Stuff You Gotta Watch: We Like It Like That
Warning: it’s quite possible that you won’t be able to sit still while watching Matthew Ramirez Warren’s We Like It Like That. The main culprit is its subject: the cultural melting pot that gave birth to Latin boogaloo.
The tale begins in 1960s New York City, when this vibrant and pivotal genre helped define an entire new generation of Latinos, weaving a tight and exciting fabric which would prove fundamental for the evolution of urban sounds. Fusion is at the center of boogaloo; the proximity to the African-American community not only offered an insight into fresh beats and bold chord progressions, but also validated a burning quest for identity affirmation, despite the economic exploitation many of these musicians would endure throughout their career.
Several legendary names linked to boogaloo, such as Joe Bataan, Johnny Colón, and Pete Rodriguez, feature in the doc, highlighting this coming-of-age in social, political, and cultural terms. The extraordinary result was the creation of a safe space for self-expression that combined tradition and innovation, the sacred and the profane, the past and the future.
[Editor’s Note: Full disclosure, I worked with Matthew on a documentary about Eddie Palmieri.]
Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.