Revolt - La Libertad Logica

Revolt – La Libertad Logico by Eddie Palmieri with Ismael Quintana on vocals

I probably never gave Revolt – La Libertad Logico a good listen because it’s off Vamonos Pa’l Monte where the famous Eddie Palmieri song by the same title overshadows the rest of the album. I only noticed the song after searching for Frankie Martinez routines on youtube. Even then I focused more on Abakua’s routine then the song’s message. It was only by chance as I finished my regular Sunday run where I simply let my mp3 player randomly guide my ears for two hours that I hear:


Económicamente
Económicamente esclavo de ti
No No No No Me trates así
Esclavo de ti, Esclavo de ti, Esclavo de ti… Caballero
Pero que va’
Tú no me engañas a mí

This message almost stopped me dead in my tracks. About an hour into my run I had entertained the idea of looking for a job in Medellin. I’m certainly enjoying the benefits of watching my daughter develop in Daddy Day Care but the thought of my family’s financial future has me considering changing the plan of staying home for a year to care for my daughter. I was asked a question regarding my five year plan, which led me to think about what I will do for a living once our savings start to run low. It’s the first question that must be answered when flirting with the idea of job hunting.

My follow up question revolved around the amount of money any prospective employment would generate. Perhaps Ismael Quintana literally meant we’re economically enslaved by others but I believe that follow up question results in us enslaving ourselves. I often enjoyed what I did for a living in my past life but felt enslaved to the profession by my husbandly duties to build a nest egg for the future. The enslavement was often produced by the potential of earning a six figure salary that was always in conflict with not doing what I loved. Until moving to Medellin I chose the salary and as a consequence felt a constant uneasiness with life. The following passage from J. Krishnamurti's Think on These Things, which highlights that continuous unpleasant feeling, has haunted me over the past month:

“To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out. But, if you are not frightened, if you refuse to be pushed into the groove of tradition by your parents, by your teachers, by the superficial demands of society, then there is a possibility of discovering what it is you really love to do. So, to discover, there must be no fear of not surviving.” J. Krishnamurti

If you haven’t figured it out, salsa is what I love. It’s the only true passion I’ve discovered. Unfortunately, I have yet to live that love. Many salseros have figured out how to live their passion yet some of us are so afraid of not surviving that we never experience what that passion has to offer. Quintana leads Nicky Marrero, and thus us, into a timables solo on minute 1:55 with “Mete mano Nicky” as if to instruct Marrero to live his passion as he so wonderfully does for the next minute. Perhaps if I would have not worried so much on what the future had in store and followed, as Marrero did, where that passion would take me, I may have already had the answer to that five year plan. As Natalie Goldberg puts in her most famous work, Writing Down the Bones, “Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.” Her advice is part of the reason why I decided to start this blog; to see where the love for this music would lead me.

However, the truth is that the blog isn’t putting food on the table and unless I decide to start growing my own vegetables, paying for that food will eventually come to the forefront. Not being afraid of earning a livelihood is easier said without a child’s future hanging on the balance of every decision. Or is it? Is that very conclusion what’s been keeping me from pursing a dream? Is that really what Palmieri’s “Revolt” is all about? But there’s no better time than now for that pursuit as now is really all that exists. Revolt against my own mind’s misperception of the now is the only libertad logica.

Maybe that’s what Quintana meant by “no me engañes a mi” as it’s us we’re fooling by focusing on external enslavement. We can view Palmieri’s revolt as being against the establishment’s pursuit to economically bind us to the system but where would that lead us? Our own relationship to the establishment’s influence is all we have control over and therefore all we must focus on. You can’t change the system unless you change yourself. The dependency to the system only exists in your head. Just as I never noticed the song Revolt - La Libertad Logico in the eight years I’ve owned the album, I’m just now noticing that the economic enslavement, how it’s affected and dominated my life, has been of my own doing.

Peace
DJ Walt

Abakua Dance Company performing La Libertad Logico