Songs of Distant Rivers (English and Spanish Edition) is the result of a project initiated by the acclaimed composer Ricardo Lorenz, on his research of the habanera influence upon later generations of musical genres such as rag, danzón, choro, and tango. This collection of poems and songs is an epic ballad in response to the fascinating sociohistorical connections between the deltas of the Mississippi and Rio de la Plata rivers and inspired by Ricardo's vision of a song cycle that raises awareness about these connections through the fusion of poetry and music. Songs of Distant Rivers (Canciones de los Ríos Distantes) seeks to point out the common history that gave birth to staple musical genres of the Americas while drawing attention to the fact that each of these styles of music embodies common human struggles and aspirations that remain relevant today throughout the entire region. Loosely inspired by Langston Hughes' 1921 poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" as the literary starting point, Alfredo wrote a collection of gripping and musically-infused poems that captures the interwoven nature of modern progress, geography, market demands, and human resiliency.