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