Cuban Passport: The Rhythms from Havana to New Orleans-Presented by Pete Carney and SCF Jazz. September 23, 7:30 p.m.-Recital Hall

Robyn Bell: Today we welcome Dr. Pete Carney, SCF's, director of jazz studies and SCF student pianist, Maria Medina, to talk to us about an upcoming performance in the SCF'snew studio for the performing arts recital hall on Thursday, September 23rd at 7:30 PM. This one is called Cuban passport, the rhythms from Havana to New Orleans, Maria and Dr. Carney. Welcome to the club. So Dr. Carney, this performance is part of SCF celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, which happens every year from September 15th, to October 15th, the SCF Music Program performed some sort of concert for this event every year. And this year you took this one on as your own sort of recital, right?

Pete Carney: Sure. It started out as a recital and this become more and more of a student concert, you know, as you know, we'd never know. What's going to happen at the beginning of the year. So I said, well, I can definitely do this as a faculty show. And then, uh, whereas, oh, we got a great group this year. We're going to be fine. So we stretched it out. Um, well it'll feature myself and Dr. Godfrey, he's going to join us. Um, but 

Robyn Bell: That's Jon Godfrey on guitar. 

Pete Carney: That's right. And, it will definitely feature. Students and the group as well too. 

Robyn Bell: And is all Latin flavored or like you say, from Havana to New Orleans 

Pete Carney: and kind of follow different rhythms as they leave Havana and how the clave migrates over to Brazil or, and then it also migrates the Dominican Republic and then it ends up in New Orleans and how it influences American music. And Maria is a big part of that. She's gonna. Sort of give us the gateway to when the clave arrives in New Orleans and Scott Joplin plays this beautiful, slow clave, a, called Solace. It's very melodic and you wouldn't even almost know us there. If you didn't kind of. Beforehand, I think 

Robyn Bell: because we really know Scott Joplin for his rags, the Entertainer Maple Leaf Rag. So this could be something completely different than maybe nobody's ever heard. 

Pete Carney: It's a different context because you hear all the big brothers of the clave being around to cook a good, good, good. And then you hear Scott Joplin with his dune. Boom, boom, boom. Like very cautious, you know, like exploring this new world.

Robyn Bell: Very cool. So, Maria, let's first say that this concert probably speaks to you as you are actually from Cuba. Right? So tell us about yourself and a little bit about where you're from exactly in Cuba and what brought you here to the states and more specifically to the Bradenton Sarasota. 

Maria Medina: Well, I'm from the Northwest part of Cuba, a town called Olguin. Yes. So yeah, I started starting music and, music school, , when I was seven years old. And as a pianist and I took a lot of theory and music appreciation. I've been improving my performance here and that's 

Robyn Bell: cool. You studied piano in Cuba for the most part. And how old are you now? Do you mind me asking? 

Maria Medina: 19 . 

Robyn Bell: Okay. So from seven to 19, you've been practicing mostly classical piano. 

Maria Medina: Okay. My first experiences, on jazz and everything is here. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. We're going to talk about that. So, so at what age did you come to the states?

Maria Medina: 17. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. So just a couple of years ago, 

Maria Medina: Yes 

Robyn Bell: and did you already speak good English? 

Maria Medina: I'm trying to 

Robyn Bell: your English is very good. 

Maria Medina: Thank you. 

Robyn Bell: . And what brought you over here? 

Maria Medina: Well, family situation and everything. Yeah. And I wanted to find a school that, according to my necessities in music and, uh, wanna improve in, different types of genres and everything. I want to play jazz, um, popular music in general, 

Robyn Bell: coming here was going to improve your piano skills all around. Very good. And you landed here at the State College of Florida. We didn't even know you existed. You showed up one day and said, can I practice, 

Maria Medina: uh, a little while in Miami first, but then I moved to here. Yeah.

Pete Carney: How do you think the teaching is different in the U.S. Compared to Cuba? Like music styles? 

Maria Medina: Well, in Cuba. Doesn't go that deep on popular music and jazz. Uh, but yes, but on the late years it teach, a little bit of the Cuban influence, you know, and, but it's small Ms. Most, uh, classical. Yeah. Classical training first. 

Robyn Bell: So, you're, classically-trained from seven studying here with Aza Torshkoeva she's your teacher and we've heard you play beautifully. The Chopin we've heard you just last night, I played Beethoven very beautifully. And that, as you said this semester, you decided to try your hand learning jazz piano. So how would you say it's going. 

Maria Medina: Well, it has been a good experience. I feel comfortable and I think it's one of my options for the future? Yeah. I'm feeling comfortable. 

Robyn Bell: Anything you can do to expand what you can play is going to get you more. jobs 

Maria Medina: main goal here. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Very cool. Were you pretty excited when you first saw the first concert that was going to perform on the, with the jazz band? It was like Cuba and Latin sound music. 

Maria Medina: A huge surprise for me. Yeah. And. I think , it'll be fun. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. And as it kind of helped you make that transition from purely classical piano playing to this jazz lab.

Maria Medina: Yeah. The rehearsals in the jazz band has been. Very good for me. 

Robyn Bell: And you're kinda like, oh, this is familiar with them. And you knew this, Dr. Carney, you really didn't know that you were going to have this. 

Pete Carney: Not at all. We've got this great Cuban piano player, all of a sudden that's the magic of SCF.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Maria Medina: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: When Barack Obama was president, he lifted this travel ban. And I remember one Christmas holiday. You went to cute. You like spend time.

Pete Carney: $110 round trip on Southwest. And I w I, like, I saw the tickets available and I bought it. I didn't even tell my wife. I said, I just told you the next season, we that's cool. Cause like, it might be gone and sure enough, he can't go right now, but it was an amazing experience, you know, just only a 45 minute flight from here and you land in a different musical world. And Havana was just very vibrant, very colorful, very, dynamic people and laughing and loud and hilarious.

Robyn Bell: Give you a different take on making music. Having spent some time there making that kind of music. 

Pete Carney: Oh, absolutely. It's interesting. Cause one of the thing I remember the most was there was no drum set. It's always two or three percussionists, and we've gotten used to putting things down to the drum set or making it work for the drum set, which isn't a real American invention, but I rarely saw a drum set there. It We had lunch at a couple different hotels that had music and there was always a couple of singers that also played drums and people were very versatile musically. 

Robyn Bell: So if they're not playing the drum set, what percussion are they playing? 

Pete Carney: They were playing congas or timbales or shakers or the claves anything, you know, but, uh, it was always just sort of versatility of, of multiple instruments. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that was a really cool experience. Had to bring that here. And then, I mean, it's been a couple of years, but to really infuse what you grasped there in person into what now our students are going to be performing I think that's a great, a great thing for everyone. Um, Maria, what would you say has been the thing that you had to adjust most coming from? Like a purely classical piano background? Jumping into this jazz genre, has there been something you've had to rethink about like technique or your brain has a rapid?

Maria Medina: Yes. I think that, mostly technique and like kind of adjust the hands in the piano to chords, to new chords and new sonorities and everything. 

Pete Carney: totally. Don't ever touch the pedal. mostly. 

Robyn Bell: Well, that's a nice thing you don't have to worry about. Yeah. Now, Dr. Carney, you told me Maria caught on really quick to this whole jazz piano playing concept, right? 

Pete Carney: Oh yeah. She had all her music ready the next day. I think 

Robyn Bell: Did you have going into this semester, a little trepidation that you hadn't considered this. Beethoven Mozart classically-trained person. 

Pete Carney: I've seen her practicing enough. You know, I saw her working on stuff and you know, if you find students that are working on anything, then that's what you want. They want the people with the right attitude about whatever they're practicing.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. And then I was surprised Dr. Carney, when you told me that you've got three people in the Presidential Jazz Combo and here's Maria on the list, I was like, whoa. 

Pete Carney: So she, I mean, she already S improvised and everything and big band without what pretty fearless about it, you know? 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Well, that was going to be my next question about improvisation. Is this a new skill that you're like, was it a little who was a little scared at first? Yes. 

Maria Medina: Yeah, but it wasn't. For your first time, 

Robyn Bell: do you have a solo on the concert? 

Maria Medina: Yeah. I have a solo for Libertango, 

Robyn Bell: Libertango. 

Maria Medina: I love that piece and I, I felt comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. I love Piazzolla. Yeah, it has been good for me. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: So now Maria, if we fast forward 20 years, what does life look for you? Or as I say, what do you really want to be when you grow up? 

Maria Medina: I've been a performer since I was a child, but, I think. Composition is, 

Robyn Bell: oh, you want to be a composer? 

Maria Medina: Yeah, I see me in the future as a composer.

Robyn Bell: All right. Will you be influenced by, I mean, you have this classical training, but now here you have popular music. Jazz music is going to take that. 

Maria Medina: Uh, that will be my strategy for my study time. Yeah. To have as many references I could and evolve. 

Robyn Bell: Do you have musician, do you have a goal of where you want to transfer to when you leave SCF?

Maria Medina: My first option is Boston Conservatory. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. 

Maria Medina: Yeah. I think I'm going to go there a couple of options here in Florida, too, but 

Robyn Bell: that particular teacher. 

Maria Medina: Oh, I'm actually doing the research. Yeah. But yeah, that's my first option. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Do you have a favorite song on this Cuban Passport concert? 

Maria Medina: I think Rombolo is my favorite

Pete Carney: The sleeper crowd.

Robyn Bell: So Dr. Carney, I'm sure you have a favorite one too. 

Pete Carney: Um, I don't know. They're all just different, you know, it's all part of the program. Uh, Libertango, uh, is a, it will be a fan hit. I mean, it's just, it's a real big arrangement. We have, it's very dynamic, 

Robyn Bell: but what else is on the program? 

Pete Carney: So we have Solace and then we have a tune called Chucho that was written by Poquito de Rivera. I got to play with him at the Super Bowl concert when I was younger. That was really cool. It was like the party for the team owners and everything at this that the Versailles man. In Miami and he was there and Tito was there. So we're playing that. It was really awesome. Like I got paid a little bit of money, but I was in the backup band for Quito and Arturo Sandoval and Poquito. So we're playing that one, which is a cool mixture of bebop and Cuban sewn. Um, what else? We play a lager Mohs Negroes, which is this beautiful song we're going to do as a duet with Dr. Godfrey. It's translates to black tears and it's this sort of magical Bolero mixed with sewn. And it's about this woman that, catches, her husband cheating on her. And she had the song is like, um, the next day she's crying black tears, but I'm not going back to you, you know, the song. Yeah. Yeah. What else you can tell me about the song? It's very common. 

Maria Medina: Yeah. It's like the first. Example of the Bolero genre in Cuba. Yeah. It's like the, the classic. 

Pete Carney: Yeah. Um, we're also doing a Blue Bossa, which is a Kenny Dorham jazz, classic that after his trip to Brazil, he kind of brought back this bossa Nova sound and that's pretty much. 

Robyn Bell: All right. And, Maria, being from Cuba and the Latin world, did you know all of this music, as soon as you started playing it or have you learned new pieces through this?

Maria Medina: Yeah. Some of them, but this , Rumbolo. That's my favorite. I I've heard it for the first time here. Oh yeah, it was, yeah. 

Pete Carney: It's kind of a buck, a ballroom, a classy dance song, which is cool. I think I'm excited that you liked that one a lot because it's, it's, it's very mellow, you know, it's not in your face at all.

Robyn Bell: Are there any other kind of awesome surprises that you want to like spoiler alert for us? Something we should be, get really excited. 

Pete Carney: Just being in that hall, we had our first rehearsal in the today. Yeah. And the recital hall and it was great. I mean, it just sounds good. It sounds super clean. Uh, it's interesting. It's nice. It's a beautiful. It's the opposite of trying to play in the Neel. Um, so everybody can just act actually the musicians on stage can underplay your part a little bit compared to the Neel, 

Robyn Bell: right? You don't need any mics. 

Pete Carney: It was great. And you get to walk in and you're going to hear just straight music, natural acoustics, you know, 

Robyn Bell: are you playing on the Steinway in there? Is it going to fit? 

Pete Carney: We got a brand new Steinway, 

Robyn Bell: beautiful sounding instrument. Yeah, Maria played it last night. A Beethoven last night. I heard. So what a difference, you know, and that's one of the cool things here. You're playing a Beethoven. Was it a Sonata? 

Maria Medina: Yes. 

Robyn Bell: And then the next day you're playing jazz on the same instrument.

Maria Medina: That's right. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Soon we're going to get you in the musical theater world. Yeah. Yeah. You want to make some money? That's that's where they pay, right? Dr. Carney. Well, we are all looking forward to next Thursday. That's September 23rd at 7:30 PM. And the brand new SCF Studio for the Performing Arts Recital Hall, Dr. Carney and friends. As I say, present the concert Cuban Passport the Rhythms from Havana to New Orleans to help SCF celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. You can get tickets to this performance by going to scf.edu/neel that's N E E L seating is limited to 150. So you better get your tickets. Soon. Tickets are $15 for general admission. And if you use the coupon code podcast, you get $5 off your ticket for all two of you that are listening. We should also say that all students in Manatee and Sarasota county, including SCF students, SCF staff and SCFfaculty tickets are only $5 with your ID at the door. Dr. Pete Carney and pianist. Maria. Mendina. I really want to thank you both for joining me today, and I'm super excited about attending this fabulous concert. Thank you. 

Robyn Bell: And when we come back, I'm going to be joined by an SCF faculty member, who is the faculty sponsor for the Hispanic, Latino Heritage Club here at SCF. That's Dr. Eric Cintron and a committee member from the State College of Florida tutoring and academic success center, who has helped put on our Hispanic heritage month celebration. Rebecca Caskey, I'll be back right after this break.

Robyn Bell: Welcome back to the Suncoast Culture Club, where I am now joined by SCF assistant professor of language and literature, and one of the faculty advisors for our Hispanic, Latino Heritage Club, Eric Cintron, and Rebecca Caskey, who is the manager of the tutoring and academic success center here at the State College of Florida. And as a member of the Hispanic Heritage. Committee celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month here at the State College of Florida. So Rebecca and Eric, welcome to the club. 

Rebecca Caskey: Thank you. 

Eric Cintron: Thank you. 

Robyn Bell: Before we talk about SCF's Hispanic Latino Heritage Club and the club's many events to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, let's talk about you guys and where you came from, how you ended up at SCF, so we'll start with you, Eric. What's your story? 

Eric Cintron: I was born in Puerto Rico, and I was raised there and I did my bachelor degree there. Then I moved to New Hampshire and then I did my masters there. 

Robyn Bell: When you moved to New Hampshire, did you already speak pretty good English? 

Eric Cintron: Uh, no. No, no. And I'm a C working in that department. Uh, um, so, but it was a very culture shock with the weather, because he was really hot in Puerto Rico and really cool. In New Hampshire. Then I did my master there. Then I went to Virginia for one year. When we get out of grad school, we take a job or whatever, we get a job. So that took me to Virginia. Then I moved to New Hampshire to implement state university. Um, then I moved down here and I joined this great organization.

Robyn Bell: You've been with us now, six, seven years, 

Eric Cintron: seven years. 

Robyn Bell: Good. And what classes do you teach here at the State College of Florida? 

Eric Cintron: I usually teach a Spanish one. Sometime I teach a Spanish two. Because that's the primary class that we also have a level. You just told me we don't have a little student in that class.

Robyn Bell: Okay. And how many classes do you teach a semester here? 

Eric Cintron: Six classes, five class. It depends. 

Robyn Bell: And you teach face-to-face and online or has Spanish best taught? Face-to-face? 

Eric Cintron: It's best in, face-to-face, but we can do online because we would need to accommodate our students Sono eye specialist to them, for the nursing. They can't come here and every day, so we need to teach them. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. and do you know how many Hispanic heritage students we have here? Attending State College of Florida? 

Eric Cintron: We have almost 2000 students, SCF. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah, and we have about eight to 9,000 total, so yeah. Yeah. That's yeah.

Eric Cintron: And then we have 23 students, four different countries and sort of the country. We have three, our Hispanic, international students. It's to them for Columbia, Peru, and Spain who are also athletes, uh, in our institution 

Robyn Bell: oh, they play sports for us. Okay. Very, very cool. Now, Rebecca, you are the manager of the tutoring and academic success center and you are on the committee for. Hispanic Heritage Month here at State College Florida. But tell us how you came to land in our fold here at SCF. 

Rebecca Caskey: So I am a Bradenton native, ah, and so I have been around, and I knew this as MCC. And so I was excited to see it shift to SCF and I actually started my career in higher ed at St. Pete College. And so I started in the community college system and then the drive across the bridge, I decided I would move down and moved over to New College. And so between St Pete College and New College, I worked a variety of positions within student services. I've worked in career services. I've worked in student life. I worked in title nine. I worked in conflict resolution. I actually have my master's degree in conflict resolution. And while New College is a fantastic school. I really missed the diversity of working in the community college system. And so. SCF has been such a hallmark of this community. And growing up here, I've seen it really expand and really grow and really serve the needs of the community. And I'm just so excited to have a position here. 

Robyn Bell: Before I came to work here, I taught. private liberal arts college on top of Lookout Mountain called Covenant College. It costs like $40,000 a year to go to school there. And the type of kid that went to school there versus the type of kid that goes to school here, it light years apart. And I really value. The role that SCF plays in these students' lives here and the impact that it has. So I understand what you're talking about I mean, New Colleges is a great school, but very different clientele than what you have very different mission than what we have.

Rebecca Caskey: Actually, it's a really inspiring to see the diversity of the students, diversity in age diversity. Culture diversity and race diversity, and thought that comes to SCF. And it's just exciting to be a part of it. 

Robyn Bell: so then Rebecca, how did you get to be on the Hispanic Heritage Month committee for the State College of Florida?

Rebecca Caskey: Well, Dr. Cintron and I have worked together, quite a bit with, tutoring his students and working with the Spanish tutors. And so we've gotten to know each other and I had the privilege of him asking me to be a part of this. And as someone who has really tried to, Make sure that we are providing access for all students. I thought it was a really great opportunity and I just feel really privileged to be a part of making sure that we are celebrating all of the students that we have on campus. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. It's really important. And we've seen here, especially in our music program, the number of Hispanic students that we have in our ensembles and music majors has really grown and grown and grown. It's remarkable. So tell us now, Eric, about the Hispanic Latino Heritage Club at SCF. I know that the pandemic has sort of cost all of our clubs, really the chance to reach out and, connect with our students. But what is the mission of this, group and what do you do with the students? 

Eric Cintron: I think our primary goal is to create awareness. On the other two, the non Hispanic student, before the Hispanic student itself, we want to create a hub I plays when they feel welcome, they feel that our institution embrace the diversity. More important. They, our institution embraced their culture. So we create every year. I'm on with all their, with the Hispanic Heritage Month the club people who help us. And we create a good program to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and we do all different kinds of activities. Like we do a Hispanic Cafe. We're going to be doing music. As you very well know in the past, do music concert with you guys. We bring a speaker this year. We are going to be doing a dessert and 

Robyn Bell: wait, wait, you said the magic word dessert. 

Eric Cintron: Yeah, we're going to do it well. 

Robyn Bell: Tell me it's flan. 

Eric Cintron: Yeah, here you go. We're going to do flan there. Here we go. I need to credit that to Rebecca Rebecca say, oh, wait a minute. I think we can buy flan, but we are in a pandemic. We can't have open foods. Yeah. So they have to be individually wrap it up so Rebecca say, Hey, we can buy individual flan. And then. 

Rebecca Caskey: I have a lot of experience with individually wrapped flan 

Robyn Bell: that is impressive. 

Eric Cintron: So then we decided to do that. We kind of find a loophole to do the activity there and then, sadly because the pandemic, we couldn't do the, coffee face-to-face, but our best seller, is the coffee. People are really like, they coffee. Coffee's a social event Hispanic Carter's so every time we do it is a moment when a lot of people are on campus, whether you are a staff a student, faculty, everybody congregate there. And then we start talking about coffee. you learn about, well, I liked the coffee more strong. I liked de-caf and I'm like, why are you drinking de-caf? Exactly. I like the coffee from Peru. I never tried the coffee from Columbia. And then we just organically chat about different stuff. And then I never been in Columbia. I never been in Dominican Republic, so we just talk. And then he said, really, really good event and then to Sweden, Then we bring some pastry and guava. We cheese, we call it the . And then people really, really liked the event. But sadly, right now we can do it. We have to do it virtually. Yesterday we did our first one and everybody was like, oh, I really miss the, fact we can taste the coffee, all the smell of the coffee with cheese, it takes the whole room.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Give me some cafe con Leche any day, anytime of the day, maybe next year. We're hoping 2022. Yeah. Well, we talked with Pete Carney, our jazz band director here at SCF about his recital called Cuban Passport. The rhythms from Havana to New Orleans. Performance is part of the Hispanic Latino Heritage Clubs celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. So we hope that everyone can come out and enjoy that. On September 23rd, you went over many of the other activities and how kind of you used to do them and how you're having to do them now. And of course we missed the coffee and the pastries, the Guam, you said Wawa. I say guava, I'm saying it wrong. 

Eric Cintron: What Java Java Java will be their Spanish. Well, buddy nigga, we say woah pastries, but they are deleted.

Robyn Bell: Oh, tell me about it. Tell me about it. There's a place on my way home every Friday. Well, most Fridays I stopped there because it's chicken and yellow rice special, and I always get a little thing of flan and a little, little WABA 50 cents polices. Fantastic. It's called Cafe Havana. Right 

Eric Cintron: here we go. 

Robyn Bell: Do you know cafe Havana? 

Eric Cintron: Yeah. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: so Rebecca, what has been your role in the committee? What have you helped to organize and contributions? You've. 

Rebecca Caskey: Really, this is my first year on the committee. And so the other folks on the committee have been part of it for a while. And I've really learned a lot from their institutional knowledge and their historical knowledge. But, when we were planning to have it in person, we were talking more about having, Spanish tutors get involved in that sort of thing. Planning for the future, I think is something that I've been able to add to. I've also provided a lot of administrative support for Eric. I hopefully at least have been able to provide, like I was talking about earlier diversity of ideas and diversity of thought. And so coming from a different background coming from having worked at a university I was in Peace Corps previously, I've done some traveling. And so just coming from kind of a different background, I hope at least that I've been able to add a diversity of thought. 

Eric Cintron: As well, they all have people. We have Alicia from the library and then we really want to work closely with the Venice campus so we have Rose there and the four of us, meet, , I'm talking about all the potential activities and in this year, I think the while I'm Rebecca and the other, members brought is the logistic. We have to deal with a lot of. Take because we can, we do coffee? No, we can't. Well, let's call someone and then we call Michelle. and Michelle say, well, yes, but you need to do this. Well, let's call another person. So logistics was a big challenge this year before was a little bit more easy to set up. The activity was just find the individual who can do the activities, but now he's more a logistic challenge and they all I'm Alicia and Rebecca and Rose being working hard in those aspects. And they also bring their perspective. Alicia works at the library and she always, talking with a student and get a feedback, what they want, what they feel Rebecca the same at the tutoring center and, Rose bring the element that thank you for including Venice in our conversation so that the dessert will be down there. We're going to do a face to face they're in the Venice. So they feel like we really want to make sure we embrace. All the campus, all the people in our activities.

Robyn Bell: Excellent. Excellent. Well, I have some sort of rapid fire questions for you. 

Eric Cintron: Sure. 

Robyn Bell: So we'll have Eric answer first and then Rebecca will answer second. All right. Are you ready?

Rebecca Caskey: Sounds good. 

Robyn Bell: Eric tamales or enchiladas? 

Eric Cintron: Enchiladas, 

Rebecca Caskey: enchiladas. 

Robyn Bell: See, I'm a tamale girl. I know a lady that makes them from scratch. She brings me like a big pan of them, every like around Christmas. I'm like, I am set. Okay. Now this one, I'm only asking because when I go to restaurants and they asked me, I never know the right answer. So I'm really looking for in-depth knowledge here, black beans or red beans. 

Eric Cintron: Red beans, 

Rebecca Caskey: black beans,

Robyn Bell: traditional black beans for a Spanish meal,

Eric Cintron: I will say, in the. And especially in Puerto Rico, we are more, red beans. Yeah. But that being said, I've been say, you go to Cuba, they are more black beans. So, okay. 

Rebecca Caskey: Having worked in a Mexican restaurant for five years of my life, black beans are certainly more popular.

Robyn Bell: No, you're going to get this impression from my questions that I'm all about food and it's a little bit correct. So plantains or yuca? 

Eric Cintron: planatain, 

Rebecca Caskey: oh gosh, I had the best yuca of my life in Peru. Got to go yuca. 

Robyn Bell: So I think about the Yucatan peninsula. So it's pronounced because some people go like YOKA Yuca. I like them both. Matter of fact, I'll get a side. Like if you have a choice, I'll go bring me a little bit of both

Eric Cintron: the metal or the two wars, right. Something. And you go, here you go. 

Rebecca Caskey: That was the hardest one so far. Okay. 

Robyn Bell: All right. Oh, this one's just silly. Jennifer Lopez or Ricky Martin.

I agree. Dos Equis or Corona,

mariachi band or SCF jazz band.

You guys so far, you're almost a hundred,for a hundred soccer or football.

Rebecca Caskey: I'm going NFL football.

Eric Cintron: I am. Yeah. I, I, I didn't know much about football until I moved to New Hampshire for my master. So I became a Patriots fan by default, moving up there to New Hampshire, 

Robyn Bell: the Patriots. Yeah, we are too well. Congratulations, Eric and Rebecca, you are now officially part of the club. Now, if an SCF student wants to join the Hispanic Latino Heritage Club, or if a community member wants to be involved in helping plan events or talk to students, where can they go or who can they contact for more information?

Eric Cintron: Contact me, CintroE@SCF.edu. 

Robyn Bell: Well, we will put a link to that in our show notes. I'll put like your email address for the whole universe. You'll be getting spam for years so that people can go to our show notes and they can just click right there for that information. So Eric and Rebecca, this will be the third year in a row that the SCF Music Program has been a part of Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. And we thank you for allowing us to tag along on your many events, thank you for being, the faculty advisor and the committee member, for this group and for giving our students a meaningful club to be members of, and for joining me today, I really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you and all your students at our concert Thursday, September 23rd, at 7:30 in SCF's brand new Studio for the Performing arts Recital Hall Gracias. My friends. 

Eric Cintron: Gracias, adios