Paolah's "Music as an Expression of Culture": "Preciosa" by Marc Anthony

Bienvenidos

Welcome to my blog about Hispanic music!

I have been teaching Spanish for the last 10 years and have always liked to share the culture of Spain and the Latin American countries as well as I can.

Music is an important way of reaching people and communicating feelings or thoughts. I have found out that sharing music is also an excellent way of sharing culture. So I share music in class.

I make an effort to talk about songs that are part of the popular music of Spain and Latin America, songs from different countries, styles of music, from classic to folkloric music. Anything is possible.

As I always tell my students I have only one requirement for the music I share with them: It has to be a song that I like. Yes, I know. It sounds restrictive and selfish but there is a very wide variety of music that I like, and I keep up with very many different artist's latest news.

I started presenting sessions on "Music as an expression of culture" in AFLTA District IV Conference as well as the State Conference in Arkansas and regional conferences too. While preparing and doing the sessions the idea of the blog came as a good way to keep sharing information with people interested.

So here we go... I hope you enjoy this blog and if you want to leave a comment or ask a question feel free to do so. Thank you for your interest and your input.

If you have comments or questions feel free to comment on the post, or contact me by e-mail here.

Thanks!

¡Gracias!

PS: I always ask for school administration approval of any video, music or lyrics I plan to share with the students and I recommend you do the same.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

"Preciosa" by Marc Anthony

Hola, cómo les va?

Esta vez se trata de una canción puertorriqueña muy famosa que se considera el segundo himno de Puerto Rico. Se llama "Preciosa". Fue escrita por Rafael Hernández Marín en 1947.

Es originalmente un bolero, ritmo nacido en Cuba y que ha evolucionado y dado origen a otros muchos ritmos latinos mas.

En el video que les estoy compartiendo está la versión de Marc Anthony en la que empieza como bolero y luego termina como son y Marc hace un pregón propio de los cantantes de salsa. Marc está cantando en el Madison Square Garden de Nueva York en frente de un público en su mayoría de origen puertorriqueño.

Marc es nacido en Puerto Rico y creció en Nueva York como miles de otros "Newyorricans". El es uno de los cantantes mas famosos de salsa en el mundo latino.

Aquí su sitio web:
http://www.marcanthonyonline.com/us/home

La canción es muy hermosa y celebra ser puertorriqueño, habla del campo, de la belleza de la isla, de la herencia tradicional de Puerto Rico.

Se puede usar dentro del marco cultural del país, de los miles de Puertorriqueños que viven en Nueva York, como Marc y su familia, o también para introducir una charla a cerca de la Salsa!

Video

Letra

Espero que los disfruten.

Paola