"Tato" Torres or "TatoBrujo", was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico into an extended family of musicians, educators, artisans and community leaders from a mountain top of the southern town of Guayanilla, in a rural barrio called El Consejo Alto. Tato grew up in EL Alto up untill 1984, when his immediate family migrated to the U.S. and he has lived in New York City ever since.

"Music is my Life!, or rather.., my Life is Music!!!" Tato says. "I grew up in a very musical family, and I am, more than anything else, a musician, composer and singer." "I am an experienced practitioner of Puerto Rican musical traditions and play a variety of musical instruments, but I am generaly known and recognized as a singer." As both a musician and visual artist Tato has had the pleasure to have worked along side some of the best interpreters of expressive Puerto Rican traditional arts in New York City.

He once studied Applied Urban Anthropology at the City College of New York (CCNY) with a focus on Ethnomusicology and concentrating on the role of traditional music within the Puerto Rican community. After several semesters of graduate school in the Masters Program at CCNY (CUNY), he took off to do fieldwork, and eventually, just decided to just stay out in the field.

He identifies myself as a cultural activist, and often referr to himself as a "recovering anthropologist." Tato has dedicated himself to learning, practicing and nurturing the musical traditions of Puerto Rico throughout the Diaspora, but with a focus on the community of New York City where I live.

Tato on YERBABUENA:

Artistically, I've had the pleasure and honor of performing with and been part of numerous Puerto Rican musical ensembles like Los Pleneros de la 21na, Los Instantaneos de la Plena, William Cepeda's Afro Boricua and Afro-Rican Jazz, etc., and my own personal project, YERBABUENA. I've had the honor to share the stage with such greats as Andres Jimenez, Antonio Caban Vale "El Topo", Nito Mendez, Felix Olmo, El Gran Combo, La Sonora Poncena, Los Guyayacanes de San Anton, Yomo Toro, Papo Vazquez, and many more.

I am an active member of the "musical family" from the Rincón Criollo Cultural Center in The Bronx, better known as "La Casita de Chema". And from my experience there, I founded a musical ensamble dedicated to moving our music forward without losing our roots. Firmly rooted on the ground at Rincón Criollo, the band, called "YERBABUENA" (one word), has just released their first CD, titled "BORICUA ROOTS MUSIC".