varon, Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Simon and Andress never reconciled. Simon doesn't write home, and Andres
can't put aside his judgments.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
The Cornus urges listeners to avoid Ondress's mistakes and put
their judgments aside. And then the story of Simon ends
on a tragic note.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In a hospital room, just like the one he was
born in, Simon succumbs to a strange illness and dies
without anyone by his side.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
The AIDS pandemic in the US had been ignored for
years by the Reagan administration. When the government finally did
act in the late eighties, it was noncommittal, and by
then the death toll was steep and the stigma was deep.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It's to say, at a time when the gay community
was struggling to be heard Elgrand Varon was played on
radio stations around the world.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Even though Colonne and Omar Alfano, the Panamanian composer who
wrote the song, thought the subject was too taboo for
the song to be a single, but radio DJ's around
the world saw power in the song and an urgency
to raise awareness with its message.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
With attention came controversy and criticism. But two years after
the release of the song, Willie Colonne was given a
Humanitarian Award for Elgrand Baron.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
But the song was personal for both Cologne and Omar Alfano.
Alfano had penned the song for a dear friend who
had passed from the disease.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Colon's connection to the song, meanwhile, was a lost one.
Four years prior to its release, Hector LeVaux, Willi's bad
boy brother in arms, was diagnosed with HIV, and in
nineteen ninety three he succumbed to complications from AIDS. Later
in the nineties, Colon would take a break from music.
Speaking to an interviewer, he declared, sometimes writing a song
(09:47):
is not enough.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Willie Cologne was going through a bit of transformation.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And let's just jump in here and say that this
next period is full of surprise. Let's take a bousa
before we get into this next part. To our lovely listeners,
(10:14):
Joseph and I Hey are recording this show in mid August.
It is one hundred degrees in LA and eighty nine
percent humidity in NYC. But by the time this episode
hits your ears, the American presidential election will be just
twenty days away.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You right back. I'm going to go scan my aura
and see if my future self is telling my present
self anything about how things are going.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Joseph, I actually don't think that future life regressions are
a thing. That's called a progression, and that means that
you can time travel, which if you can, why the
eff are we doing a podcast and not making billions
of dollars?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, no, there you go. That's it. That's good, that's all.
That's all. That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Wait, no, you are never one to hold your tongue
by your tongue. You are a chatty cher.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Listen, listen to me. I'm going to do a wise
Cleft John song, and I'm going to say I'll be
gone till November. I'll be gone till November, like I
want nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
To after Okay, so is that because you're getting flooded
with political ads?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You know what is so crazy? What I used to
get so much mail, I used to get stuff I
used to get I get none, nothing of the sort
because I don't even via text nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I used to interesting. Do you pay attention to politics?
I'm not just talking about the general election, because we
know that's a very big, loud, important decision, but I'm
talking do you pay attention to local politics?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No? I don't even want to go there with all
of that. But no, that's the that's the truth. Okay,
we're going to change that. Love you, but we're going
to change that. We will, Okay, we will.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
But here's the I think there's a few lessons that
we can take away from the last several years of politics.
And one thing I have learned, and that I think
a lot of Americans have learned, is that every election matters. Obviously,
the big ones dominate the news cycle, but local races
are kind of where it's at. Like, if you really
(12:20):
want to make change and effect change, you got to
start locally.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And in nineteen ninety four, an unusual race was brewing
in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
June twenty fifth of that year, The New York Times
published an article with the headline politics with the Beat
of the Bronx. Willie Colonne Salza Star makes a bid
for a congressional seat.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
After bringing awareness to AIDS, poverty, and Latin American dictatorship
with his music, Golan decided sometimes writing the song is
not enough. He was running for the House of Representatives
in New York's seventeenth district.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Willi felt moved to enter politics because of deteriorating race relations.
Two years prior, in nineteen ninety two, the LA riots
that followed the beating of Rodney King had marked a
deep period of unrest, not unlike twenty twenties George Floyd protest.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Just months after the LA rights, Washington Heights saw four
days of rioting after a twenty three year old Dominican
immigrant was shot and killed by police. Amid the riots,
Willie Cologne met with then Mayor David Dinkins to serve
as a liaison for the neighborhood's Latino community.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Cologne was also moved to run for office by reductions
in school and social program funding. He viewed the incumbent representative,
Democrat Elliott engel Is out of touch with the community's needs.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
As for that community, it was more like several communities.
New York's seventeenth district had been redrawn in nineteen ninety
two to include more Black and Latino voters. It represented
the Bronx Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Pelham, and Newer Show, where
Willie Cologne lived with his fam.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
When Willy was running, the district was thirty six percent Black,
twenty six percent Hispanic, and thirty four percent white. Victory
in the primary election would mean forming a coalition amongst
these disparate groups.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Willie's plan form a bridge between the black and Latino communities.
To do that, will you hope to win endorsements from
black local elected officials, along with the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Because in those days you had to get the nod
from Al.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
These days not so much.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Meanwhile, really trusted that the Latin community had his back.
With thousands of fans hugging and kissing him at that
year's Puerto Rican Day parade, It's.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Easy to see why wait a minute, wait, just to
damn minute, didn't you ride on float in a Puerto
Rican Day parade?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I love that you know that about me, And yes,
I had my flag. I was wet, bying all up
and down Fifth Avenue, sweating my ass on.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I mean, for those of you that don't live in
New York, the Puerto Rican Day Pride Parade is a
site rowdy, is a site to behold, is what I
was going to say. If you're in the parade, if
you are not participating, if you are not celebrating, and
why aren't you. I know that it can be a lot,
but it's one of my favorite memories of living in
(15:15):
New York. It's like, I love the I love the
parade when we are when we're well behaved.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So what was on the actual float? Just very quick? Oh,
I was hotter, Yes, sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
They had snacks, they had sunscreen. I mean, there's a
lot of speakers. I was on the float with a
lot of other journalists from different media outlets all over
New York. So I had my friends from NBC, from
UNI Vicion, I had them from THENO. Yeah, it was
all of us. We were all kind of like joined forces,
obviously all Puerto Ricans. But it was super fun and
I love the Puerto Rican Day Pride Parade. I actually
(15:48):
can't wait to take Santi to the parade, and I
hope that he gets to write on the float with
me one day.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Hey, well, I already know it.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I know, I know. Okay. Back to Willie, so he
knew what kind of tone he wanted to strike as
a politician, but his policies, well those were a little murkier.
Gologne told an interviewer, I'm not going to tell the
district what our problems are. I want the people in
this district to come forward so we can develop a
progressive agenda.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
After knocking the incumbent as out of touch, will you
imagine that he would be more capable of hearing the
community and speaking for them, just as he had done
with his music.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
He went endorsements from the local hospital workers' union and
a municipal union, along with closed door encouragement from Latino
elected officials, but ultimately.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Willie got blown to smither. Riens child Angel earned sixty
two percent of the vote, leaving Elmlow with thirty eight percent.
Years later, he was sure that he never was comfortable fundraising,
putting him at a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, this wasn't the first time Willie Golong got involved
in New York politics.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Before he ran for Congress, he was part of the
board of directors of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
He also served a member of the Latino Commission on
Aids and as president of the Arthur Schoenberg Coalition for
a Better New York. Still, after Golan lost the congressional election,
he returned to music and recorded two more albums, nineteen
ninety six is yvoel Veo Traves and nineteen ninety eight
The Mascielo Corrasson.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
The albums continued in the same South s Romantica as
his previous records from the eighties and the nineties, but
politics would soon lure Willie back in an unexpected way.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
In nineteen ninety eight, the year I graduated high school,
Whelly was approached to sing the theme for the Macielo Corasson,
a Mexican political tele novela. Willie accepted on one condition, which.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Was put me on those screen bitch. Willie played Feliciano Puintor,
a Dea agent, and not only did he insist on
getting a part, he wanted his name and title on
a bad hang.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
The producer of the show talked's enthusiasm for the character
and named him an honorary police officer in New York City.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Which is a little surprising after the Washington Heights rites
like were Dominicans here for WILLI Colone the cop?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So to find that out, I think you have to
track down the Aunties who watched that novella. But remember,
Latinos are not a monolith. Even within a single neighborhood
like Washington Heights, there are differences, So I.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Know how a lot of folks we feel in about
the cops in years. Since you're telling me that it
didn't happen in Washington Heights.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, I think it's really important to remember that before
these riots even took place, Washington Heights experienced the very
worst of the crack epidemic in the nineteen eighties. I mean,
the George Washington Bridge, which was the biggest landmark in
that neighborhood, was a major artery for drug traffickers traveling
between New York and New Jersey. So saving the neighborhood
(18:55):
from violence and turf wars took a combination. It was
park community effort and park collaboration with the cops, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So it makes sense that Wally specifically played a DEA
agent aka a cop who goes after the types of
guys who terrorized his neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, and it does tell you a little bit about
how Riitty Cologne came to kind of see himself the
guy who grew up getting into these fights, being all
tough and using that toughness to defend vulnerable people like
his sister.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But it's still funny that after years of dressing up
like un Mafio so he wanted to be the good
guy who went after the game.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I mean, remember his cover albums. I mean he was
literally Al Platino and Scarface, right. But I do think
it's worth making the Daddy Yankee comparison again, which we
have done in the past. You know, Yankee also played
up his gangster image the way that a lot of
rappers do and did, but he ultimately saw himself as
the voice of the little guy, which.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Is why Willy ran for office again in two thousand
and one, this time for public Advocate. He did a
little better but still couldn't clinch denomination.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But the following year he would land a place in
the office of the newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg as
an advisor and liaison to the Latino community, and that's
where we came in the Bloomberg years. Jesus take me
back there. But also I feel so old when I
think about how long ago that was, and it reminds
(20:23):
me that I need to make a appointment for some
restallin some Philip please, or I guess I could go
oh Natural and try to get an appointment with Joseph, who,
by the way Listeners is so booked and busy that
he doesn't even have time for his co host and Brima. Okay,
I mean true, I get it. You're out here doing
(20:47):
faces of like, you know, the most elite of the elite.
I don't qualify, but we're not gonna be finding if
you don't scol you. Okay, back to blooming Apart from
that infamous soda band, do you remember that when you
couldn't get big gulps in New York?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I don't think I lived here. And I've also never
had a big gulp.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, Well, I'm from Texas, so I basically survived on
big gold.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But I actually never had a big hop. But my
friend Courtney Reno shout out to Quianna. She always had
a big golp.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well, Bloomberg said no, mas okay. So In addition to
the soda ban, he was also known for his controversial
stopped in Frisk policy.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Which empowered police to just like it sounds, stop and
frisk whoever they deemed.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Suspicious, I mean racial profiling, munch and one of the
policy's biggest critics was Bloomberg's own advisor, Willie Cologne. In
a twenty fifteen interview about the mayoral election to succeed
at Bloomberg, Colonne said that Latinos live in quote the.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Other New York quote. Stop and frisk has gone too
far in general and in the whole country in the
name of anti terrorism and fighting crime and infringing on
constitutional rights.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Golog actually threw his support behind Bill Thompson, the city
controller under the Bloomberg administration, who would ultimately lose to
build a Blasio.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
By this point, listeners might be wondering, am I listening
to the right podcast? When did this turn into a
political history show.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I know it hasn't, you guys, but we had to
give you context because we are all about educating our listeners.
We know you guys are smart, but we had to
learn this shit too, right and all we can say
to that is Wally really took a hard turn right
(22:37):
into politics. Yes, he continues to release music and play
shows in New York and around the world, but this
political arena is where he actually starts to see the
most potential for change.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
For better and for worse.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
In May of this year, a certain New York egon
held a press conference in front of Manhattan Criminal Courthouse
on one hundred Center Street. By the way, home to
my very first job on television. Anyway, I digressed no
where former President Donald Trump was standing trial for fraud.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Reading from a prepared script, this New Yorker said to
the cameras, we New Yorkers used to tolerate Trump when
he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as
a big shot. He went on to label Trump as
a tyrant and a clown.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
The New Yorker we're talking about had a career spanning decades,
capturing the decay and desperation of New York in the
seventies and immortalizing the image of the mafioso and no.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Fam It was not Guty Corlone. It was Robert de
Niro amid the police sirens and the shouts of pro
and anti Trump demonstrators outside the courthouse, The actor announced
his support for the Biden campaign before getting into an
argument with a heckler.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This event was part of the launch for Biden's now
defunct reelection campaign. It was kind of like a blip.
No one really talked about it, but we're focused on
it now because it actually involves El Malo Willie Cologne.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
After de Niro's clit made the rounds, the King of
Sasa jumped on x formerly known as Twitter, to critique
the press conference, saying.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Quote what once would have been considered beneath de Niro's
stature has now earned him a reputation as a foul
mouthed buffoon. These two New York yehitos were fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
De Niro had backed Biden in twenty sixteen and was
going to bat for him again in twenty twenty, while
Cologne had been a long time Trump supporter The hard.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
In his final tweet of the night, Gologn called Biden's
campaign launch a complete failure that revealed the side of
de Niro that many wished they had not seen. Willie,
this tweet revealed a side of you that many longtime
fans wish they had not seen y'all put your phones
down at night. Nothing good happens on x or Instagram
(25:02):
for that matter, after like nine thirty pm. I'm convinced
of this.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, Jit. When Colann posted in twenty sixteen that he
had gotten up at five in the morning without shaving,
eating breakfast, or combing his hair to go vote for Trump,
fans were at once disappointed and confused.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, and that's because just a few months prior, Cologne
had been rallying against the repression carried out by the
dictatorship in Venezuela. Now Here he was praising a would
be authoritarian. What do you mean would be well, Joseph,
this is still early on okay anyway, Many fans responded,
pointing out the inconsistency. Others proclaimed that they were going
(25:41):
to delete WILLI Colanne from all of their playlists.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm literally doing that right now Detana by Talento Television.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
My no.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Gone.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Okay, okay, okay, fine, delete it, delete it. But look,
it would be one thing if we leave for whatever reason,
just couldn't get behind democrats anymore. Like I am all
about out, you know, finding your own voice in politics,
suggesting a better alternative, but El Marlow had gone mega
maga like he was a Twitter troll. Twelve flags and
(26:13):
yard signs flying around maga.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Okay, disclaimer, we don't know about his house and yard
sign but as for the Twitter shoes, there's eight years
of receipts.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And you know we've got those receipts. Okay, the nastiest
of the receipts being a Facebook post from twenty twenty so,
shortly after the president of Goya Foods endorsed Trump's reelection bid,
cologne post in a photo with a can of Goya
black beans and posted the photo with a caption that read,
and I quoked you guys. This is not like a
(26:47):
meme or SNL sketch. Black beans matter.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Wait stop. The same guy who advised the mayor after
the Washington Heights riots was out here trolling the Black
Lives Matter book.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Trolling okay, like deep fucking troll. And also, let me
remind you this was just sixty days after George Floyd
was killed by the police. It's it's disgusting, what the
fuck is happening?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
How? I mean?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Great questions? And like the fans who wiped weey from
their playlist, it's confusing and deeply upsetting. But if we
look back, maybe we can stumble on some theories that
will help us understand how really got here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Okay, it's I'm listening.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Okay, if you're listening, turn it up, put those headphones in,
because here we go. Okay, we don't actually know what
specifically rubbed Willy the wrong way about democratic politicians from
the Bloomberg administration on. I mean, if you live in
New York, you get into politics, you deal with Democrats.
It's just how it is.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Right. Maybe he he hads s jaded with city politics
and lose his faith, or maybe he gets wind of
some shady stuff, or maybe he's just bitter that he
never won.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I mean, all of those are likely possibilities. But in
two thousand and eight he endorses Hillary for president. Then
he joins Twitter in two thousand and nine, and that's
when shit gets weird.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It's Twitter or x it's always weird.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They're all weird. The year after Willie registers as a Republican,
he gets into a long Twitter war because of a
joke he made in the wake of Hugo Chevis's death.
Chevistas blew up his replies blew up his DMS while
anti Jevistas rallied around him. Uh oh, so from there,
I think it's simple. He spent days arguing with weird
(28:46):
Chavistas on Twitter, and he got brainwormed tail as all
as time.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Wait, what the fuck is brain.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Have you ever heard of like an earworm, Like when
you hear something super catchy on the radio. You don't
hear the whole song, You just hear like a little
clip of it, or you hear somebody singing something and
then it stakes in your.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Head all day long, like Megan the Stallion's song right now.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yes, okay, so that is an earworm. A brainworm is similar.
It's like something very sticky that gets presented to you,
especially if you're spending time on social media, Like it
hits your feed over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Almost brainwashed, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
But sometimes it can be like you can almost like
curate your own brainworm because of your right because how
you're engaging on social Like I always say, you know
the problem with people speaking up today about you know,
politics or social issues is that we all live in
our own silos. Like we live in our own social silos, right,
(29:56):
Like you have blinders on, you're in an echo her.
And if you're pro whatever, pro left, pro right, and
you're constantly engaging with that content, all you're going to
be served is that content, right right, And so you're
not able to see outside of that silo. And what
happens people start to reinforce thoughts that now become beliefs,
(30:19):
that become belief systems. It's really fun become your.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
True exactly, yeah, because it becomes your truth. So this
is definitely one hundred percent brain worms.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
But let's think about this, right, We all know somebody
who's been brainwarmed. But the thing is, the more that
Willy speaks and says, the less clear it is. Who
really ever was Was he ever really sticking up for
the people that he's saying about, or was he just
singing about what was around him because he had no
(30:50):
original inspo.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Okay, okay, okay, hold on, let's just hold our horses.
I mean, it would be a big accusation to say
that he never cares, like what about Simon, you know,
el Grand Baron or ok But it is hard to
make the case that he cares now and what all
for Cannabians.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well, that Cannabians did bankroll a few of his concerts.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So are you done with Willie? Like done done?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Let's think about it this way. Everybody has a family
member or someone they know who completely goes off the
deep end, whether it's about Trump or a pyramid scheme
like herbal life, or some other wormhole at the crossroads
of conspiracy and tech addiction. And the thing is, the
person you liked or love is still in there somewhere.
(31:42):
They look similar, talk similar, But if they don't get
help or help themselves, that person gets pushed farther and
farther down, like a pearl at the bottom of a landfill.
You still have your memories of that person, and of
course everything they've done in the past for you and
yours still stands. But once it's become clear that this thing,
(32:04):
the obsession, the addiction, the sickness, whatever it may be,
once it gets in the way of the love they
used to be able to give. That means you have
some choices to make.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
WILLI walked away from Hector LeVaux, some of us might
want to walk away from.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Willy, and some of us might still actually enjoy listening
to his music. Like listen, Willy and I are not
voting the same. Let's be very clear. But I will
tell you that one of my favorite songs in the
world is Balento de la vision from trasla Tormenta. It's
(32:40):
a song that, like my dad introduced me to, that
I've loved since I was a little girl. And because
my dad loves that record and we share memories of
that record, I will always associate that record more with
my father than I do with WILLI Right, And there's
a million situations like this, right, Like the song is
not the song, the artist is not the artist. It's
(33:01):
about the memories that the music triggers in you. We
talk about this all the time, right, Joseph. And here's
the thing. Other memories about Willie might fake, They might
stay buried in a landfill of mean tweets and hateful comments.
And ultimately, Willie's legacy is in his own hands, like
the fans don't get to decide.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It, as much as we wish we could.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
I Know, I Know. On the next, Becoming an Icon,
the Queen of Latin pop's magical, heartbreaking Capital D dramatic upbringing,
the one the only Dahlia Becoming an Icon is presented
(33:47):
by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael dudda podcast network. Listen to
becoming an icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
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