I grew up around salsa, merengue, bachata, bass music

Pitbull, the son of Miami and the world, once declared: “I grew up around salsa, merengue, bachata, bass music, freestyle, hip-hop, techno, house, rave.” These words are not merely a list of sounds, but a testimony to a life formed in the crucible of rhythm and culture. In his statement lies the truth that music is more than entertainment—it is environment, inheritance, identity. Each style named is a thread, and together they weave the tapestry of his soul. To grow up among these rhythms is to be raised not only by family, but by the beating heart of community itself.

The ancients knew this law well. In every society, music was the memory of the people. In Africa, the drum carried the stories of the ancestors; in Greece, the lyre shaped the education of youth; in the Americas, native songs bound tribes to their lands and spirits. To be surrounded by music in one’s youth was to be nurtured by the spirit of the people. Thus, when Pitbull speaks of salsa, merengue, and bachata, he is naming the living heritage of the Caribbean and Latin world, rhythms of joy, exile, love, and survival.

Consider the meaning of hip-hop, another influence he names. Born from the streets of New York, hip-hop began as the voice of the marginalized, the poetry of the unheard. It became not just a genre, but a movement, a declaration that even those abandoned by society carried power, beauty, and fire within them. For Pitbull, to be raised among hip-hop was to inherit that defiance, that refusal to be silenced. His very name—Mr. Worldwide—reflects this expansion of a culture that began in struggle and grew into a global force.

The presence of techno, house, and rave in his upbringing shows yet another layer. These genres, born in the underground clubs of Detroit, Chicago, and Europe, were spaces of release and freedom. They were the anthems of outsiders, of dreamers who sought unity through rhythm. To grow up with these sounds was to be shaped by the pulse of the future, by music that dissolved boundaries of language and nation. For Pitbull, this meant he was not confined to one culture—he became a bridge between many.

The meaning of his words, then, is that the environment we are raised in becomes the foundation of who we are. Surrounded by many genres, Pitbull learned that music was not limited to one identity, one sound, or one people. He discovered early that the world is diverse, and that in diversity lies strength. His career reflects this truth: he fuses Latin beats with hip-hop, pop with dance, creating songs that cross cultures and bring people together.

The lesson for us is clear: embrace the influences that surround you. Do not be ashamed of your roots, nor afraid to blend them with the new. Just as Pitbull grew strong by honoring salsa alongside techno, so too can we grow by weaving together the many strands of our own environment. Our identities are not prisons—they are palettes. From them we can paint a sound, a work, a life that is uniquely ours.

Therefore, let each soul take this wisdom into practice: honor your past, absorb the present, and do not fear to combine them. Listen to the many voices that shaped you—family, culture, struggle, joy—and let them form your own song. The world may seek to label you, to divide you, to tell you to choose only one path. But the truth is otherwise: your strength lies in synthesis. Be like the child of many rhythms, who becomes the man of one powerful voice.

Thus Pitbull’s words endure as a reminder that environment shapes destiny: “I grew up around salsa, merengue, bachata, bass music, freestyle, hip-hop, techno, house, rave.” To grow up with many sounds is to grow up with many worlds—and to unite them is to create something larger than oneself. This is the power of music, and the power of a life lived as both student and master of rhythm.