Up From Babalu
 Joshua Glenn
"You can't just listen to Latin music - mambo, Cubop, boogaloo, salsa. You have to see it, smell it, dance it, taste it," insists Northampton-based DJ and graphic designer Pablo Yglesias, explaining why he called his illustrated history of Latin album cover art, published this month by Princeton Architectural Press, "¡Cocinando!" - cooking.
The book lives up to its title, serving up social history and the delights of the flesh in equal measure as it dances us past the often insultingly exotic, primitivist imagery of Desi Arnaz, Tito Puente, and Yma Sumac records of the 1940s and '50s on its way to the '60s and '70s - a period that Yglesias, who grew up in Boston's South End during those years, considers the Golden Age of Latin album cover art.
"From the late '60s until Latin music went mainstream in the mid-'80s, independent Latino-run labels took charge of the music, and many of the usual stereotypes suddenly disappeared from record stores," Yglesias recounted in a telephone interview.
"Artists and designers like Izzy Sanabria, Ely Besalel, Walter Velez, and Charlie Rosario made joking references to the received view of Latino culture as titillating and threatening - for example, Sanabria's infamous mock FBI poster of Willie Colón for [the 1971 record] La Gran Fuga' - but they had a positive agenda. Their album covers, for acts as diverse as Willie Colón, Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, and Santana, helped Latinos rediscover and invent an identity that was ours."
How does Yglesias feel about the cover art of Gloria Estefán, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and Christina Aguilera albums? "When I DJ, I often play their records - because people do enjoy the music," he answered carefully. "But from a design standpoint, they're not getting the great album covers. Sexy headshots won't stand the test of time." |
Vallarta Weddings
Entertainment | Books | April 2005 
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