Hector Lavoe - 2997 Words

Hà ©ctor Lavoe: El Cantante de los Cantantes Karen Rodriguez April 16, 2008 Florida International University Hà ©ctor Lavoe Hà ©ctor Lavoe revolutionized the Latin salsa boom of the 1970s. He was a man born to sing and his passion for music led him on a remarkable journey of attaining endless dreams. Born Hà ©ctor Juan Perez Martinez on September 30, 1946 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, he lived a life full of achievements, setbacks, and tragedy that made a way for his life long addiction with cocaine, marijuana, and heroine. His drive to succeed in the music industry started in his early childhood years and was triggered by his idolization of famous Latin singers of the 30s and 40s like Daniel Santos, Jesà ºs Sà ¡nchez Erazo, and the†¦show more content†¦With his newfound success, the artist’s life began to take a turn for the worse. According to Hà ©ctor, in one of the many private parties he went to after shows he came across a table full of drugs and drug users. Some say the drug addiction was sparked when he married Puchi since she was well known for moving in an environment of drug s and conflict. He began to smoke marijuana and snort cocaine, but his true love became heroin. He fell so in love with the drug that it began to take over his life until his continuous use of the drug managed to infiltrate and ruin his personal and professional life. Heroin became more important to Hà ©ctor and he began to miss practices and show up late to events (Rodriguez, 2007). The lack of punctuality to his events gave rise for a nickname, a sarcastic name that titled him â€Å"The King of Punctuality,† which later was the name of a song written for him by Pacheco (Perez, 1999). By 1974 his drug use was completely out of control and because of this, the Colon and Lavoe band began to gain a bad reputation and bad publicity (Torres, 2005). Willie tried desperately to help Lavoe, but he refused to get clean. Because of the strength of the addiction, Willie ultimately had to break apart from the group. In 1978 the loss of his band and personal setbacks combined