Still from interview with Theo Gonzalvez from the National Museum of American History about Joe Bataan; photo also featured in National Portrait Gallery

A Fusion of Cultures and Identities: Joe Bataan’s Latin Boogaloo Music

In this short video, Theo Gonzalves from the National Museum of American history, talks about musician Joe Bataan. Born in 1942, Joe grew up in Spanish Harlem, NY, the son of a Filipino immigrant father and an African American mother. He identified with Puerto Rican culture having grown up in the densely Puerto Rican populated community of Spanish Harlem. Drawing inspiration from the cultures that enveloped him, he helped create Latin Boogaloo, a music that reflected these different influences and gave voice to a whole community.

Visual: Image of brass instruments with music playing.

Video titled, "A Fusion of Culture and Identity: Joe Bataan’s Latin Boogaloo Music"

Brought to you by the Smithsonian Institution.

Narrator: Theo Gonzalves

Video Date: April 2, 2020

Video Length: 4 minutes, 34 seconds

Theo Gonzalves:

We're talking about Joe Bataan. A musician who was born and raised in Spanish Harlem. He eventually became one of the founders of Latin Boogaloo in New York City and what started out as a kind of a local music by young folks kids has become a global phenomenon.

Visual:

Photo of Joe Bataan in the center of musical group.

Theo:

Joe Bataan was born in 1942.

Visual:

Graphic of globe with arrow pointing to The Philippines traveling to the United States.

Theo:

His father was a Filipino Navy cook who made his way from the Philippines across the United States landing in New York City. His mother an African-American woman who came up from Virginia to New York City. The two of them met there and they had one son.

Visual:

Image of Joe Bataan with group of people in Spanish Harlem.

Theo:

Joe is an Afro-Filipino kid. As far as he knows he's the only Afro-Filipino kid that he knew in Spanish Harlem, but he grew up with a range of cultural backgrounds there. Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Jewish and I think is he identified closely with Puerto Rican culture.

Visual:

Series of images of Joe Bataan’s album covers: Gypsy Woman, Subway, Riot!, Poor Boy.

Theo:

Latin Boogaloo is a kind of music that came out of Spanish Harlem in the late 1960s and what it does is it combines Latin poly-rhythms with Philly soul American R&B. And also what's new about that generation too was they used English lyrics so it was really music for a new generation not like their parents generation. And so if you're coming up in Spanish Harlem in the late 1960s, you're listening to Joe Bataan.

Visual:

Series of images of Joe Bataan’s album covers: Singin’ Some Soul, Mr. New York and The East Side Kids, Sweet Soul, Saint Latin’s Day Massacre, Salsoul.

Theo:

The content of a lot of Latin Boogaloo it was music about the neighborhood and when Joe is singing about the neighborhood, he's also singing about himself. One of his most popular songs is a song called ‘Ordinary Guy’. It talks about not having a degree in biology. He says that his degree is in Street-ology.

Visual:

Series of black and white still images of Joe Bataan throughout his career.

Theo:

So he's really coming at these lyrics from a point of reality. Audiences can recognize something of themselves in Joe's music. In 1979, he released a single called Rap-O Clap-O just a few months ahead of Rapper's Delight.

Visual:

Image of Joe Bataan’s album cover Rap-o Clap-o zooming in on photo of Joe Bataan.

Theo:

And if we think about Rapper's Delight now, it's kind of synonymous with hip-hop and Joe feels that he was really at the birth of it rapping on a track in 1979.

Visual:

Image of Joe Bataan’s album cover Young, Gifted & Brown, transitioning to black and white photo of Joe Bataan. Followed by blurred background image of brass instruments with lyrics of the song.

Theo:

If I were to recommend one song, it would be ‘Young, Gifted and Brown’. At the core of it, you hear his lyrics when he's talking about himself and he's talking about being born and raised in Spanish Harlem in 1942 and getting his chance to sing his song with a beat so fresh and clear.

And so if you think about those lyrics I think you'll get a really clear picture of who Joe is.

Visual:

Image of Joe Bataan with his first band, The Latin Swingers. Series of zooms on different member of the band with Joe Bataan in the middle.

Theo:

The National Portrait Gallery acquired a photo of Joe Bataan in 2013 and it's a fantastic photo. It pictures him in 1965 surrounded by his first band the Latin Swingers.

And if you look at this photo what's amazing is that he's 23 years old and it looks like he's already a superstar he's surrounded by his band members, but all of his band members are young teenagers from the neighborhood and they're all looking older than they really are. They've got tuxedos and bowties. They're carrying their horns and it looked like a really sharp looking little army with Joe as the general sitting in the middle.

Another aspect of the photo is just Joe's posture. You'll notice them he's looking straight into the lens, but he's got this attitude. He’s really in charge. If you're a band member, one of the things you don't want to do is to disappoint the band leader because you don't know if you're gonna have the gig the next day. With this guy he looks like he's all about serious business. It's important for the National Portrait Gallery to have acquired that photograph, because it speaks to a very American story.

Visual:

Image of Joe Bataan posing by a ladder, zooming out to advertisement of Joe Bataan’s concern in Japan.

Theo:

Joe's parentage is Filipino and African-American. He grows up in Spanish Harlem and identifies with Puerto Rican culture.

Visual:

Images of Joe Bataan singing, transitioning to sample posters of Joe Bataan posing and futuristic graphic of UFO made from piano keys.

Theo:

It’s quite a unique and dynamic story and I hope it helps to really diversify our collections in terms of thinking about African American and Filipino American experiences. American history is multiracial, multicultural, multi-linguistic. It comes from every corner that you can think of and it's marked by immigrants as well as the descendants of slaves.

Visual:

Series of images of Joe Bataan advertisements: Joe Bataan and his singers with New York background, Joe Bataan’s Call My Name album, Joe Bataan and The Latin Swingers

Theo:

It’s marked by refugees and when they come together, they're not merely forgetting the homes that they've known. They're not merely forgetting the traditions that have been handed down. They're remaking those traditions.They're remaking them in terms of fashion and food and also music.

Visual:

Blurred background image of Joe Bataan with script, “How is Joe Bataan’s identity as a musician influenced by community, culture, and personal choices?

Video ends with image of Joe Bataan and his band’s equipment with logo of Smithsonian Institution.

End credits:

Joe Bataan by Unidentified Artist, 1965.
Gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Joe Bataan

Joe Bataan’s music can be heard on all major music streaming service platforms.

The production of this video received federal support form the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.

End instrumental music.

“Joe was an Afro-Filipino kid,” Theo Gonzalves of the National Museum of American History explains. “As far as he knew he was the only Afro-Filipino kid in Spanish Harlem.” American music has often included various cultural influences. Bataan helped create a musical genre, Latin Boogaloo, that helped voice the unique experiences of his community. Latin Boogaloo took traditional Latin rhythms and combined them with Philly soul and American R&B.

“It was music about the neighborhood,” Gonzalves says. And Bataan’s lyrics were often autobiographical. His song “Ordinary Guy” says that instead of a degree in biology, he has one in “street-ology.” “Audiences could recognize something of themselves in Joe’s music,” Gonzalves says. Seeing their lives represented in his art inspired the people in his community.

American history is multi-racial, multicultural, multi-linguistic. It comes from every corner you can think of.

In “Young, Gifted, and Brown,” Bataan celebrates his life and the opportunity to sing “with a beat so fresh and clear.” In his 1979 track “Rap-O Clap-O,” he performs an early version of rap music. “Joe feels he was really at the birth of hip-hop,” Gonzalvez says.

Bataan’s music, he argues, is an important reflection of multiple communities in the U.S. “It comes from every corner you can think of,” he says, “and it’s marked by immigrants as well as the descendants of slaves.” Through music, Bataan remade traditions into something new, fresh, and powerful.