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TatoBrujo's Interests
General
Life, My Family, All things Boricua/Puerto Rican, Good Music, Art, Food, Spirituality, and the endless search for Self Knowledge.
"Puerto Rico en pié, herguido en la grandeza de su estirpe, en la Crúz de San Juán Bautista, en la grandeza de una Raza que empuña sus estandartes para hacer de la Humanidad la [unidad] divina."
All Puerto Rican Roots; Jíbaro, Bomba, Plena, etc..., Old School Salsa, Old School Hip Hop, Roots Reggae, Afro-Caribbean Roots, Deep House, Classic Blues, Clasical, some World Music.
"Man and His Symbols," "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover," "Knowing Woman," "The Art of War," "The Alchemist," All Holy Scriptures,...
Heroes
Ramón Emeterio Betances "El Antillano", Don Pedro Albizu Campos "El Maestro", Ismael "Maelo" Rivera, Rafael Cortijo, José "Pepito" Argüelles, Mariposa, my Parents, my GrandParents, all Puerto Rican Patriots and all of my Ancestors...The Creator
Cuny City College
New York,New York
Graduated: 1995
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Applied Urban Anthropology
Minor: Latin American/Caribbean Studies
Although I also play a few instruments, my main passion in life is singing. I preffer Puerto Rican and Caribbean Roots Music; from jíbaro music (Puerto Rican Mountain Music), to bomba (Afro-PR Roots), plena (Criollo PR Roots) and anything that groove
Doña Nydia E. Sáez Cintrón & Don Monserrate "Tato" Torres Rodríguez
My Hometown
Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
Tato Torres Sáez
My full name is Carlos Javier Torres Sáez Rodríguez Cintrón, but most people just know me as "Tato" Torres or "TatoBrujo". I am the eldest son of the marriage between Monserrate "Tato" Torres Rodríguez & Nydia E. Sáez Cintrón.
I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico into an extended family of musicians, educators, artisans and community leaders from a mountain top of the southern town of Guayanilla, in a rural barrio called El Consejo Alto. I grew up in EL Alto up until 1984, when my immediate family (parents and siblings) migrated to the U.S. and I have lived in New York City ever since.
Music is my Life!, or rather.., my Life is Music!!! I grew up in a very musical family, and I am, more than anything else, a musician, composer and singer. I am an experienced practitioner of Puerto Rican musical traditions and play a variety of musical instruments, but I am generally known and recognized as a singer.
As both a musician and visual artist I have had the pleasure to have worked along side some of the best interpreters of expressive Puerto Rican traditional arts in New York City.
I once studied Applied Urban Anthropology at the City College of New York (CCNY) with a focus on Ethnomusicology and concentrating on the role of traditional music within the Puerto Rican community. After several semesters of graduate school in the Masters Program at CCNY (CUNY), I took off to do fieldwork, and eventually, simply decided to just stay out in the field.
Despite the academic experience, I identify myself as a cultural activist, and often tend to refer to myself as a "recovering anthropologist."
I have dedicated myself to learning, practicing and nurturing the musical traditions of Puerto Rico throughout the Diaspora, but with a focus on the community of New York City where I live.
Artistically, I've had the pleasure and honor of performing with and been part of numerous Puerto Rican musical ensembles like Los Pleneros de la 21na, Los Instantaneos de la Plena, William Cepeda's Afro Boricua and Afro-Rican Jazz, etc., and my own personal project, YERBABUENA. I've had the honor to share the stage with such greats as Andrés Jiménez, Antonio Cabán Vale "El Topo", Nito Méndez, Felix Olmo, El Gran Combo, La Sonora Ponceña, Raphy Levitt & La Selecta, Los Guyayacanes de San Antón, Yomo Toro, Papo Vázquez, and many more.
I am an active member of the "musical family" from the Rincón Criollo Cultural Center in The Bronx, better known as "La Casita de Chema". And from my experience there, I founded a musical ensamble dedicated to moving our music forward without losing our roots. Firmly rooted on the ground at Rincón Criollo, the band, called "YERBABUENA" (one word), has just released their first CD, titled "BORICUA ROOTS MUSIC".
YERBABUENA is composed of young individuals who come together to play the music that they love under my musical direction. It includes musicians, singers and dancers from the New York City area, who share an intense passion for the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. While well-recognized Boricuas like Willie Colón, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin are known worldwide for their "Latin" flavor, groups like Los Pleneros de la 21na, Viento de Agua, and now YERBABUENA, have been changing the way people listen to traditional Puerto Rican music in New York City and beyond. (www.yerbabuena.biz)
We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.
Even while the earth sleeps we travel.
We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered…”
-Kahlil Gibran
"The envious praises me unknowingly"
-Kahlil Gibran
Like-minded individuals with significant knowledge and experiences to share.
The mother(s) of my children!!!
"There is some kiss we want with our whole live The touch of Spirit on the body.”
-Rumi
About My Blogs:
My Blogs have become part of the expression of a broader work in continuous progress. They are what I call "cut and paste" documents, composed, in this case of a series of ideas, thoughts, revelations and words, some of which may be my own and many others, which are from various other sources. They are a small part of a simple collection of information, which is of great importance to me, and which gives my life some meaning and purpose. They are NOT part of any "manifesto" or any type of final document claiming to contain the Ultimate Truth. Their content has grown and changed numerous times since the very first words were typed. Based on this I feel that it will continue to grow and change as I, myself have and will continue to do. Following the advice of my Inner Voice, I have decided to share it for reasons that may or may not be obvious.
"All wisdom is plagiarism, only stupidity is original."
Less hasty am I than the wind, yet I must go"
