Rubén Blades Discovers He’s Related to This Iconic Poet on PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots’
Ruben Blades performs during "Caminando, Adios Y Gracias concert" at Bank United Center on August 27, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Photo by Johnny Louis/WireImage
Rubén Blades has just discovered who his paternal grandfather is—thanks to PBS’s Finding Your Roots. And just as the renowned singer, activist and actor predicted in the show, the news is a bomb in his home country of Panama. It’s, after all, not often that the PBS show can trace one of the country’s most famous singers to arguably its greatest poet. And yet, it makes absolute sense.
In the show, educator Henry Louis Gates Jr. leads celebrities as they examine their hidden history, learn of surprising connections, and discover secrets, while sharing the emotional experience with viewers. And all of it is done by analyzing genetic code, which allows DNA historians to trace bloodlines.
The latest episode featured Blades, a singer who has won 12 Grammys and has also had a successful acting career, and his surprising connection to Ricardo Miró, Panama’s most renowned poet. Miró, who died in 1940, wrote popular poems about his home country, with the most renowned being “Patria” (Fatherland), a poem that to this day is taught in schools in the country and recited during national holidays. Ironically, the poem says in its final lines about his country, Panama, that “perhaps you were so small, to ensure I’d carry you everywhere in my heart!” and speaks of an old tree that reminds the poet of home.
Why ironic? Well, Rubén Blades’s most famous song in Panama might just be one that feels like a homage to the work of his grandfather—even before he knew the connection. It’s also called “Patria,” and in it he says “Patria, it’s so many beautiful things… like that old tree the poem speaks about.”
Like grandfather, like grandson, apparently.
Finding Your Roots airs on PBS and streams on PBS.org, the PBS App, and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.