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“Promesa de Reyes” from the pen of Yova Rodríguez “The Jibarito of Mayagüez in New York”

International Salsa Magazine, through salsagoogle.com, has the privilege and immense honor of presenting the most recent musical work titled “Promesa de Reyes” from the pen of the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Yova Rodríguez “El Jibarito de Mayagüez.”

Promesa de Reyes de la pluma del Yova Rodríguez “El Jibarito de Mayagüez en New York”

The most recent track, titled “Promesa de Reyes,” is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I have to tell you that producing a Christmas production is a bit difficult because the season is so short, and it’s hard to develop the theme as it should be. But I was determined to do it because it’s a gift or tribute to the memory of my mother, Doña Delia Ruiz.

The inspiration for “Promesa de Reyes,” in reality, when you listen to the song, what you’ll realize is that it’s a narration. That is, in this track, I’m going to describe, from when I was a child, how I used to watch my mom carry out the process of her “Promesa de Reyes,” from the time they sent someone to cut the palm leaves to make the altar, until that altar with the Three Wise Men was completed, and the next day, well, we knew we had the party.

I’ve been incredibly lucky because the track was arranged by Leo Morales, originally from Colombia. It turns out that Leo is influenced—he learned to play the trombone and became a musician because of Willy Colón’s Asalto Navideño records. So, he told me that since then, he started studying the authentic, folk music of Puerto Rico to find out where Willy got those kinds of ideas. This is a very special track because we managed to include Puerto Rican danza (dance), Puerto Rican bomba (drumming and dance), and salsa.

It’s a track that gathers a lot of little things, and obviously, we added the music of the Puerto Rican countryside (música del campo). It starts with different rhythm changes, and you’ll hear one part that has Puerto Rican danza, another that has Puerto Rican bomba, and another that has salsa.

I sing and I wrote the song. On piano is Vicente Báez, the current pianist for Sonora Ponceña. On bass is Puri Matos, a master based in New York. He was recommended by Anthony Carrillo and has been doing all my projects with me for two years. Anthony Carrillo did all the percussion. On trumpet is Agustín Someillan from the Cuban National Sextet. The chorus singers are Nino Segerra, Danny Dávila, and Caneca Rosa. Manny Trinidad, recommended by Nino Segarra, played the Puerto Rican cuatro.

The recording studio was Nino Segarra’s. This is about the fourth or fifth track we’ve done there in his studio with Nino.

Nino, besides being a singer, is a professional teacher. He’s an expert who knows how to guide you, how to explain things the way they should be; he doesn’t pressure you; he lets you develop. In other words, I feel extremely comfortable working with Nino; the experience of working with Nino is very satisfying.

People tell me, “Yova, you’re crazy. You get on a plane just to go record a voice track,” and I tell them yes, for two reasons:

First, because I feel secure. And second, because I know I won’t fail with Nino, so the sacrifice is worth it. Recording with Nino was thanks to Herman Olivera, my compadre, who told me, “Look, Yova, I’ve been recording with Nino for two years, and I’m not recording with anyone else.” And look, I got on the plane, I did it, and now I have five productions with Nino Segarra.

Nino Segarra y Yova Rodriguez en Puerto Rico

Yova, the time in the studio to make the track is very important. Talk a little about that.

Look, Augusto, remember that depends on the type of musician you have there, right? There are musicians who are sight-readers of the first caliber.

These musicians tell you, “Send me the charts two days before,” they skim them. When they get to the studio, they’re done with their part in half an hour, 20 minutes, 15. But there are others who you have to take at a slower pace. For example, in Anthony’s case, Anthony told me, “Send me the demo, and I’ll listen to it.”

But Carrillo is from another planet. I send him his demo; he listens for two days beforehand. And he tells me, “Let’s go to the studio.”

And Anthony recorded flawlessly. Anthony didn’t take three hours to do four instruments; he did it in about two hours, and everything was excellent.

The track’s release? The video will be released on Friday, October 31st. The track will also be launched on radio stations that same Friday, confirmed in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

Danny Dávila, Yova Rodriguez y Caneca Rosa

Yova, you brought in a Venezuelan graphic designer for this, your most recent track. How was it working with that graphic designer? The good thing about Victoria is that she listens, right? Sometimes you work with not only the graphic designer—it often happens even with the arrangers; I compare them. They do something, and you tell them, “No, wait, wait, that’s not what I want, this is.” “Oh, but no, I think that’s what should be.”

Victoria listens to you and works with what you ask for. The experience with her was excellent, and I hope it continues to happen many more times.

“Promesa de Reyes”

Piano: Vicente Báez

Bass: Puri Matos

Puerto Rican cuatro: Manny Trinidad

Conga: Anthony Carrillo

Bongó: Anthony Carrillo

Snare Drum (Redoble): Anthony Carrillo

Puerto Rican güiro: Anthony Carrilllo

Cuban güiro: Edwin Caneca Rosas

Trumpets: Agustín Someillan

Chorus: Nino Segarra, Edwin Caneca Rosas, Danny Dávila

Singer: Yova Rodríguez

Studios: Sonority in New Jersey (Recording of all Percussion). Engineers: Nino Segarra

Mix: Héctor Mora, HM

Producción Medellín Colombia

Arrangement: Leo Morales

Video Production: Jhonatan Chávez

Composition: Yova Rodríguez.

Graphic Designer: Victoria Rivas Rojas.

Also Read: Yova Rodríguez. The jibarito of Mayagüez

Latin America / November 2025

Events – November 2025

BAILATINO
La Resistencia Salsera

Nov 15, 2025

Bajo La Matica
2102, Maracay 2103
Aragua, Venezuela
+58 414 444-9767 / 424 340-0730

$ 10

DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
ARGENTINA	ARUBA	BELIZE
BOLIVIA	BRAZIL	CHILE
COLOMBIA	COSTA RICA	CUBA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	ECUADOR	GUATEMALA
MEXICO	PANAMA	PERU
PUERTO RICO	VENEZUELA

Gabrielito Y La Verdad giving everything in Los Angeles and beyond

Gabriel González from the group Gabrielito Y La Verdad has been kind enough to speak exclusively with International Salsa Magazine and me, Karina García, about his beginnings, bands, and current career. The composer, actor, and musician gave us some of his time to address the most important issues concerning his successful career and everything that surrounds it, for which we are extremely grateful.

Gabriel performing at the museum — Composer, percussionist, singer, and actor Gabriel Gonzalez playing live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

How Gabriel started to become interested in music

Gabriel was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he took his first steps towards what would become his lifelong vocation. Since his parents were Mexican immigrants, it was not uncommon for him to listen to rancheras, huapango, boleros, son jalisciense, and other genres typical of that country.

He liked music so much that he began participating in contests at “El Mercadito,” a place located east of Los Angeles, where amateur concerts and all kinds of musical events were held. After his father sang there several times, he told him he wanted to do the same, and that is how he began entertaining wider audiences with his voice.

Years later, after his passion for music was being shaped and getting more serious, he contacted his uncle, who was a promoter, and took him with him to Mexico to get some acting work in movies. This means that his artistic career was not just limited to singing but also to acting, but at some point, both areas would end up mixing.

It should be noted that his work as an actor made him stay in Mexico for several years, so he shared with many great actors of the time who were also singers, such as Yolanda del Río, Federico Villa, David Reynoso, Lucha Villa, and many more.

Upon returning to California, he experienced a significant culture impact. He realized that he was not Mexican enough for Mexicans nor American enough for Americans. This double identity made it much easier for him to cross cultural and musical boundaries, so from playing ranchera, huapango, and son jalisciense, he was given a chance to play other styles such as son montuno, which for Gabriel is the basis of salsa and much of Latin music.

Gabrielito at the Vibrato Grill And Jazz — Gabrielito Y La Verdad performing at the Vibrato Grill And Jazz

Gabriel’s professional beginnings in music

Gabriel tells us that, during a huge part of his career, he worked as a solo artist, but he went on to collaborate with several groups and one of them was the Mexican band Quetzal, which specializes in playing Chicano rock and son jarocho. His sister Martha González was the lead singer, so he was able to work with them on and off for about 20 years. He describes his time with Quetzal as a very nice period in which he learned a lot and was even blessed to win a Grammy, but everything has an end, so he went ahead and worked with many other bands in the Los Angeles salsa scene.

In fact, today he is a member of Boogaloo Assassins and has been playing with them since 2015, while also having his own project, which he named Gabrielito Y La Verdad.

Gabrielito Y La Verdad

After all experience gained so far, Gabriel decided to form his own group Gabrielito Y La Verdad, with which he had his first big hit “Oye Muñeca,” released around 2019. Since the project began, the artist has had the same keyboardist and pianist, but the rest of the musicians have come and gone over the years, as it is not easy to maintain a cohesive musical group for a long time.

In fact, he usually has a list of musicians he can call, and their presence at an event depends almost entirely on their availability and ability to read sheet music. Gabriel often works with the same musicians Jimmy Bosch uses, so when the Puerto Rican travels to Los Angeles, Gabriel knows he can count on them if an event comes up. He also often uses some of Jerry Rivera’s musicians and those of many other exponents of the genre.

Gabriel with Oscar Hernandez — Gabriel Gonzalez and bandleader and pianist Oscar Hernandez

Facets additional to singing

In addition to being a singer and film actor, Gabriel has also participated in commercials and done a little musical theater, since the condition of being an artist forces you to learn a little about everything. Being still very young, he participated in the film ”Mojado de Nacimiento” alongside La Sonora Santanera.

One of those memorable experiences was his participation in the second national tour of the musical ”In The Heights” with Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was during this tour that Gabriel learned that he had won a Grammy with the band Quetzal. The news came during a bus trip, making it clear that he experienced several of these facets at the same time without any problems.

More recently, he has served as composer of several of Gabrielito Y La Verdad’s songs in collaboration with pianist Matt Amper, who is also actively involved in the creation of the group’s original songs.

Collaborations with other artists

Gabriel has shared the stage and collaborated with big names in the industry like Bruno Mars, “El Divo de Juarez” Juan Gabriel, Los Van Van, Silk Sonic, and many others. Similarly, during his acting career, Gabriel also met many great actors of the time with whom he shot scenes during the day, and at night, did voice-overs at the studios, and went out singing.

All this led him to share the stage with Aida Cuevas, Rosenda Bernal, Los Lobos, and Lalo Guerrero. While still with Quetzal, he opened for Aerosmith, Taj Mahal, and others.

Gabriel Gonzalez and Richie Perez — New York’s singer Hector ”Pichie” Perez and Gabriel Gonzalez

Colombian dancer and instructor Camila Cepeda takes salsa caleña to Canada

Every day there are more Latinos who, with their talent, are gradually taking over various cities in Canada and the hearts of many of its inhabitants. Colombian instructor and dancer Camila Cepeda shows us that she and several of her compatriots have managed to break into the aforementioned North American country and shares with us a little bit of her interesting story.

Camila’s interest in dance

Camila has danced through life, and since she was a little kid, dance has been very important to her. One genre in particular that caught her attention was salsa caleña, especially since she saw it for the first time with dance groups on the TV show “Colombia’s Got Talent”. From there, more specifically in 2011, she looked for a dance academy where she could learn to dance and imitate what she saw on the screen.

Almost immediately, she realized that it was a very demanding style that required stunts and movements that were not common in more classic versions of salsa. After training in dancing, she did not want to be just an expert in salsa caleña, but many more people learned how to dance it as well, which led her to create a folk dancing group with which she would take her first steps towards teaching.

In addition to salsa caleña, Camila also danced salsa choka, champeta, bachata, merengue, and Colombian folklore.

Camila dancing at an event — Camila Cepeda dancing in one of her salsa caleña events

Moving to Canada

Initially, Camila’s plans did not include leaving Colombia, but when she knew Canada, she found it an extremely interesting country where she could start something new with dance due to the lack of salsa caleña there. So, she entered the country with a student visa and studied international business at Seneca College in Toronto, with the intention of forming her own company in her new host country.

While gaining business experience through jobs for other companies, she continued to offer classes in parallel. Finally in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and when she was still a university student, she decided to register and open her dance academy, “Salsa & Sabor.”

During that time, she also validated her teaching in English so that she could give classes to both locals and people from other cultures who spoke the same language.

Camila, Aleja, and Sonia — Camila with dancers Aleja and Sonia

Salsa & Sabor today

Although the academy was started with only online classes due to the sanitary restrictions of that time, Camila was able to gather together a more or less numerous community that allowed her to stay afloat in such a difficult moment. Therefore, when government controls were relaxed, the young woman had no problem to organize dance classes and activities in parks keeping proper social distancing.

A short time later, she could finally open her dance studio, welcome students in person, and recruit other instructors such as Diana, Victoria, Mateo, and Paula. One thing to mention about these five young Colombians is that they were all Camila’s students in the past and, after all the training she offered, they also became experts in the field. Given the pitifully small number of salsa caleña instructors in Canada, when they were ready, she asked them to join her team, and they gladly accepted the opportunity.

This, in turn, helped them to open up more schedules and workshops for many more people, allowing the academy to grow even more.

Camila with her students — Camila with some of her little students

Division of teaching genres and events

As we said at the beginning of this article, Camila also teaches other genres such as salsa choke, la champeta, bachata, and merengue, but her flagship and main rhythm remains salsa caleña. An important difference between salsa caleña and the rest is that it has a well-defined continuity and academic structure, so it takes much longer to learn. The other genres are relatively simpler, so they do not require as many hours or such an elaborate program.

Differences between salsa caleña and traditional salsa

According to Camila, a very important component of salsa caleña is its speed compared to traditional salsa. The way salsa is danced in Puerto Rico, Cuba, or New York is much better known around the world due to its age, while salsa caleña is a little newer and only began internationalizing a few years ago. In addition, traditional salsa is slower and uses the hips and shoulders a lot, while salsa caleña relies heavily on the rapid movements of the feet.

In fact, an important fact to know is that salsa caleña was created from a mistake. It turns out that a group of young people in Cali were doing private parties with LPs by various artists of the time, but they accidentally raised their speed and made the songs sound faster than they should. This led them to create completely new steps and choreographies based on these fast songs, giving rise to what we now know as salsa caleña.

These parties were called “aguelulos,” a Colombian term to refer to alcohol-free parties or gatherings for young people.

Jose Nogueras and Bobby Cruz Share a Social Message in Salsa

Veteran artists Jose Nogueras and Bobby Cruz have teamed up to create “Yo Soy Tú, Tú Eres Yo” (“I Am You, You Are Me”), a powerful song that celebrates equality, solidarity, and brotherhood among all people. According to a statement from Nogueras, the track delivers a deep and universal message: “Beyond our differences, we share the same dreams, struggles, and hopes.”

Composed by Jose Nogueras, “Yo Soy Tú, Tú Eres Yo” is a clear tribute to hope, love, justice, and unity, all set to a salsa rhythm deeply rooted in Puerto Rican heritage. The unmistakable voices of Nogueras and Cruz encourage us to reflect on the importance of human connection and empathy.

The song blends the classic essence of salsa with a meaningful human message. As is often the case with Nogueras’s compositions, the content resonates with today’s social reality. The arrangement perfectly complements the lyrics with rhythmic power, flavor, and authentic Puerto Rican style. This new release honors tradition while connecting with new generations of musicians and fans alike, thanks to its timeless message.

José Nogueras and Bobby Cruz combine their experience to produce "Yo soy tú, tú eres yo" (I Am You, You Are Me) by Bella Martinez — José Nogueras and Bobby Cruz combine their experience to produce “Yo soy tú, tú eres yo” (I Am You, You Are Me) by Bella Martinez

Nogueras’s lyrics once again confirm that his music serves as a vehicle for unity and hope. Meanwhile, the impeccable musical arrangement by Luis “Perico” Ortiz brings together several generations of great Puerto Rican musicians. The track features the talented Jorge Rivera on bass, interacting with the veteran tumbadora player Sammy Garcia. One of the most promising percussionists of his generation, David Marcano, shines on timbal and bongo. He’s also a member of one of the most respected dynasties in Puerto Rican popular music. On piano is Puerto Rico’s most versatile contemporary salsa artist, Carlos Garcia. The voices of the irreplaceable Josué Rosado and Willito Otero in the chorus seem to welcome back someone we’ve been missing for a while: Aldo Matta. The trumpets were handled by the song’s arranger, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, while Diego Diaz played the trombone.

Also read: Mel Martinez, “I come from Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico is Salsa”