🎺 From the South Bronx to legend On February 21, the world of Latin music lost one of its most important architects. Willie Colón passed away, leaving behind more than songs, he left a way of understanding Salsa: as storytelling, as barrio testimony, as identity, and as social conscience. For many, he was a legend. For others, a cultural force. For me, and for an entire generation, he created the record that changed everything. Caracas, 1978: When It All Began for Me It was 1978 when my world first opened to the sounds and sights that would shape my tastes forever. Late-’70s Caracas buzzed with energy and possibility, at least to an 8-year-old boy. I remember the warm streets alive with chatter, the scent of mango trees, the roar of my friends playing futbolito and baseball with pelotica de goma in any empty space available in the middle of the urban sprawl. I remember watching “El Matador” Mario Kempes win Argentina its first World Cup on a black-and-white television that seemed ...