Luis Medina
Luis Medina is a one-man encyclopedia of Latin music trivia knowledge, antidotes and history. The SF-Mission native can name-drop like he invented the notion, having interviewed and worked alongside music giants from the Fania All-Stars to Carlos Santana.
Medina’s Venezuelan father met his Mazatlan mother on a San Francisco dance floor, where they were both involved in the 1940s and ‘50s tango scene. They went on to win many awards. It’s quite possible Medina picked up his love of music in the womb.
Medina has deejayed, emceed, interviewed, written, recorded, exposed and played a range of Latin music from salsa to Afro-cuban to Latin jazz. He has been instrumental in local music education and has contributed to the San Francisco Carnival festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival of seasons past.
This summer Medina served as a guest DJ at the 17th Annual “El Templo Latino,” the biggest outdoor salsa festival in Europe.
Medina has also been honored for his work. In 2001 he received the Achievement In Latin Music Promotion-Lifetime Award-San Francisco Salsa Congress 2001 and in 2008 he was awarded the Achievement in Outstanding Lifetime Service in Radio from the Western Region Puerto Rican Council.
But all that is to be expected from a man whose passion for music is rooted in childhood. “When I was six years old my parents bought me a toy microphone,” said Medina. He currently serves as music director at KPFA 94.1 FM and hosts the Saturday night Latin music program “Con Sabor.”
“My primary motivation in all this was always the music,” said Medina. “My passion for music, this has been happening ever since I was 10 years old, the rhythms, the vibrancy, the passion, the energy. When I was 17 I was listening to Miles Davis, at the same time I was listening to Santana.”
It was while studying architecture at San Francisco State in the early 1970s that Medina decided to make a big shift and make the promotion and contemplation of music his life’s work. “I decided that I wanted to get into broadcasting. At that time there weren’t too many Latinos who were interested in broadcasting,” said Medina.
Lucky for Medina, his cousin Eduardo Guilarte was one of the exceptions. Guilarte took him to meet Arturito Santiago who had a musica tropical show on the commercial Spanish station KBRG. It rocked Medina’s world.
At that time Latin music did not yet have the prestige and diversity on U.S. radio stations that it enjoys today. “There wasn’t always that richness that we have right now,” said Medina. In the 70’s there was a nurturing period.” Medina said that the community of Latin student musicians and aficionados at SF State took him under their wing. They taught him the history and the roots of the music sparking his fascination.
Then Guilarte inherited the midnight to 6:00 a.m. slot on the new public radio station KPOO, and asked for Medina’s help. “I provided all the music – salsa, jazz and other stuff,” said Medina. This evolved into a 3-hour show called Mestizo aired from 1974 to ’79.
In 1979, Medina was asked to start a show on the Spanish language station KBRG. Feeling that his Spanish skills weren’t up to par to do a full in-language show, Medina asked to do the show in both languages. His show, “Sabor Caliente,” was one of the country’s first bilingual radio programs dedicated to Latin music.
In 1975 Medina worked with Jose Flores to produce one of the first American radio programs to feature Cuban music. Medina was the man behind the microphone the first time that Los Papines, one of Cuba’s top rumba bands, visited KPOO in 1977. Also in 1975, Medina worked with Greg Landau to produce a show called “The Music of Revoluntionary Cuba.”
To supplement his radio work, Medina has developed a solid career in entertainment, which included co-producing for SFSU University productions, producing concerts, and helping community agency Centro del Cambio produce a street fair featuring Joe Bataan.
His DJ work took off in 1994 when Adrian Gadar opened a salsa club at 330 Ritch called Mi Pueblo. Medina packed the dance floor and stayed there several months.
“I’ve worked with Celia Cruz, to Santana to Shaggy. I’ve been very fortunate in most of my life. I have a multifaceted career,” said Medina. And, fortunately, times have changed since Medina began playing and celebrating Latin music. “Now you have a lot of different scenes and DJs. We are very fortunate to be here in the San Francisco Bay Area where salsa and Latin jazz are appreciated and supported,” he said.
“San Francisco is a melting pot. A lot of great musicians have come here and decided to make it their home. For a lot of people salsa is part of the air that they breathe.” Medina plans to continue being on the forefront of music history. “I’ve been in the business since 1974 and I’m still learning,” he said. And we still love listening.
luismedinaconsabor.blogspot.com
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Avotcja
It was during her early teenage year when Avotcja Jiltonilro found her passion – Latin music and especially the kind with an African soul.
Jiltonilro was born in New York to parents with roots in the Caribbean. She began collecting records as a kid. Soon, her voluminous collection got the attention of local radio hosts who would invite the youngster on to their show. By the age of 14, Jiltonilro was performing poetry, learning radio production and playing music.
Yearning to be on her own, she ran away to California in the mid-1950s where she was declared an emancipated minor at 15. Unfortunately, no one would hire her because she looked even younger. The only place she could find work was in the strawberry fields. “I picked anything I could but the one that got me the worse was strawberries. You are wet all the time and they have these big horrible caterpillars. They use to spray the fields when we were in them. That’s probably why I have MS [multiple sclerosis] now but you can’t prove anything,” said Jiltonilro.
In the fields she met Mexican and Filipino farmworkers who took her under their wings and who she credits with keeping her on track. “If it wasn’t for those rough Mexican and Filipino men who grabbed me by my ear because I was a wild child and I was ready to get into trouble…” said Jiltonilro.
Over the next decade or more she moved between California, New York, Mexico, Canada and even Europe, finally settling in California for good in the early 1970s. It was all of these experiences that flow through Jiltonilro’s musical work.
Her work in Bay Area radio began in the early 1970s in Berkeley when two young men who were hosting a program at U.C. Berkeley on Raza Media ask her to take over their show for a few months.
By 1973 Jiltonilro began hosting her own program at the nascent KPOO alternative station. She’s been there ever since. “I’m the oldest, continuous DJ in the Bay Area,” said Jiltonilro.
Then KPFA called her. At KPFA she currently hosts several programs. Her blues program has won three awards.
In the 1970s Jiltonilro got a job at NBC as an engineer. The money was good but there was no space for creativity. “You played what they wanted you to play.” She couldn’t stand it and left.
Thus, it is at KPOO where Jiltonilro’s true spirit shines. There she is free to play what ever she wants, including her favorite, black music from the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America.
Besides her radio work, Jiltonilro is a musician—her group, Modúpue, was named jazz band of the year in 2005 and 2010 by the Bay Area Blues Society—and a published poet, as well as a writer and a DJ.
“I am 69 years old and I started doing my stuff when I was 14. So for me the music and the poetry always went together. I refuse to call myself a spoken word artist because stuff is written for the page and the stage,” said Jiltonilro.
To sustain her radio work Jiltonilro took up teaching to pay the bills. “I taught in the penal system. I taught in the schools. I taught music, poetry and drama,” said Jiltonilro. She worked in the penal system for more than 20 years where she won recognition for her ability to teach people who didn’t want to read and write.
Jiltonilro credits music with educating her. “Music has introduced me to the planet.”
“Don’t be afraid to accept the beauty of differences. People shouldn’t be afraid to find their passion and when they find it not let anything get in the way of it. Get a square job on the side if you have to so you won’t have to sell out.” Advice well worth taking from this multi-talented artist who has managed to create a decades-long career that she can still feel passionate about.
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Chata Gutierrez
Chata Gutierrez, the host and producer of KPOO’s Saturday afternoon “Con Clave” program, is truly a Mission district girl and a survivor.
Her father, who was from a small town in the Mexican state of Michoacan, came to the U.S. through the Bracero program. Gutierrez, the youngest of five children, was born at San Francisco General in 1953.
Growing up on 22nd and Folsom placed her in an environment that influenced her interest in Latin music.
“I always liked music and bought records when I could. In my later teens I had a lot of friends who were from Puerto Rico and that’s where my love for salsa began. When we lived on 22nd one of our neighbors had a jibaro group. I use to dig the instruments they played. To this day I love that musica,” said Gutierrez.
As a teenager she found a job at Centro del Cambio where she was responsible for promoting the programs.
It was during this time that Gutierrez discovered Arturito Santiago who had a late night show on KBRG. “He had a very unique style, like a Latino Wolfman Jack with a Puerto Rican accent. Imagine that. He would play all these slamming tunes from Puerto Rico,” said Gutierrez. Somehow Santiago had managed to carve out his own show on a top 40 station.
Gutierrez saw her chance to do the same when she ended up going to KPFA to promote Centro del Cambio programs and met Emiliano Echeverria who was doing the Reflexiones de La Raza show.
“I met Emiliano and I liked what he was doing and I wanted to learn everything he knew. I told him ‘Teach me everything’ and he proceeded to do just that.”
Gutierrez’s first show aired on Nov. 6, 1972. “I was 19 going on 20 when I did my first show. The minute I got into that studio I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
“My family probably thought [my radio work] was a passing phase. But they were also very proud of me. My mom was right there by the radio when I first came on the air. My sister Yolanda, who was pregnant with my niece, used to come to the station.”
One of Gutierrez’s most treasured memories was meeting Mongo Santamaria at the now defunct Playboy Jazz Club in San Francisco off Broadway.
“He was there and there were so many people in the audience. I walked up to him and introduced myself. I knew nothing about him at the time. I only had one of his albums called “Up from the Roots.” So I started asking him about the religion, about Santeria and he had so much patience for this obvious very young person asking all these questions. He took the time. He was such a humble man. And he was my first interview, ever.”
Gutierrez went on to interview Hector Lavoe, Johnny Pacheco, Ray Barreto and dozens of other salsa greats along with giving time to local bands.
Over the past 38 years Gutierrez has had a major impact on the local music scene. By sharing her love and knowledge of salsa with the Bay Area public she has helped to create an environment for the music to thrive here.
“I think [my work] has really helped to propel the music and get younger people to tune in to the radio and hear the rhythm and the music. It’s the music their parents used to play and now they are getting into it. I love that. To me that the best thing that can happen. To pass on the music to future generations.”
She also credits radio and music with saving her life. “No matter where I was or what I was doing I somehow managed to do my show. One of the most beautiful things I have seen is how much the music has reached out to so many people. And what unites us all is the drum. La clave. It’s all in la clave. It’s right there,” said Gutierrez.
After a few years at KPFA, Gutierrez moved to KPOO in the late 1970s where she began her salsa show “Con Clave.”
And as can be expected, there was little or no money to be had. “I never did it for money. There is no money. It’s the passion for the music and the communication with the community,” said Gutierrez.
Her income came from a job at the Department of Public Health. She retired two years ago due to health problems. She also stopped her disk jockey gig at Jelly’s nightclub. “Now the priority is my grandchild and daughter,” said Gutierrez.
But Chata Gutierrez isn’t going to disappear and is planning on doing a regular live broadcast at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts next year with her good friend Ray Balberan.
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Emiliano Echeverria
Walking into Emiliano Echeverria’s living room in San Francisco’s Sunset district is like entering the Library of Congress. Hundreds of albums (the oldest one is from 1903), books, and a mix of interesting miscellany line the room in organized crates and boxes. And for the most part, the focus is Latin music, in particular, Cuban salsa.
The archive extends to Echeverria’s mind, which is a fine-tuned treasure trove of musical, social and political dates, facts and anecdotes.
Echeverria, who was born in Guatemala, came to San Francisco as a small child and grew up in several neighborhoods. It was this experience combined with the working class and ethnically diverse nature of the city that created a unique environment for the young boy.
“I grew up in San Francisco which was a very fertile musical and cultural environment. And when we where growing up as kids back in the 50s and 60s there was all kinds of radio stations on the air catering to young people. Some people use to call it pimple radio because of all the pimple cream commercials on the top 40 stations,” said Echeverria.
Echeverria and his friends liked a wide range of music. This eclectic taste resulted in a growing album collection for the young teen who began playing his music at school and church parties.
At 14 years-old he decided to visit local radio stations to see about opportunities. “I got the rude awakening that these were grown-ups,” said Echeverria. The teen-focused image that the stations promoted on the airwaves was far different than the staid atmosphere in the offices. “It was like walking into a bank. They didn’t want kids there.”
It wasn’t until he stumbled across a late night radio show on KMPX hosted by Larry Miller and Tom Donahue that Echeverria had renewed hope. At KMPX he found a mellower scene and asked if they had any youth there. They said that none had ever applied but if he was interested he should go get a third class FCC license and then come back.
“He probably thought that was the end of that. But I managed to scrap up the $3 fee, took the test and got my license. That was in 1967,” said Echeverria, who began producing commercials and PSAs for the station.
In March of 1968, KMPX had a labor strike and the staff left for other stations. Echeverria ended up at KPFA just when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, which was followed by the Third World strike at San Francisco State. Swept up in the political tenor of the times, Echeverria realized that programming had to be relevant to the community.
At KPFA he covered everything from Sunday opera to the Fillmore West scene. It was during this time that Echeverria got drafted. “I refused to be drafted so I did a little bit of guest sponsorship from the U.S. government.”
Upon his release, Echeverria returned to KPFA where he helped establish the Third World department. “It was time to bring the community in. And then I really caught some real grief. There were major issues that actually have yet to be completely settled at KPFA.”
In 1971 Echeverria and Raul Torres, a Chicano from Oakland, helped to form the Comunicación Aztlan Collective. They aired their first program – Reflexiones de La Raza – on Nov. 13, 1971 featuring Dolores Huerta as their guest. They went on to cover the Chicano Moratorium, the founding of the Crusade for Justice, Teatro Campesino and numerous local agencies, including El Tecolote.
By 1972 the Collective had grown to include Andre and Isabel Alegria, Rodrigo Reyes, Lillian Del Sol, Irene and Steve Ramirez, Nina Serrano, Daniel del Solar and others.
The Collective’s coverage soon went international. One of their biggest achievements was covering the 1973 Chilean coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. “We were so on top of it that Newsweek and Time Magazine were contacting CAC to get background information on what the heck was gong on and who the heck was who because nobody in this country had a clue,” said Echeverria.
The Collective ended in 1973 when the members began to go their separate ways continuing their activisms in different arenas.
For Echeverria the priorities were clear: to give the voiceless a voice, regardless of personal costs. “I had intended when I started at KMPX to have a career in radio. But because my activities had gotten too community-oriented and too radical for the broadcast mainstream I found those doors closed to me by the middle 70s.”
Like many others involved in alternative radio at the time, Echeverria held a regular job to pay the bills, using his experience in construction work to fund his real passion.
And along the way he found the time to mentor others, including Chata Gutierrez, whom he met in his studio on March 4, 1972. After a long day spent traveling to Keene, California, to interview Cesar Chavez, Echeverria rushed back to the studio to do a piece on Centro del Cambio. “So we interview Gene Royal and Judy Copeland and there was this person who tells me ‘You know I want to learn radio.’ It was Chata and it was her birthday,” recalled Echeverria.
Echeverria would soon find his passion in Cuban music. Echeverria, his colleagues, and local musicians started promoting Cuban music on the air and stage during the early 1970s. “Collectively we built the Bay Area into something that in the 1960s I don’t think anyone thought could happen. That was to become a center for this music.”
Echeverria is quick to spread the credit, naming musicians John Santos, Rebeca Maleon, Armando Perazas, Wilfredo Reyes, Greg Landau, the Escovedo family, Benny Velarde, Carlos Federico, Carlos Santana and many more.
By 1977, when Los Papines – the premier Cuban mambo group – came to the Bay Area, the groundwork to promote Cuban music had been done and they played to a capacity crowd at the Oakland Auditorium. “In 1972 you could not have done that. Radio had a lot to do with it; the workshops and classes helped,” said Echeverria.
In looking back, Echeverria wants to make it clear that despite the joy of this work it was also a struggle from the start. “Doing this kind of programming was not something that was welcomed. We had to fight our way into the Bay Area radio world. None of the stations that we went to said ‘Oh you’re going to be doing mambos! How wonderful!’ The last thing they wanted was us. We did something that was outside their agenda. So it wasn’t something that KPFA welcomed. They fought us and fought us and fought us. And that has to be remembered. It wasn’t handed to us. Even at KPOO we had to go through various and assorted stuff before the dust settled.”
And when they were finally accepted it was because they became some of the best at what they do.
“We did this not as a career move. We ended doing this because we just love the music and we loved letting people know that we had one badass culture. Okay? We had a culture that was going on and creative and making waves and we were proud of that culture. And no one was going to put that genie back in the bottle,” said Echeverria.
And thanks to Echeverria the Cuban music culture continues to thrive across generations and throughout the Bay Area.
http://radiocubacanta.blogspot.com/