Annotations for People: Colon-willie 1950-2026

Hector Lavoe, one of Salsa's superstars. Known worldwide as El Cantante de los Cantantes and the Latin Sinatra, died in New York City, June 29th, after a lifetime of music and tragedy. Thousands poured into the streets at his funeral in New York. Fans and musicians, they all came to pay tribute to Hector Lavoe. From New York, Mandalit del Barco prepared this remembrance of a salsa legend.

[Natural sounds of Hector Lavoe performing]

Hector Lavoe was known to his fans as La Cantante de los Cantantes and Sonero de los Soneros, the singer of singers.

[Highlight, Hector Lavoe performing]

On stage with Willie Colon's band and with his own orchestra. He would often urge the crowds to join him in celebrating the people of Latin America. Mi gente, he called them, my people.

He had a clear voice. Hector had very clear voice, diction was very clear.

Quatro player, Yomo Toro remembers being in Willie Colon's band with Hector Lavoe, who used to proudly call himself a jibaro, a hick from Puerto Rico.

Hector was a boy that used to love to be with the poor people. He don't mess with the big society. He don't go for that too much. Sometimes he joke, improvising. Sometimes, he came serious improvising. The town, El Pueblo, love it very much. So Hector was like an idol to the people.

Even Lavoe's reputation for making his fans wait for hours didn't affect his popularity.

The dance start 10 o'clock in the night, and Hector show up about 12 o'clock, two hours after. [Laughter] People was there waiting for Hector and the band was playing alone. When Hector came, they started screaming to Hector, very happy, and they forget about he came late. [Background music, Hector Lavoe] And then the first word that he used to say always was, "It's not that I came late, the reason is that you came too soon." [Laughter]

[Highlight, Hector Lavoe Salsa]

Hector Lavoe was born Hector Juan Perez into a musical family of singers in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1946. When he was barely six years old, he would sit by the radio, shouting out jibaro songs with singers like Daniel Santos, and Chuito El De Bayamon. [Background Music, Hector Lavoe] Eventually, he left for New York and was soon discovered by Johnny Pacheco of Fania Records who teamed him up with Willie Colon. Pianist Joe Torres worked with Hector Lavoe for 25 years. First in Willie Colon's band, then Lavoe's own orchestra.

And he was a good guy to work with. He would come in and he would party. You always enjoyed playing. That's one thing you did. You looked at his bands, guys were happy on the stage.

Percussionist Milton Cardona remembers how crazy the stage shows could get, like one New Year's Eve gig.

Hector comes out and says, "Well, the queen of welfare just asked us to play La Murga. It started a riot. Before we know it, we're up on the bandstand fighting off just about every guy in that club. I mean, it was like the Alamo, and that's when Hector got his jaw broken. Willie got knocked out unconscious. That was another good night too, yeah.

Former Latin New York magazine publisher, Izzy Sanabria, wrote a biography of Lavoe for a new compilation disc.

But all of a sudden, he was a nobody and boom, immediately made it, and all this attention was too much for him.

He says, while Lavoe sang of life in the streets of Puerto Rico and New York, his own life was filled with tragedies.

Well, his mother died when he was quite young. His brother died as a drug addict on the streets of New York. His 17-year-old son got killed by accident, I think gunshot. His mother-in-law was found stabbed to death in her apartment. I mean, it's just, his house burned down. All kinds of stuff. I think when he jumped, supposedly he jumped out of a window in Puerto Rico. I mean, that was probably some of the stuff that he couldn't take anymore. I mean, he just went through a lot of stuff.

Lavoe never quite recovered from his 1988 suicide attempt and his drug addiction. He spent his last years in hospitals with an amputated leg and living with AIDS. Lavoe was in the hospital listening to a radio tribute to his life and music when he suffered the first of two heart attacks that finally killed him. [Lavoe Music, background] After hearing of his old friend's death, Willie Colon said, "All of Latin America cried for the hero of poor people." He called him Salsa's Martyr, a monster we helped create. "Forgive us, Hector," he wrote in a statement from Spain.

[Highlight--Hector Lavoe music]

Nancy Rodriguez, co-host of New York's, WBAI Radio show, Con Sabor Latino, aired a tribute to Lavoe after his death. She was also at his wake.

I could not believe the outpour of fans that came to pay their respects to Hector Lavoe. It was, to me, like going to a parade, a Puerto Rican day parade. There were thousands and thousands of people waiting on line just to get in, with Puerto Rican flags. They were carrying flowers, everything that represented Puerto Ricans.

The funeral procession wound its way through El Barrio in the Bronx for almost three hours before getting to the cemetery, surrounded by fans. And true to form, Hector Lavoe was even late to his own burial. He might have said it wasn't that he was late, but that death came too early. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.