Rocker Roller Rican

To be honored is one thing. But to be honored in the land of our
family(Borinquen) particularly in our hometown of Mayaguez is the
greatest accolade I receive in my life. It is better than a Grammy, an
Academy Award, an Emmy and even a Pulitizer. My life is about discovery
and in the week I spend in Mayaguez I witness so much talent that I am
humbled to be declared "un hijo de Mayaguez" a day after I meet one of
the island's treasures, Shorty Castro del Barrio Paris, while he is honored.
A pureinspiration for me as a dancer, singer, actor, poet and comedian.
And it is all because of my parents que son del Barrio Balboa y La Quinta.
Thank you for honoring my work
Sociedad Autentica De Coleccionistas
Musica Popular Oeste De P.R.

Luis Chaluisan-Salsa Magazine Network

Luis Chaluisan Salsa Magazine

Luis Chaluisan-The Nuyorican Movement

Mr Salsa Izzy Sanabria aparece en
"Salsa La historia Jamás Contada"
Informe Especial en el Documental
"Rocker Roller Rican" (75 minutos)
La vida y época de Intérprete
Nuyorican El Extreme Luis Chaluisan.
Cómo el término magico se transforma
en una industria y una
nueva generación de Jovenes
Puertorriqueño
forjando su nueva identidad
Latina y presencia en los Estados Unidos

Mr Salsa Izzy Sanabria Stars In
"Salsa The Untold Story"
Part of "Rocker Roller Rican Documentary"
(FINAL CUT: 75 minutes)
The Life And Times Of Nuyorican Performer
El Extreme Luis Chaluisan
How the magic term transforms an industry
and a new generation of
Puerto Rican Baby Boomers
forging their new Latino identity
and presence in the U.S.

Free preview and dropbbox download of
ROCKER ROLLER RICAN

Luis Chaluisan

managing editor

SAVE THE DATES: NOVEMBER 5-9, 2014

@ selected sites throughout NYC:

video on demand

Free preview and dropbbox download of
ROCKER ROLLER RICAN

La Vida Es Un Sueno-Life Is A Dream

My father and mother give me a

Kodak 100 Instamatic 1966

Sparking my curiosity about images

My grandfather gives me a

reel to reel recorder and

television set I use to create

audiotape programs for my

amusement in 1967

My parents give me a second

smaller reel to reel recorder I

use to record conversations

with my brother and silly stuff

1968

My first record player and

buying 45 records

1968

First 45 Bought

Palomba Music Center

Cloud 9 1968

The Temptations

It was Motown From Therein

Soul Seed: My 45 RPM Record Album from 1969

Sears Art School Scholarship

1969 Watercolor By Luis Chaluisan

Enter Cardinal Hayes High School

September 1971

Melrose S. BX 10451

Honors Classes and Music Department

Graduate 26th out of 473 Seniors

92.3% Grade Avg Over Four Years

1972 Read

Down These Mean Streets

Piri Thomas

Life Changing

1972 WEST SIDE STORY

Premieres on NBC Network

Gangs Become Chic

At The Same Time

More Dangerous

Finalist National Junior Olympic

Mile Race Summer 1973

2nd Place

Van Cortlandt Stadium

4 min. 39 sec.

Varsity Half Mile Best 2:09.3

Varsity Mile Best 4:59.8

Championship Record Setting

Hayes Varsity

Cross Country Team

1973

Coached by Mr. Ed Robinson

A RECORD

THAT STILL STANDS

With

1. Oscar Amaro '74

2. Richard Zwanzig '74

3. Butch Soares '74

4. Ricardo Morales '74

5. Luis Chaluisan '75

Avg Team Time 14 min. 21 sec.

Two and A Half Mile

Cross Country Course

Van Cortlandt Park

September 1973

My Uncle Heriberto

Takes Me To The Apollo

For A Sunday Afternoon

Film And Show

The Reivers

And Live Performance

By The Sylvers

1973

Watch SALSA TV Show

Hosted by Mt Salsa

Izzy Sanabria

Fall 1973

Hear Hector Lavoe
For First Time 1973
Sigue Feliz

At FARIA Family Party

Nuestro Primos

De Parte De

La Familia Chaluisan

Hear Richard Pryor For First Time

That Nigger's Crazy LP 1974

Fan From That Moment Onwards.

Establish

"ADORACION"

Dance Company 1974

Isa Diaz-Tino Torres- Luis E Figueroa Jr-

Al Brizuela-Roxanne Ortiz 1975

My high school friends (15 in all split 8 women/7 men) and I formed the Adoracion Dance Company with my brother Ron and his friends in May 1974 presenting a combination cabaret show (comedy skits to open for 15 minutes/choreographed pieces to close for a half hour). We performed Salsa, Hustle, Swing and African dance numbers. And we had a small quintet of writers drawn from the Cardinal Hayes School Newspaper who created original material the group . These inluded . John Russell (future PHd Harvard/Gifu University Japan) and future NY Times reporter David Gonzalez. We used music recorded by Eddie Palmieri, Afro Caribbean Celia Cruz/Tito Puente/La Lupe LPs and Earth Wind and Fire's "Africano" as our closer. Adoracion (named after the Palmieri composition) appeared in parish auditoriums and Aspira sponsored open air events through 1976. The company ontinued when I left for College under the directorship of Luis Figueroa, Yvonne Armstrong and the late Isa Diaz. Our Latin Student organization at Amherst La Causa decided to present a cultural show case for November 1975. We had already formed an alliance with the Latina Stdent Organization at Mount Holyoke and they offered to help with dancers/poets and soloists. (The Mount Holyoke supporters were dubbed "Salsoul". We were disco heads in November 1975.)

Rose "Lupe" Santos
Senior Year HS
SBX Girlfriend 1974-75

Mother Butler HS

LINCOLN CENTER

DRAMA CLASS SCHOLARSHIP

1974

With Marcel Marceau

First two Salsa LP's I Buy

August 1974

Willie Colon Lo Mato

Eddie Palmieri Sentido

RECRUITED BY

AMHERST COLLEGE

November 1974

Half Academic Scholarship

A Taste Of The Future

WEST SIDE STORY 1975

"Loco"

Shark Gang Member

Hayes Production

ALLIANCE OF LATIN ARTISTS

Summer Tour And Two Week Run

At Lincoln Center 1975

I make a conscious decision

the "gypsy's" life is for me

August 1975

With Isa Diaz San Juan Bautista Festival

Alliance Of Latin Artists

Central Park NYC June 1975

First appearance in NYC Media

Centerfold Photo

NY Daily News

Freddie Prinze and Liz Torres

Our Teen Pop Stars

1975

One A Tragedy

The Other A Survivor

Roger Dawson
His Sunday Salsa Show
on WRVR FM Crossed Over
To Different Listeners
May 1975

Enter Amherst College

August 29, 1975

Declare Theater Arts Major

Third Day on Campus

Live at 209 James Hall

Launch of ESPIRITU SALSA

on WAMH 1975

PALANTE! 1975

We Bring Spirits to Amherst College

Guest Appearance Alana Label

My First Poem

Published In THE POLEMIC
Narrative Of A Hybrid

March 1976

Edited by

John G. Russell Ph.D.

Gifu University

37+ Years Of

Professional Radio Experience

Move Into The Zoo

Alpha Theta Xi

Amherst College

September 1976

"Drinking Again" November 1976

Experimental

B&W 3:30 Music Video-Dance Film

Directed and Produced

by John Coles Amherst '79

Consultant On

Amherst Experience

John Coles Film

1977-78

MAS PALANTE 1977

The Palante Series Ran

At Amherst College From 1975-2004

Thank you Alana La Bel for providing yet another program from the PALANTE! Series we launched at Amherst College in 1975 (Pictured here is the April 1977 program. PALANTE ran at Amherst College from 1975-2004. ) In May of 1977 I joined Latin NY Magazine and was soon reporting and participating in the Salsa and Loisaida Arts scene including encounters with punk rockers and early hip hop artists MOVE TO MANHATTAN June 1977

31 Nagle Avenue

#6M in Fort George

In June 1977 This Apartment

Went For $120.00 A Month

LAST LISTED AT $247,500

As A Coop Apartment 2013

Luis Chaluisan

managing editor

Meet Mr Salsa

For The First Time

January 1977

At El Teatro El Porton

Latin NY Amateur Night

Felix Romero Isa Diaz 1977

Read Lefty Barretto's

Nobody's Hero

Spring 1977

He was to become a Mentor and Friend

Lefty on Left - Soledad on Right

Meet Al Santiago

The Genius Producer Of Alegre

And Another Mentor

June 1977

CALLE LUNA CALLE SOL

"Loisaida" As I Witness It in 1977-79

NESTOR TORRES

EDDIE FIGUEROA

NEW RICAN VILLAGE

101 Avenue A 1977

Young Lord Eddie Figueroa became a mentor in 1977 when I visited his Arts Center "The New Rican Vilage. Eddie Figueroa was typical of his Nuyorican generation in that he was a man of the street, a picaresque figure whose narrative combined the hustler’s pregón and the semi-intellectual air of the counterculture. "The Arts is a way for us to express our culture, our beliefs to a large audience. Our main philosophy is about personal growth. People developing their own potentilities. Their capacities learning who theyare, how this operates .. psychology. For example, we start working on a play by Pedro Pietri in a couple of weeks. Pedro is by far one of our more important writers. He's always been ahead of the curve. He's very laid back and a lot of people can't understand what it is seeing things from their points of view but he's a visionary. His stuff is out there. He shows relationships well, the ridiculousess and the tragedy of our relationships. Jesus is Leaving is an example of this but it wasn't executed well. The actors didn't put that across but the script did. He has a play that just closed called The Living Room which is about mental illness and the piece that we're going to do What Goes Down Must Come Up which is about relationships. More things are hapening on radio than TV for us. The music on radio and a lot of the happenings that are ocurring now are being documeted on radio, not TV. I see cable TV as going to develop in the future for us. The focus moving into the eighties is more personal. If you want to call it politics it would be the politics of responsibilty. Are we going to be responsible for the space that we occupy? Are we going to be responsible for educating ourselves in developing our own awareness and getting at the root of what it is?" The New Rican Village is a music driven venue that features guerilla salsa by Conjunto Libre. While punk rock and new wave bands like The Talking Heads, Blondie and Kid Creole develop around them in the East Village, the Gonzalez brothers explore Afro Caribbean rhythms as reactionary head music with the New Rican house band. Andy and Jerry Gonzalez (Conjunto Libre) lead a pack of musicians who carve a special niche of their own in Latin music history. They perform each Thursday night. Flute player Nestor Torres, pianist Hilton Ruiz and saxophonist Mario Rivera (with his Salsa Refugees) stand out. Nestor is fresh from Puerto Rico. Nestor got here four years earlier with his family. A conservatory-trained musician who studies with Alberto Socarras (the first jazz flute solo on record is attributed to Socarras in 1928), Nestor Torres is a delight to meet and related to my father’s side of the family. His tone is pure. He plays the flute percussively dancing on top of the conga rhythms as a butterfly darts over a field of lilies. The genius of Nestor and bassist Andy Gonzalez is how they develop a musical language while they play. Each anticipates the others rhythmic patterns, notes, key changes while locked in a unique conversation of beats. When the music between Andy and Nestor is really happening there’s a deep communication that occurs where the two are one in touch with their most inner selves. Their signature piece is a bass/flute duet entitled Tres Palabras -- Three Words. Their sound could be translated just as simply in three words: It was heavy.

Writing For LATIN NY 1977

The Holy Grail At Latin NY

Hector Lavoe

I meet him covering an appearance at Fordham College Lincoln Center. He splits a bill with ORQUESTA CIMARRON fronted by the tremendous Rafael De Jesus and develop a casual acquaintance. He is a very affable man. Obviously high but emanating a strange sort of spirituality. From the few conversations I have with him and encounters when I fall deep in the life with a West Indian Posse in my neighborhood during the mid eighties, I come to the conclusion what a bitch it is to be a professional Salsa Star. Not a life I ever want. At the same time my devotion remains intact to his career. Buy every album and learn to sing Salsa by memorizing ten of his songs. I am in Tucson when he passes away. It pretty much bums out the musicians I am playing with at the time. I'm not ashamed to say I cry for a 45 minutes straight the night of his death. The kind of cry where you can't catch your breath - sollosando. RIP Papito. Love you madly.

EL TODOPODEROSO

HECTOR APPEARS

AT THE END

HECTOR LAVOE REFLECTS ON HIS CAREER
Hector Lavoe reflexiona sobre su carrera No Me Llores Mas

Salsa Hall Of Fame Single

SALSA WORLD

Memories and Dreams

Issue I Was Hired

Cover Story Report

On Los Papines 1977

Meet Pedro Pietri
And The Original
Nuyorican Poet-Arts Scene
At 503 East 6th Street

While on Assignment
For LATIN NY
July 1977

EDWARD JAMES OLMOS

Is a frequent visitor to Latin NY

While He Is On Broadway

With Zoot Suit

QUOTED IN FRENCH STUDY ON MONGO SANTAMARIA
Eléments bibliographiques : CHALUISAN, Luis. 1978.

"Mongo's Magic spell".
Latin NY (April 1978) : 20-23, photos.

La composition la plus célèbre de RS est certainement
Afro-Blue dont l'interprétation de John Coltrane domine le lot de
la vingtaine d'enregistrements qui en a été faite, même celui de
Count Basie et celui de Dizzy... mais c'est une question de goût.
D'autres compositions - moins connues sans doute - sont intéressantes
Yambú, Mi guaguancó. Quand on compile les enregistrements, on constate
que RS a enregistré seulement deux standards cubains (El Manisero -
Manteca), tandis qu'il a gravé plusieurs tubes de jazz (All the things
you are - Body & Soul - Summertime - You are on my mind).