You wouldn't expect to find Britney Spears holding down a second job at McDonald's.
But half a century ago, some of Puerto Rico's most popular musicians were members of the country's working class.
Ruth Glasser, a professor from the University of Connecticut, delivered a lecture on Puerto Rican music to a small group of students and staff yesterday at the ARCH building.
Glasser, who is the author of two books regarding Puerto Rican and Latino communities in New England, spoke about her most recent work My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities, 1917-1940.
She attempted to shed light on the often forgotten music of Puerto Rico, combatting the belief that salsa music is an exclusively Cuban and Argentine phenomenon. Glasser was the first of five guest speakers coming to the ARCH building, located at 36th Street and Locust Walk, over the next few weeks in recognition of Latino Heritage Month.
The author spoke about the development and progression of Puerto Rican music throughout the early half of the 20th century.
"Music changes constantly," Glasser said. "It expresses the constant flow of people from one place to another."
Expressing a desire to see the academic interest in Latin American culture extend beyond the bounds of Latino Heritage Month, Glasser said that she hopes students will come away with a greater "interest in learning more about Puerto Rican culture."
The lecture series will explore different aspects of Puerto Rican, Cuban-American, Mexican, Chicano and Dominican cultures.
"We wanted [students] to get a sense of the diversity within the Latino community in the U.S.," said Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. "We wanted to complicate [students'] stereotypes about Latino groups."
"Our academic work should reflect the reality of Latino culture," Farnsworth-Alvear added.
The University has increased its efforts to promote Latino Heritage Month this year with a variety of events taking place across campus throughout October.
"Penn is working on building the awareness of Latin American culture on campus," said School of Arts and Sciences first-year graduate student Alison Scheiderer.
Glasser's lecture was part of a series cosponsored by the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the African-American Resources Center, and La Casa Latina -- an organization devoted to increasing Penn's Latino population and providing services to assist Latino students in succeeding academically and socially at the University.
