Chico Ramos, A Living Musical Legend

Tonight, all roads lead to the Lord Rhaburn Plaza where renowned Punta Rock artist Chico Ramos is being celebrated as a living legend.  The annual concert series is in its third year and the Institute of Creative Arts and NICH have put together a show that promises to be electrifying.  Here’s Kim Vasquez, the Director of ICA.

 

Kim Vasquez, Dir., Institute of Creative Arts

“Tonight, we have the third edition of the Living Legends concert series taking place at the Lord Rhaburn Plaza.  If you don’t know where Lord Rhaburn Plaza is, it’s at the Memorial Park behind the stage.  This is the third edition; we began the concert series in 2022 with the inauguration of the plaza and the awardee that year was Lord Rhaburn himself.  And we did it again last year for Gilharry, they were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary as a band.  So once again, we are back with the third edition of the Living Legends series and this year are so excited to be honoring the Godfather of Punta Rock, Chico Ramos.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“How do you go about the selection of these Living Legends, in terms of to pay homage to them?”

 

Kim Vasquez

“Okay, so the concert series is coordinated by NICH.  It is, you know, under the auspices of the National Celebrations Commission, Chairman, honorable Francis Fonseca.  This is something that I think is very much in line with his vision, recognizing artists, cultural workers while they are still among us. And, you know, so far it’s been very organic so far.  We had been approached by Shane with whom we have a good relationship here at ICA.  Gilharry 7, he said, “Ms. Kim, it’s the band’s fiftieth anniversary, because of the legacy and everything, can we do something?” And I said that would fit perfectly with Living Legends concert series and that’s how we did that one there, a different format.  And then, again we started to discuss when we convened the National Celebrations Commission and, you know, the recommendations were brought to us and they said, you know, this is timely, we need to do this for Chico. We want everyone to come out, it’s going to be a spectacular show, there’s a lot of history that’s going to come out, a lot of cultural heritage that’s going to be told, the narrative of his career of Punta Rock.  There will be guest performances by Lord Rhaburn himself as well.  Chico Ramos will take the stage eventually.  There’s Supa G, Kenny Gladden and the New Generation Band, Harrison “Doggy” King.  There’s going to be lots of food and drink and entrance is free.”