In Loving Memory
Bernardo PALOMBO
1948-2024
Painted mirror by Palombo; photo: jmayaluz©2019
NEW YORK, NY –The Latin American Workshop founder and director, Bernardo Palombo, an outspoken immigrants-integration advocate, an artist, a free soul and a teacher, whose work dramatically impacted the lives of hundreds of students, musicians, singers, professionals and community organizers for more than 45 years, since El Taller Latino was founded, succumbed to late stage cancer on February 25th. He was 75.
Palombo achieved his first musical success at the age of 17 when his song "Vendimiador" was recorded by the legendary Argentinean vocal group, Los Trovadores, and became an immediate and long-lasting hit. In New York City he continued to write songs that have been recorded by some of the best-known exponents of Latin music in New York and Nueva Canción in South America including Mercedes Sosa, Philip Glass, Conjunto Libre and Lucecita Benitez. Palombo also became a musical consultant and composer for film and television, involving himself in such diverse and innovative projects as the Lucas/Coppola production of Powaqqatsi, the film Americas in Transition and the PBS show Sesame Street, which have featured some of his Spanish language songs.
Bernardo's musical background and 45+ years of teaching inspired the development of El Taller unique acoustic based language programs for adults and children. Prior to founding El Taller, Bernardo taught at the New School, Sarah Lawrence, Yeshiva University and the United Nations School. But it is at El Taller that his vision for language education flourished. In recognition of his unique contribution to education and the arts, Bernardo received the Independent Educators Award from Teachers College at Columbia University and numerous grants from the National Endowment of the Arts.
We hope to be in the best position to carry his message and legacy on and continue his mission of using art, culture, language and play to connect individuals and create community.
A Memorial and a celebration of his life and his work should be in the middle of May on a date that will be announced soon.
We would like to honor Bernardo with these words that express our thoughts about his life:
“When a friend leaves, an empty space remains that cannot be filled by the arrival of another friend. When a friend leaves, it leaves a burning ember that cannot be extinguished, not even with the waters of a river”, sang Alberto Cortez when he premiered his famous song in 1969, the same year Bernardo Palombo packed his bags to set off for New York, after saying “goodbye” to his beloved Mendoza, the Argentine city where he was born on May 13, 1948. And on February 25th, with his 76th birthday on the horizon, the teacher, the artist, the friend, the genius with long curly hair, modest beard, and shy smile, departed, leaving “an empty space”; as well as “a burning ember”
The founder of El Taller Latino Americano, an institution that the writer Julio Cortazar himself described as the “embassy of cronopios in New York” (of idealistic, sensitive, and naive creatures), passed from this world, while hand in hand with his family, listening to music. He left being “ready and curious”; ready to transcend to new spaces and curious about the unknown, eager to encounter what would await him after releasing his final melody into the air, and he flew high, with the freedom that always marked the chords guiding his life.
The “genius”; the “master of masters” of “Spanish of the Americas”, “the great pedagogue”, “the visionary”; the artist, the musician, the beloved, the husband, the father, but above all the “incredible friend”; the creator of musical jewels like “Cuida el agua”; “Por el fusil y la flor” and “Canción del inmigrante” may not be in his physical form, but a piece of him lives on in all those who had the privilege of knowing him: citizens of the world eager to embrace Latin culture, artists who shone under the tender and welcoming lights of El Taller, giants like Mercedes Sosa, Philip Glass, David Byrne, León Gieco, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Grupo Aymara, Pete Seeger, Luis Días, and Larry Harlow, and the thinkers and dreamers that he attracted into his world.
Bernardo's departure honors two of the lines of his famous song “Vendimiador”, which he composed as a teenager and which remain relevant in the Latin American songbook: “Your
blood will be in the earth/like a sprout that has fallen asleep”; As his youngest son said: “It is our intention to continue with the message to which Bernardo dedicated his life. Bernardo's mission is (in the present indicative tense) to respect all people, all cultures, and our planet; Even so, we will miss him dearly.
Productions such as Powaqqatsi (Serra Pelada, a.k.a. Malambo del Sol), Americas in Transition (the soundtrack he created with Wendy Blackstone), and Sesame Street (for which he created Spanish and bilingual songs in the mid 70s), bear the hallmark of the man who lulled, but also helped awaken consciences when he spoke and when he picked up his guitar and sang.
Bernardo is both: a teacher and an inspiration, as recognized by Columbia University’s Teachers College, which honored him with its “Independent Educator” award. And El Taller Latino Americano, the greatest achievement of the Argentine who roamed the streets of New York for over 55 years, serves as the ultimate testament to his vision. The legendary American musician Pete Seeger defined El Taller as “one of the only places in New York where all communities come together”; and that was always Bernardo' goal: to create community, to create spaces and moments in which, with the score of “Spanish from the Americas”, our differences make us bigger, stronger, more sensitive, more human, more loving... more ourselves... happier.
With that sense of humor, even in the most difficult moments before he walked through the door to his new chapter, Bernardo would quip “estoy jodido pero no ido”; (“I'm screwed, but not gone”) and nothing could be more true, because Bernardo Palombo is an active voice, is music, is teaching, is sharing, and is a clear and persuasive message. Bernardo lived as he wished, he lived fully and with great vitality, and he understood that joy, free from material things and with the magic of being completely oneself, marking the measures that blend with the chords of others to create, if not the best, the most honest and sincere melody, one that comes from the soul.
And following one of his lyrics, written to the music of his long time collaborator and fellow countryman, Damián Sánchez, Bernardo will continue to dare us to live:
“Te digo hermano que es tiempo
(“I’m telling you brother that it is time”)
que el pueblo empiece a vivir
(“that the people begin to live”)
que nadie ha venido al mundo
(“that no one has come to the world”)
solo a sudar y a sufrir
(“only to sweat and suffer”)
Te digo hermano que grites
(“I’m telling you brother to shout”)
cuando tengas que gritar
(“when you have to shout”)
que por el miedo a la lucha
(“because by the fearing the fight”)
nunca ganamos la paz”
(“we will never win peace”).
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, the city he departed in 1969 when he moved to New York at a young age, Bernardo is survived by a large family spanning New York, New Mexico, and Mendoza: his wife, Jennifer; his sons Niki, Demian, and Ira; his brother Jorge's family, including Paula, Taina, and Cantú; nephews Emmanuel and Amaru; and eight grandchildren: Louis, Amy, Josephina, Julian, AJ, Dani, Joey, and Giovanni. Additionally, he leaves behind an extended family and friends, nurtured through his work at El Taller Latino Americano.
SEMANA DE INTEGRACIóN CULTURAL LATINOAMERICANA - SICLA, 1986
A LIVE performance of Palombo’s “Te digo hermano”
7 días con el pueblo
Palombo helped to organize as well as perform at the historic 1974 festival “Siete Días con el Pueblo”, in Santo Domingo, DR.
El Cuerpo: Palombo’s work for Sesame Street
other children’s songs:
Palombo’s creative force never ceased - he was constantly collaborating and finding new talents to nurture. Here he is with Timna Comedi and Dario Acosta Teich, when they first arrived in New York City in 2018, rehearsing “Zamba de las Tolderías”, by Buenaventura Luna, Oscar Valles y Fernando Portal.
NY1’s external link here