Wednesday, December 2nd 2009, 4:00 AM
Puerto Rican folk singer and composer Antonio (El Topo) Cabán Vale is best known for “Verde Luz,” a song that has long been appropriated as a national anthem on the island.
First recorded in 1970, the song has reached such status even though it calls for Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, to become a sovereign nation, in a place where fewer than 10% of people favor independence.
“Here we have contradictions that are natural for a country like ours,” El Topo, 67, who will be at the Lehman Center (www.lehmancenter.org) this Saturday, told us from San Juan.
He will be joined by master cuatro player Yomo Toro, the band Zon del Barrio and the dance group Danza Fiesta for an evening billed as “Navidad para el Pueblo” (“Christmas for the People”).
El Topo started performing nearly 40 years ago as part of the “nueva trova” movement but now mixes it with authentic Puerto Rican music and romantic fare.
For the concert, he said, he will include “traditional themes because, [in New York], you need it because of the distance from our things.”
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