Rubén Blades

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia   Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna born July 16 1948 is a Panamanian salsa singer songwriter lawyer actor Latin jazz musician and politician performing musically most often in the AfroCuban and Latin jazz genres As songwriter Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music creating thinking persons salsa dance music Blades has composed dozens of musical hits the most famous of which is Pedro Navaja a song about a neighborhood thug who appears to die during a robbery his song Sorpresas continues the story inspired by Mack the Knife He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider their second national anthem The song is titled Patria Fatherland He is an icon in Panama and is much admired throughout Latin America and managed to attract 18 of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994 In September 2004 he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos for a fiveyear term He holds a law degree from the University of Panama and a masters in international law from Harvard University He is married to singer Luba Mason Description above from the Wikipedia article Rubén Blades licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia