Art & Creativity Quote by Ruben Blades

There’s a sly kind of rebellion baked into this line: not rebellion against music, but against the machinery around it. Ruben Blades isn’t romanticizing hustle; he’s quietly exposing how often artists are expected to wait for permission. “I decided” lands like a small coup. The sentence skips the hand-wringing, the gatekeepers, the mythical phone call from a promoter who finally “gets it.” If no one will validate you with a slot, you manufacture the slot.

The phrasing is almost comically plain, which is why it hits. “Book ourselves” sounds like an administrative detail, the kind of thing that’s supposed to be handled by a manager in a back office. Blades pulls it into the foreground and turns it into authorship. The subtext: artistry doesn’t just live in the song; it lives in the logistics that allow the song to be heard. Taking control of booking is a way of taking control of narrative - where you play, who you play for, what kind of career you’re actually building.

In the broader context of Latin music’s crossover economy and the historical under-compensation of artists, the line reads as a practical politics. Blades has always balanced craft with conscience; here the conscience is directed inward, toward self-determination. It’s a reminder that “making it” is often less a coronation than a clerical decision: you stop waiting, you start scheduling.