The Doodle of Tito Puente marks Hispanic Heritage Month in the US
(Picture: Google)Google is celebrating Tito Puente, the Latin American “King of Latin Music”, who helped put South American pop on the map.
Tuesday’s Google Doodle traces the life of the “Nuyorican” singer, songwriter, band leader, and composer in a lively animation.
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of New York and Puerto Rico, a mix of the artist’s influences and heritage.
Artist Carlos Aponte, who has the same mixed heritage as Puente, illustrated the piece to mark Hispanic Heritage Month in the US.
So who is the musician from Harlem who made Latin pop take flight?
Who is Tito Puente?
Tito Puente was born in Harlem, Manhattan, on April 20, 1923.
The New Yorker was surrounded by Latin influence from birth, holding on to his Puerto Rican accent his whole life, and developing his musical talents young as a drummer.
As a child, he was described as hyperactive and, in order to deal with his constant banging on pots and pans, his mother funded piano lessons for 25 cents a lesson.
He later learned to play more than 10 instruments, playing for Federico Pagani’s Happy Boys and Machito’s Orchestra.
During World War II, Puente served in the navy and led the ship’s band in alto saxophone.
After the war, he studied at the prestigious Julliard School of Music, where he pursued composing, conducting, and music theory. Puente was also awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Berklee College of Music in 1995 and another PhD from Columbia University in 1999.
This education set him up to form Tito’s Orchestra, where he popularised Afro-Cuban sounds, like mambo, cha-cha-cha, and salsa – for which he was often mistaken as Cuban.
What awards and recognition did Tito Puente receive?
Unlike many artists who are not recognised in their lifetimes, the Latin musician witnessed his own rise to fame.
Puente won no less than six Grammy Music Awards – as well as two posthumous ones for best salsa album and a lifetime achievement award in 2003.
Hollywood embraced his talents with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990.
Almost a decade later, Puente was then inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in New York City.
He died after a show in Puerto Rico, where he had a heart attack. Although he was rushed to a hospital in New York, Puente suffered from complications and passed away on June 1, 2000.
In August 2000, a few months after his death, a road in East Harlem was named Tito Puente Way, at 110th Street, between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue.
The location was chosen for its proximity to where Puente spent the first few years of his life in Spanish Harlem, with his widow and close family invited to the unveiling.
The musical star featured in the sixth and seventh seasons of The Simpsons in 1995.
He was introduced to Springfield Elementary School as a music teacher in the two-part mystery special Who Shot Mr Burns?.
In the episodes, Puente loses his job and becomes a prime suspect in the murder of Mr Burns, until clearing his name in an Emmy-nominated song, Señor Burns.
