Hechter Ubarry

At the age of 3 Hechter moved to New York from Puerto Rico with his mother and two sisters. He grew up in an environment of music and movies. His mother, a former singer on Puerto Rican radio often had musicians at the home. His grandmother was a huge fan of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies which also had a huge influence on Hechter, until he discovered Elvis Presley. He tried desperately to imitate "The King" in his youth. By his own admission he didn't imitate him well. His family moved to West Harlem where many of his friends got involved with the wrong crowd. Knowing that this was a bad thing Hechter kept to what he refers to as his own gang, a group of singers that he had befriended. In another attempt to stay away from the gangs he spent many hours at the local movie theaters, where he dreamed of one day leaving the Harlem gangs behind him. Being a part of Harlem had made him uncomfortable with his Latino image but watching Latino movies with stars such as Arturo de Cordob