Willie Colón Played Up the Bad Guy With Purpose

Every genre has its bad guy. In salsa, that role belonged to Willie Colón, who died on Saturday at the age of 75. He leaned into an antagonist persona with album titles like 1967’s “El Malo,” 1973’s “Lo Mato — Si No Compra Este LP,” 1970’s “Cosa Nuestra” and “La Gran Fuga,” sometimes appearing on covers as a wanted man.

He fashioned his look from mobsters and blaxploitation heroes. “The clothes I was wearing and that gangsta thing played into the image and it really caught on,” he said in a 2017 PBS documentary, and pieces like dramatic polyester suits, fur coats and wide lapels echoed films such as “Shaft” and “Super Fly.” For Latino youth of the 1960s, Colón offered an image they could claim: slick, proud and rooted in this country.

“We were illegal immigrants as far as anyone was concerned,” he said in a 2013 interview.

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