the radio show "La Montaña Canta" on the WHOM station. He maintained a constant presence in Puerto Rico, however, virtually living between both places. "Ramito" became an icon to fans of trova music in Puerto Rico, specially those in the mountainside areas of that island. He toured intensely in Latin America and the United States, and had a particularly strong following among the Puerto Rican community in Hawaii, which he visited twice. He also visited Okinawa, where he entertained Puerto Rican troops of the United States military who were stationed there. He sang for president John F. Kennedy at the White House in November 1961, in a showcase of Puerto Rican musical talent that complemented a visit by then governor Luis Muñoz Marín to Washington. Musical work Ramito influenced several Puerto Rican musicians and singers, not only within the canción jíbara realm, but also in other Puerto Rican music genres, such as plena and salsa. He is credited with inventing the seis de enramada, one of the many musical structures to which Puerto Rican country music is sung to (collectively named seises after a distantly related genre made popular in Andalusian music). He also popularized the seis llanera, a variety of seis that incorporated musical influences that are also common to Venezuela. Willie Colón was so strongly moved by Ramito's work that he recorded Patria y Amor, one of Ramito's décimas, as part of his seminal Christmas album Asalto Navideño (1971). Héctor Lavoe's interpretation of the song, renamed "Canto a Borinquen" for the album, is considered the definitive version of this patriotic song, which has since been versioned by José Feliciano, Lucecita Benítez and other Puerto Rican singers. Que Bonita Bandera Ramito's composition "Qué Bonita Bandera" -a plena homage to the Puerto Rican flag- deserves a particular mention. During the decade previous to the song's inception in 1968, waving a Puerto Rican flag in public was considered taboo in the island (during a brief period in the early 1950s, which coincided with the Jayuya Uprising and the United States Capitol shooting incident of 1954 it was actually outlawed). Ramito wrote the song to demonstrate pride for the flag. In its lyrics, he incorporated the names of José de Diego, Ramón Emeterio Betances and Luis Muñoz Rivera, and manifested his wish to see it "floating freely over my beautiful Borinquen". It quickly became an unofficial anthem for Puerto Ricans everywhere, and