Tropical Flavors of Puerto Rico!!

Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island and unincorporated U.S. territory with a landscape of green mountains, waterfalls and the tropical rainforest of El Yunque National Forest. It's known for its white-sand beaches and coral reefs, popular for snorkeling, diving, surfing and sailing. In San Juan, the capital and largest city, the Isla Verde area is known for its beach bars, nightclubs and casinos.

A Brief  Boricuan Musical History

Reggaeton Artist - Don Omar

The music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources have been Spain and West Africa, although many aspects of Puerto Rican music reflect origins elsewhere in Europe and the Caribbean and, over the last century, from the U.S.A. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from indigenous genres like bomba y plena, aguinaldo and danza, to recent hybrids like reggaeton. 

Jose Feliciano

Marc Anthony

In the realm of classical music, the island hosts two main orchestras, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Puerto Rico. The Casals Festival takes place annually in San Juan, drawing in classical musicians from around the world.

With respect to opera, the legendary Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli was so celebrated, that he performed private recitals for Pope Pius X and the Czar of Russia Nicholas II. In 1907, Paoli was the first operatic artist in world history to record an entire opera - when he participated in a performance of Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo in Milan, Italy.

Over the past fifty years, Puerto Rican artists such as Jorge Emmanuelli, Yomo Toro, Ramito, Jose Feliciano, Bobby Capo, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barreto, Dave Valentin, Omar Rodríguez-López, Hector Lavoe and Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez have thrilled audiences around the world.

Jennifer Lopez

THIS MONDAY, LATIN SOUNDZZ!! WILL HOST PUERTO RICO AS THE THEME COUNTRY OF THE WEEK!! DON'T MISS OUT THIS GREAT SHOW, AS WE FLY TO LA ISLA DEL ENCANTO, PUERTO RICO PAPA! DALE!! ONLY ON KSFS RADIO. 10 AM PACIFIC TIME. ALSO DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES:

 FACEBOOK.COM/LATINSOUNDZZ

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DON'T FORGET THAT IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST OR ANY OF THE PAST, YOU CAN CHECK OUT SOUND CLOUD PAGE AND LISTEN TO ANY OF THEM.

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Let the musical fusion inspire you...

What is Central America essentially?

Map of Central America

According to web encyclopedia Central America represents a stretch of land between North and South America. It is the only land "passage" connecting both continents. There are 7 countries within this landmark. Countries of Central America (from north to south):

- Guatemala

- Belize
- Honduras
- El Salvador
- Nicaragua
- Costa Rica
- Panama.

Some scholars do not consider Belize and Panama to be a part of Central America due to historical events. Panama was part of Colombia in the past, and Belize used to be the "British Honduras".

View of Downtown Panama City

Central American countries are similar to each other in many aspects such as shared love for musical styles like cumbia, salsa, merrengue, marimba and many others. At the same time, however, each country has its own unique characteristics when it comes to cuisine, folklore, historical background, geography, economy etc.

Panamanian indigenous music band

There are not only economic differences between countries, but also within countries. For example, each of the Central American countries has a small group of very rich individuals and a large group of very poor individuals. For the most part, all of Central America is regarded to be part of the "developing world", because middle class is non-existent, the health care system is not up to standards, and many people don't have access to basic education.

Salvadorian folkloric outfits 

Panama and Costa Rica are considered to be the most economically developed. On the other hand, Nicaragua is the least developed due to highest adult illiteracy rate and some other factors. Guatemala has the highest population out of the six countries, and Belize is the only country where the official language is English, not Spanish. Want to know more? Then listen to our show on November 23rd, as we will have some fun facts about each country! Let's talk about music now! Music of Central America is simply fascinating. From rich indigenous sounds of Mayan instruments to tropical fusions of cumbia, salsa, merrengue, reggae, reggaeton, garifuna, punta music & many more. We will talk about each musical style in more detail during next Monday episode. 

City of San Miguel in El Salvador

Amazing tropical forests, green mountainous regions, pristine waters and beaches, and delicious food. Central America is definitely a special place in the world. 

Pristine waters of Belize

Celeste River in Costa Rica

Speaking of food (mmm yummy...), I will share with you my favorite Central American dish during the episode. Listen to us LIVE this upcoming Monday on ksfsmedia.net/radio.

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Lotzz of love,
La Guerita

Show cancellation on November 9th...

Hello Everyone!

Today's morning was such a... BUMMER !!! We were so disappointed that we had to cancel today's show. We woke up happy this morning and ready to take you on a musical journey to Venezuela. But... mother nature didn't let us; or perhaps the power generator at the radio station. 

Long story short, there was a power outage in the early morning hours at the San Francisco's Sunset district. Unfortunately, it affected the KSFS Radio Station as well.

We couldn't get the live stream out & have the show. I know! What a bummer! We saw many of you were on the website this morning to listen to the show. Thank you for your love and support!

The good news is that we will be back next week with the Venezuela Episode!!! 

Latin Soundzz is not going anywhere, so sit tight or lay comfortably and tune in next Monday on November 16th. 

Lotzz of love,

El Chuy and La Guerita 

A country of the most beautiful women in the world...

It's time for Venezuela Everyone! :)

It's la Guerita.

Let me share with you some things I know about this country...

Venezuela borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana

Venezuela - big, fascinating, diverse & beautiful. It's one of the very few places in the world, where you can find pristine beaches and water, large palm trees, high mountains, vast plains, enormous waterfalls, tropical forests, and sand deserts all in one country. It's is also extremely rich when it comes to biodiversity and the ethnic backgrounds of its human inhabitants. The people of Venezuela come from multicultural and multiracial mixes of all kind. Their population is composed of indigenous people, people of African descent, Europeans such as the Spanish, Italians, Germans and Portuguese, and even Arabic people.

Miss Venezuela 2015

Many say that this multiracial diversity is the main reason why Venezuelan women are considered to be the most beautiful females in the world. Up to this day Venezuela holds a record for winning the highest number of beauty contests on Earth! I dare to say that Venezuelan music is as fascinating as its beautiful women. Every region has its own musical traditions. The capital, Caracas, has a very rich history of Venezuelan merengue music, which is quite different from the Dominican merengue; salsa is also huge in the capital. The area of vast plains and farms closer to the border with Colombia developed a unique, Venezuelan-only style of music called Joropo.

Angel Waterfalls of Venezuela 

There are many more styles of music in Venezuela, but I will not talk about them in this post, and save them for the upcoming episode of Latin Soundzz. During the episode we will talk about the most influential artists, their music styles, and play you the best Venezuelan songs of all times. On a side note guys, Venezuela is also home to one of the best soap operas ever produced. Venevision, their home network responsible for production, has recorded many great novelas. In fact, the very first telenovela of my life (the first one I watched) was "Samantha" produced by Venevision in 1998. I don't remember it too well anymore, but I do remember being engaged and entertained by that series. I wish I had some free time to watch it again. It would probably bring me some nice memories. I'm curious if any of you saw this novela. Don't forget to listen to us this upcoming Monday, on November 9th on ksfsmedia.net/radio.

Telenovela "Samantha" produced by Venevision

All you have to do is copy and paste or type this link into a browser, and the radio icon will appear with the live broadcast. We will be waiting for you at 10 am Pacific Time. You can listen to us on a computer, laptop, tablet or your phone as long as you have Internet connection. I will have some more fun facts about Venezuela for you guys, and we will talk about everything in more detail. See you on Monday! :)        

Our shows are now available on Soundcloud and iTunes!

Hello Everyone :)

If you were wondering how you can listen to our radio shows if you missed the live broadcast, here are the options:

- You can go to soundcloud.com/latinsoundzz, and listen to all of the episodes without any log-ins or registrations;

- Or, if you are an Apple person, you can now listen to the podcasts on iTunes! Just search for Latin Soundzz on iTunes. 

Thank you for your support & interest in our show!

Lotzz of love,

La Guerita

  

Latin Soundzz wishes you a happy halloween!

*** HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE ***

WE MADE A SPECIAL HALLOWEEN RECORDING FOR YOU! :)

YOU CAN LISTEN ANYTIME BY CLICKING HERE:

Latin Soundzz Halloween

PERFORMED BY EL CHUY

Talk to us LIVE during the episode!

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for reading our blog, and listening to our show! :)

So far, we have had an amazing international audience!

Folks from Russia, Poland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Philippines, USA, Mexico, France, Venezuela, Colombia and Ireland have been visiting our blog frequently, and listening to our live shows and/or podcasts on soundcloud.com/latinsoundzz.

We want to take this relationship with you guys even further, and make it more significant. 

Now, you can directly communicate with us during the show on Mondays at 10 a.m. (Pacific Time).

Right below the "radio icon" on ksfsmedia.net/radio, there is a CHAT ROLL. Yes! 

A chat roll, where you can easily log in (takes about 2 seconds), and talk to us! :)

You can write to us about anything you would like... we can do personal greetings for you, greet your family LIVE on air, answer your questions etc.

Tune in this upcoming Monday at 10 a.m (Pacific Time), just by going to the KSFS Radio website, and interact with us! 

Lotzz of love,

El Chuy & La Guerita 

The country of tango, vino, delicious steak, and...

How are you guys, it's la Guerita!

Next Monday, on October 26th, we will take you on a journey through Argentina. I personally cannot wait for this episode!! Argentina is definitely one of the "closest to my heart" Latin American countries. Don't get me wrong though; I like and admire all of Latin America. I am interested in music, history, and culture from all the countries.

I am just extra excited about the Argentina episode, because I am more familiar with this country & its music in general due to being exposed more to it over the years. Just like each of you, undeniably, have your own areas and/or topics of interest; you all have certain things you just know more about in general, whether it is due to the degree of exposure, personal history, environment, attachment etc.

Argentina is known for many things ranging from delicious foods through diverse landscapes to extraordinary musical scene. I don't mean to talk about all of these things in this post in detail, because you can just google Argentina and read about everything you can find, and focus on whatever you are interested in. I do want to talk in this post about my experience with Argentinian music in particular. Everything started for me with the very famous Argentinian telenovela of the late 90s called "Muneca Brava" starring a highly talented Uruguayan born actress, Natalia Oreiro, and an extremely charismatic Argentinian actor Facundo Arana. This novela was a very long series (over 250 episodes!), and it was broadcast in so many countries all over the world, including my country of origin, Poland. The series proved to be great in many different aspects: the story, the characters, its cast, script value, and... MUSIC!!! That's exactly right! Music in itself was a huge part of this series. Not just the theme song, and background songs performed mainly by Natalia Oreiro, but the live music and bands who were featured on the novela as part of the "bailanta" scenes.

Scenes from the bailanta (a local, popular nightclub/ dance club where the main characters would go for entertainment) turned out to be a goldmine for discovering great music. A large amount of different bands and artists were featured throughout the series promoting themselves and at the same time popularizing some great Argentinian music all over the globe. This is how I, a girl from Poland, got into it, started learning Spanish on my own & continued to explore the culture, geography, history and music of Latin America.

Make sure to join me and el Chuy this upcoming Monday at 10 a.m. as we take you on a musical journey through Argentina, and share with you some interesting facts about this exciting country. You can listen to us for FREE all over the world, just go to this website: ksfsmedia.net/radio & enjoy!



Lotzz of love,
La Guerita      

  

No Paren La Fiestaaa... fun, fun, fun!!!

Hi Guys, How are you doing tonight? :)

We just wanted to share two videos recorded during today's show. We had lots of fun during the Brazil episode this morning, and we hope you had fun with us as well! 

Enjoy the videos, and join us next Monday for another exciting journey across Latin America.

                                                                           

You decide on a country theme this time!

Hello Everyone!

We want to hear from you! 

Help us decide which country should be featured on Latin Soundzz after Brazil.

Should it be the amazing Argentina?

The outstanding music of Venezuela?

 

Maybe the musical richness of Mexico?

Tell us through comments what you would like to hear on the show!

Lotzz of love, 

La Guerita & El Chuy 

Let's All Dance Samba Do Brasil!!

VAMOS DANÇAR DO BRASIL SAMBA!

 

  

    The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. Samba has become the best known form of Brazilian music worldwide, especially because of the country's carnival, although bossa nova, which had Antônio Carlos Jobim as one of its most acclaimed composers and performers, have received much attention abroad since the 1950s, when the song "Desafinado", interpreted by João Gilberto, was first released. 

(CLICK PLAY BELOW TO GET A TASTE OF THE AMAZING BRAZILIAN MUSIC! WE WILL HAVE THIS MONDAY)

SAMBA
      In 1929, prompted by the opening of the first radio station in Rio de Janeiro, the so-called radio era began spreading songs – especially the novelty Samba in its current format – to larger masses. This period was dominated by few male interpreters – notably Almirante, Braguinha, Mário Reis, Sílvio Caldas, Francisco Alves and singer/composer Noel Rosa and even fewer chanteuses such as Aracy de Almeida and sisters Aurora Miranda and Carmen Miranda, who eventually came to Hollywood becoming a movie star.



FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BRAZIL THIS COMING MONDAY OCTOBER 19TH ONLY ON LATIN SOUNDZZ!! 
@10 AM PT.  ...ON ksfsmedia.net/radio   WE GOT FUN FACTS! MUSIC AND MORE!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @LatinSoundzz
CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS ON SOUND CLOUD: soundcloud.com/LatinSoundzz
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK: facebook.com/LatinSoundzz






 

Rock Cochabambino ---> Cartel Afonico

Hi Guys,

I hope you are all doing great today!
Thanks for listening to the most recent episode of Latin Soundzz: Music of Bolivia.
If you missed the LIVE show, you can still listen to it at soundcloud.com/latinsoundzz!

As you may know, during the Bolivia episode, we played some Bolivian rock!
Although we do not have enough time during the show to go over a lot of great artists and bands, we always try to pick something interesting & give you a little taste of the music genre we talk about.
It's really hard to fit everything into just 1 hour, therefore there are a lot of songs/artists/bands that are left out.

I decided to write this post, so you
can do some research on your own and get to know the great Bolivian rock band we talked about on Monday a little more. I personally loved their songs ever since I found out about them last week while preparing for the show. Cartel Afonico is a band from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. During the show last Monday, we played 2 of their songs: "Maldita" & "Rock Star", but they have many more great songs to listen to!


I encourage you to check them out, and keep on expanding your musical horizons.

Besitos & Saludos,
La Guerita

Experience the musical richness of Bolivia!

Hi Guys, it's La Guerita :)

Next Monday, on October 12th, Latin Soundzz will take you to one of the most interesting places in Latin America. That's right! We are going to give you a dose of some great music from one of the very few countries in the world, where all of it citizens rejected McDonalds, and boycotted all of its restaurants across the country! 

Let us take you on a musical journey to BOLIVIA.

The cultural and musical richness of Bolivia are extremely impressive. Bolivia remains one of the most culturally linked countries to the indigenous people throughout all South & Central America. Its music has a very long history. Despite the period of Spanish domination and European influences, the people of Bolivia managed to preserve a lot of their indigenous folklore and traditions.

Traditional Bolivian (and other South American) musical instruments include the charango, charangón, ronroco, hualaycho, zampoña, quena, bombo, huancara, reco reco, chiapya box, pinquillo, tarka, toyos, pututu, Andean saxophone, and sheep hooves formed into a kind of shaker, as well as European musical instruments such as the violin and guitar.

Musical forms such as the Bailecito, Kullawada, Tonada (or,directly Tinku), Taquirari, Carnavalito, Lamento, Saya, Tuntuna, Taki Taki and Cueca are prominently featured in Bolivia's cultural music. As we prepare for the show about Bolivia, I want you to keep in mind that we are carefully selecting the best songs from each genre for you. I can't wait to share our Bolivian treasures with you! Listen to us on October 12th at 10 A.M. (PT) at ksfsmedia.net/radio.

Don't be an ignorant! Listen, learn & have fun with Latin Soundzz! hehehe;)