Planet New Mexico, the Series

A few months ago, I moved from New York City’s East Harlem to Albuquerque’s South Valley. Well, actually, I haven’t exactly quite left New York. My research files and most of my gigs are still there. So lets say I presently “commute” between Albuquerque and New York.

My love affair with New York has lasted 17 years and it doesn’t look like it will end any time soon. But I’ve fallen just as hard for New Mexico. My love for both these places has everything to do with them firing up my sociological and musical imagination.

New York inspired my book New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone, my CD Las 7 salves de La Magdalena / 7 Songs of Praise for The Magdalene, and my most recent article on diaspora and liberation mythologies in Puerto Rican bomba music and Dominican palos music. Now New Mexico is letting me travel through uncharted waters (and sands) to ideas and places and faces that, I’m certain, will lead me to more articles, books and music.

For now, I have no method but joy and inspiration. So I’ve just been flowing and blogging. So far, I’ve got quite a few entries in my blog Cascabel de Cobre that I’ve subtitled “Notes from Planet New Mexico.”

So if you’re intrigued about what a Puerto Rico born and raised yet “born-again” (in the geographical sense) New York Rican finds so alluring about Planet New Mexico, here are a few of my blog post suggestions:

“In the Beginning Was the Three-Day Nap”

“Danza for Cuauhtémoc”

“San Isidro of the South Valley”

“Alabanzas in Los Lunas”

“Alabanzas in Chimayó”

“Ron’s Bucket”

“Zoe and Claude’s Bluegrass Cypher”

Enjoy!

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* I titled the photo at the beginning of his post “Zinias in Wonderland.” It features the flowers planted by my partner in our South Valley backyard.