from Puerto Limon saoco the golden voice of ILEANA GARCIA - Entrevista

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2002 by Luis Tamargo

The Spanish explorers found their first gold on the American continent in Costa Rica (meaning Rich Coast) in the early 1500s, but I didn't discover the golden voice of the Puerto Limón native named Ileana García until the late 1900s, at the hospitable abode of one of my favorite quasi-neighbors, the Venezuelan bandleader/timbalero Héctor "Rudy" Regalado, with whom she is currently performing on a regular basis. The following interview documents the adventures and misadventures of one of the most talented Latin female vocalists in the City of Angels.

LUIS TAMARGO: Tell me about your bicoastal childhood years and multicultural family background.

ILEANA GARCIA: My father was a horny, green-eyed Castillian from Madrid (LAUGHTER), but my paternal grandfather was born in Cuba and my maternal grandmother was Catalonian. My mother is a short, dark-skinned herbalist of Indian ancestry from Puerto Golfito. She is very charismatic and endowed with a great sense of humor. I inherited some of my best qualities from her...I had the good fortune of spending most of my childhood years between two Costa Rican seaports, Puerto Limón and Puerto Golfito. It is intriguing to note that Puerto Limón is located in the country's Atlantic coast, whereas Puerto Golfito is situated in the southern region of its Pacific coast, but both share the same cultural characteristics, derived from their historical banana plantation economic structure, as well as their African antecedents. At the age of 11, my parents sent me to a Catholic boarding school in San José.

LT: When did you start your professional career as a vocalist?

IG: The father of one of my classmates, a wealthy Nicaraguan producer of television commercials, heard me singing at his daughter's birthday party and he asked me to record one of his televised jingles. I was only 11 years old but I got paid 350 colones. So I started my musical career doing jingles. A few years later, I was recruited to sing with a pop group that performed various musical styles, including certain tunes popularized by such "Miami sound" bands as Los Sobrinos del Juez and Miami Sound Machine. By the time I was 16 or 17 years old, I joined a very beautiful Christian youth movement as vocalist and tambourine player, and recorded four Christian music albums.

LT: When did you arrive in the U.S.?

IG: In 1983. I spent some time in Miami and New York, before settling in L.A., where I formed a Latin pop/salsa trio called Tuanis (a Costa Rican anglicism derived from "too nice"), before I recorded the platinum album Banda Boom (Globo Records) with my own group, comprised of two keyboards, bass, trap drums and tumbadoras. Besides the title, this phantom production didn't have anything to do with Mexican banda music. I was singing whatever I wanted to sing. I was working seven days a week and every one of my musicians was earning anywhere from $700 to $800 per week. This group lasted for about four years, before I told everyone to go away.

LT: Paquito D'Rivera told me once that whenever he wants to have fun but lose money, he forms a big band. Did you have a similar experience in 1997?

IG: That's when I organized my own big band, Ileana & El Grupo Bazuka, subsequently nicknamed by some of my mischievous sidemen as Ileana & El Grupo Basura (LAUGHTER). Having to pay so many musicians was an emotionally detrimental factor. After fighting with the piano player and other orchestral characters, the sweetness and mystique required to enjoy myself as a performer had already disappeared by the time I climbed on stage. I led that big band for about a year, until the joy produced by that instrumental setting started to fade away.

LT: When did you join forces with Rudy Regalado?

IG: It happened when César Benítez, a Nicaraguan-born producer for various major record companies, told me that Rudy was looking for a female vocalist. Working with Rudy's band was quite a challenge for me. Learning to improvise and express the soneo dynamics was not exactly a piece of cake, but Rudy was very supportive. To be a good singer, one has to truly feel the music. When someone like Francisco Céspedes sings, for example, he sings with an explosive, heart-felt conviction. It's not easy to undress your soul in public.

LT: In addition to your vocal functions, you have become a full-time, devoted güirera.

IG: The more I play it, the more I respect this humble instrument. When played how it should be played, within the prescribed time framework, the güiro adds an enormous quantity of saoco (swing) to the music.

LT: Could you mention some of your favorite female vocalists?

IG: Omara Portuondo, Elena and Malena Burke, Ella Fitzgerald, Andrea Gilberto, and of course, Celia Cruz. There are no words to describe the emotions that I felt as a child when I heard Celia for the first time... At this time in my life, I'm not interested in doing bubblegum music. When I describe myself as an occasional musical laborer, I don't intend to underestimate myself, but to present a realistic assessment: I might engage in various commercial gigs, here and there, but that's not really me. Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to be nurtured by other cultural staples and consume the proper musical root vegetables (LAUGHTER).