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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Marien

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Speaker 1: No Rosa Today. Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Draco Rossa

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Speaker 1: Robbie Draco Rossa, often known simply as Draco Rossa, burst

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Speaker 1: onto the music scene in the mid nineteen eighties in

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Speaker 1: a boy band you might have heard of, Menuda, was

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Speaker 1: a hugely popular teen group that was known for retiring

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Speaker 1: their singers at the ripe age of sixteen. When it

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Speaker 1: was time for him to leave Manula, Draco began a

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Speaker 1: prolific songwriting career, including writing hits for his close friend

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Speaker 1: and probably most famous Manula alum, Ricky Martin is the

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Speaker 1: songwriter behind Labida Loca and She Bangs, just to name

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Speaker 1: a few. But Draco has also managed to have a

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Speaker 1: very successful career as a solo artist, very different stylistically

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Speaker 1: from his pop songwriting. In nineteen ninety six, he released

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Speaker 1: his classic album Lacamundo, which Billboard magazine named as one

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Speaker 1: of the fifty Greatest Latin albums of the past fifty years. Then,

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Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, Draco Rossa's life would take a big turn.

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Speaker 1: He was diagnosed with non Hodgkins lymphoma cancer and while

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Speaker 1: he beat it. He relapsed in twenty thirteen, but he

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Speaker 1: was declared cancer free a second time in twenty and

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Speaker 1: this experience gave him a new perspective on life, one

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Speaker 1: that influenced his album Monte Sagrado, which would be translated

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Speaker 1: to Sacred Hill. Earlier this year, Draco Rosa released an

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Speaker 1: album titled Reflejos de Loterno, where he reflects on his

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Speaker 1: forty year career, and in July, Draco was awarded the

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Speaker 1: Latin Grammys' Lifetime Achievement Award. Latino USA sat down with

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Speaker 1: Draco Rosa in twenty eighteen and were happy to bring

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Speaker 1: him back to you today. In his own words, here's

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Speaker 1: Draco Rosa.

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Speaker 2: My name is Draco Rosa. I'm I mostly consider myself

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Speaker 2: a songwriter. And then I'm it's gotten better at singing. Holloah,

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Speaker 2: I got now. I started music early in a group

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Speaker 2: called Menudo Manudo, the Puerto Rican singing group made up

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Speaker 2: the big well afoul across the United States, becoming something

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Speaker 2: of a phenoma.

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Speaker 1: Hi we are, he's ricky and he's.

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Speaker 2: Robbing to singing group that you were in at a

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Speaker 2: certain agent out at a certain age. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: the right thing to do because they gave me a

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Speaker 2: chance to be and I have I would be nice

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Speaker 2: and give somebody else a chance, right, And it was

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Speaker 2: exciting it started. First show was at Radio City Music Hall.

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Speaker 2: I was, I guess the first memory actually quit And

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Speaker 2: I quit not because I was unhappy, you know, touring

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Speaker 2: and getting paid and all that, just because I wanted

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Speaker 2: to start writing songs. And I wrote my first I thought,

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Speaker 2: my first decent song. I thought I was sixteen. My

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Speaker 2: dad was big on classical music and salsa. That was

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Speaker 2: his thing. My mom was the other side about the Beatles,

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Speaker 2: Stephen Wonder. I grew up listening to the Who, Zeppelin,

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Speaker 2: sly Stone. I'm a consumer of music, right, and then

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Speaker 2: within that those parameters what you've consumed and what you

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Speaker 2: can handle, you make music. Initially I was had the

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Speaker 2: privilege of meeting Tomas Mugnons. I presented some poetry, some

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Speaker 2: drawings and paintings and some music and he gave me

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Speaker 2: a deal based on that. At this point, you know what,

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Speaker 2: we already had huge hits on the other side of

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Speaker 2: the songwriter, like Levy the logo, and so they were like, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, Draco, this time is going to give us

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Speaker 2: this marketable, sort of pop, mainstream thing, and I said, sure, right,

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Speaker 2: because I just wanted to go record, and I thought

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Speaker 2: maybe at that moment, you know, yeah, I could do

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Speaker 2: that for myself. But you know what happens is I

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Speaker 2: spent tying myself and I start getting real and I

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Speaker 2: started feeling bad about it. So I wrote him a

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Speaker 2: long letter saying, like, I understand if you want to

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Speaker 2: pull the plug, you know, I'm not probably going to

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Speaker 2: deliver the album that you're expecting. If he writes back, hey,

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Speaker 2: you know you need to be yourself like I'm here

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Speaker 2: for you.

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Speaker 1: I deliver it.

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Speaker 2: And I went to see my mom in Florida, and

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Speaker 2: then the bad news came in. You know, everybody hated

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Speaker 2: it the album, and they thought it was strange. Nobody's

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Speaker 2: getting in and they thought it was dark. Those meetings

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Speaker 2: went on for a while and they were going to

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Speaker 2: drop me from the label. There's all this talking.

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Speaker 3: One day, I'm.

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Speaker 2: Crushed at home, why, you know, and thinking I did

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Speaker 2: all the right things in my mind. You know, I

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Speaker 2: was myself. I spoke to the guides, you know, I

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Speaker 2: was honest about everything. In the end, they put the

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Speaker 2: record out as I was starting promotion actually ago, everything

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Speaker 2: was canceled. If I show up with you know, Cuban too,

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Speaker 2: African Americans in the Puerto Rican ready to hit my

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Speaker 2: tiegra on live TV. We had all these interviews set

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Speaker 2: up and shows and it was all canceled just like that.

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Speaker 2: So it was a tough ride up. I'm hanging in there,

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Speaker 2: but a little of a depression and concern about what's

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Speaker 2: going on, not understanding. But I showed up to Columbia

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Speaker 2: to agot Bodeka under my surprise, people were singing yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I remember I showed up devastated by everything that

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Speaker 2: happened pre that show, you know, and then I found

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Speaker 2: this crowd that was singing along. Wow. I think that

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Speaker 2: was a nice turning point, giving me a little strength

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Speaker 2: to stick with it. It's amazing because you know, twenty

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Speaker 2: one years later, last year, I was at drougot VIDK

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Speaker 2: and it was one hundred and twenty dollars and people

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Speaker 2: singing the.

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Speaker 1: Songs and let me be that serlessly.

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Speaker 2: You know, when I look back on some of the recordings,

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Speaker 2: like what was important was the craft trying to build

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Speaker 2: these songs, Like how do you get this to matter

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Speaker 2: to other people other than yourself. There's gooo bab Since

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Speaker 2: day one. One of the things my grandmother was like,

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Speaker 2: you believe in yourself, You stick to your passion and

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Speaker 2: that thing will take care of you.

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Speaker 1: That was singer and songwriter that I called Rosa. This

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Speaker 1: episode was produce us by Gini Montalbo and Amandel Cantra.

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Speaker 1: It was mixed by Ginni Montalbo. The Latino USA team

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Speaker 1: includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanoz Junior,

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Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebou, Andrea Lopez, Gruzsado, Luis Luna, Loni, mar Marquez,

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Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Nor Saudi and Nancy Trujuillo. Penilee

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Speaker 1: Ramidez is our co executive producer. I'm your co executive

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Speaker 1: producer and host Marino Hosa. Join us again on our

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Speaker 1: next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on all

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Speaker 1: of our social media, you know, JNS, Dagram, Dick Dog, Eggs, Lube,

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Speaker 1: See you there, nottyes Bay.

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Speaker 3: Funding for Latino USA is coverage of a culture of

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Speaker 3: health is made possible in part by a grant from

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Speaker 3: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Latino USA is made possible

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Speaker 3: in part by the Heusing Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity,

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Speaker 3: and possibilities. More at hs foundation dot org and Agnes

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Speaker 3: Gunn MHM