I am writing this piece on a bus heading down to New York City to start the work week. Around 5:45am ET, I read the news that music legend David Bowie had died at 69 years old, after battling cancer for 18 months. There are few rock artists who have been able to transcend cultures to become global icons. Bowie was one of them.
As I started playing The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust to remind myself on this long bus ride just how amazing Bowie’s music is, I started witnessing one very beautiful moment: all these Bowie tributes coming from my Facebook friends, the vast majority of whom are Latino.
My Facebook feed is inundated with #DavidBowie tributes. All these Latinos waxing poetically about Bowie. Kind of beautiful.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) January 11, 2016
So I asked my Facebook friends, “A lot of Latinos loved Bowie, just based on my Facebook feed right now. Anyone care to venture why?”
Here is just a sampling of what they said:
Guillermo
A lot of Latinos have great taste. My experience growing up in a Anglo-Argentine/Paraguayan household was that it was unavoidable; he was brilliant and a lot of us who were musicians consumed his work. Even with the bit of Anglophilia in South America, his overall legacy is appealing because he created a landscape that allowed for the farthest reaches of oneself, he was like a lighthouse to our better self. It’s dark now.
Marcela
David Bowie continually morphed into different modes of creativity throughout his existence. Love him a rebel at heart…. a salute to the human spirit of not conforming to the status quo.
Carlos
For me, it was when I first heard Let’s Dance. I was a freshman in high school. It was 1983. Pop music was surging and MTV was captivating. Let’s Dance was on heavy rotation on both radio and video channels. Then, after the infectious Modern Love, I hit the record store (remember those?) and discovered his library. I was hooked.
Ray
He was an outlier; an outsider in the mainstream; hope for those of us who are also seen as different.
Suset
I came to him later in life. His music was/is magnetic, edgy, provocative. He was thoughtful and not afraid of being so.
Ruben
He was different, bizarre, he could sing, he was constantly changing, hair was every color in the palette—exactly what I needed growing up in a small Arizona mining town.
Alan
If you grow up outside here,you grow up listening more music from the UK and Europe in general than just from here.
Manny
Yo me crié en su música. La verdad que se murió un genio./I grew up with his music. The truth is that a genius just died.
Then there is this photo shared by actor and friend Esai Morales, which summed it up beautifully:
Singing harmony w David Bowie in the back office of the China Club in the late 80’s was a highlight of my life. The icon was the sweetest soul with an amazing voice who will be terribly missed… 🙁
photo. Dominick Conde (China Club)
My own thoughts?
Bowie was universal. He pushed the envelope and never settled. It’s no wonder everyone loved him and will love him forever:
Back in HS, we had metal kids, punk kids, hip-hop kids & Latin music kids. Yet we all loved #Bowie. "Suffragate City" played at every dance.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) January 11, 2016
And, oh yeah, he also created one of my all-time favorite songs ever:
Now you know.
Featured image: David Bowie, 2002 (Photo by Adam Bielawski/Creative Commons)
Bowie was fascinating and brought beauty to us all. Certainly universal and a rare gift in any culture.
I lived with my grand parents in Mexico between 1982-1986 and I I was a shocked to hear this alternative music source being transmitted over the airwaves to rural farming areas of Mexico I guess I was lucky that Guadalajara was a few hours away because with out it I wouldn’t have loved my stay in Mexico as much …. I remember staying up till 1 am listen to the cross genre radio station blaring the most awesome selection of “foreign” music
Gracias. I loved his elegance, willing to challenge gender roles and his great talent
He pulled me through my eighth grade. His music. Soothing. An escape. I felt as if I didn’t belong. I’d see his eyes were different like mine. I’d get teased. Alot. I figured if Bowie was that cool then I could surely follow. An Icon. None like no other. Bowie fan forever.