The Conga Kings trio was convened for a recent CD on the Chesky record label; it combines three of the greatest living congueros in Latin music: the Cubans Candido Camero and Carlos Valdes (who is known as Patato), and Giovanni Hidalgo, a Puerto Rican musician a generation younger.
"I'm a second generation Puerto Rican, so I'm really hoping my heritage can really come through this week," Hernandez told the camera, before holding herself and saying: "Come on guys, wake up".
Hernandez, the team's youngest member and a second-generation Puerto Rican, went from competing in juniors this time last year to winning a silver on the beam.
When Mrs. Pacheco, who is second-generation Puerto Rican, first moved to Mechanicsville, outside Richmond, in 1989, from Trenton, there were virtually no Latinos in the area, she said.
Women play greater roles, and there are fewer parishioners for each pastor than in the Catholic church.The evangelical churches are also more "experiential", says Samuel Rodriguez, a third-generation Puerto Rican Pentecostal pastor and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an evangelical association.
Nolla-Marrero embodies the next-generation Puerto Rican professional that the government is trying to cultivate: The entrepreneur.
Inside look: "There's nothing about Jane's situation that seems farcical or funny to her, so I play it as very real," says Rodriguez, who grew up in Chicago in a second-generation Puerto Rican household.
A first generation Puerto Rican-American, Flores came of age as his once-thriving community was being systematically decimated by the government, and as Puerto Ricans began organizing to fight for what was rightfully theirs.
Only Posada and Rodriguez remain, and the next generation of Puerto Rican stars, like Carlos Beltran and the Molina brothers, lacks a similar swagger.
Juan Sánchez, Pepón Osorio, and Antonio Martorell, stars of an earlier generation of Puerto Rican artists, were more concerned with issues of nationalism and identity.
