|
|
Sorry for
the Singer* |
|
H. Hernández • La Habana |
|
|
|
Sorry for the
singer who today
Does not risk
his guitar,
Lest he may risk
his life.
(…)
Sorry for the
singer who can’t
rise
And march ahead
Without blemish
or mud. |
For the last five
decades, Cuba's
sovereignty as a nation
has had to withstand
constant onslaughts;
many of them financed by
US taxpayer's funds,
since these acts are
part of the agendas and
budgets of a number of
federal agencies of the
United States.
Propaganda against Cuba
has been the official
policy of successive US
administrations which
have received the
support of its allied
nations and the backing
of the big media.
Headlines in the
transnational media
frequently allude to
prestigious voices that
join Miami's Cuban
American ultra-right
wing, the real creator
and direct beneficiary
of this long war against
a sovereign nation. The
media in the US and
Europe, especially in
Spain, choose to utilize
against Cuba anyone who
is seen as authentic,
more so if his or her
influence on people is
based on the ideals of
true freedom and
justice.
That is truly the case
with Joaquin Sabina,
whose relationship with
Cuba, its people and its
artists is well-known,
above all for his
leftist position. But
the interview with the
distinguished
singer-songwriter
published last Sunday in
El Mundo,
plays into the hands
of the worst of Miami,
which is not as
homogeneous as he seems
to believe.
When asked about the
rejection by the Miami
based anti-Cuban
organizations of the
concert of Pablo Milanés
in Florida, Sabina
smoothed out resistance
to his upcoming October
appearance in that city.
Because in Miami it is
seemingly fashionable to
boycott presentations by
artists who live in Cuba
or are close to the
Revolution as part of a
cultural exchange which
has not been more
fruitful as a result of
the stubborn refusal by
successive governments
and administrations of
the northern neighbor to
have Cuban artists
visiting the USA. Very
recently something
similar happened with
the Van Van orchestra
and singer-songwriter
Silvio Rodríguez.
If
some of the statements
of the founder of the
Nueva Trova Movement
have contributed to
raising the media ruckus
against Cuba, he himself
has said that the
opposition in Miami by
some of the anti-Cuban
groups reflects an
obsolete attitude. “I
think it is a minority
that must realize that
those attitudes are
already obsolete and
that a tiny group cannot
prevail over the
willingness of a
majority of Cubans who
want to be there, and
those who cannot attend
agree that the recital
must go on,” he declared
to EFE.
In the same text, Pablo
confirmed his loyalty to
the Revolution: “I think
that Cuba has kept
upholding that which was
its foundation and
showing it to the world
as an achievement; and I
think that even today it
is still being upheld as
in education, health,
culture and many other
social achievements.”
Sabina omits these
reasons and says he
suffers with the sorrows
and problems of alleged
exiles that are bent on
denying any success in
matters of culture and
thought that emerge from
Cuba. However, he
overlooks the
aggressions that for
more than 50 years the
Cuban people have
suffered from the
opposition as for
instance the
impossibility for
artists of the Island to
receive their awards in
US territory, or the
freezing of copyright
royalties to those who
decided to remain in
their homeland.
Trying to find absurd
similarities between
Cuba and what is taking
place in Spain as a
result of the
indiscriminate
imposition of
neo-liberal measures
that have destroyed the
economy and the future
of young people in that
country, Sabina called
for a, “15-M movement
in Cuba to go out in the
streets and say what it
is they don´t like”.
An
article published in the
blog La pupila
insomne aptly
points out that
“Luckily, in contrast
with Spain, Cubans have
had the chance of
expressing ‘what they
don’t like’ in a broadly
democratic and
participative process
that, after extensive
debate, led to the
adoption of the
Guidelines for Economic
and Social Development
which include the
aspirations of the
majority of Cuban
society for changes.”
The clash between
Miami´s reactionary and
increasingly aging
far-right wing and that
sector of émigrés who
welcome Cuban art from
all places
—because
even if they are far
from Cuba they continue
to love their country—
has motivated comments
from the likes of Yoani
Sánchez and Carlos
Alberto Montaner. Cuban
journalist
Edmundo García, who
lives in the US, pointed
out that it is
unfortunate that Pablo
himself partakes in this
charade.
The concert was finally
held last Saturday 27 at
the American Airlines
Arena in Miami. More
than 3 thousand people
went there in spite of
the signs on the
sidewalks calling them
“traitors”, “sell-outs
to the tyranny” and
“Castro puppets”. As on
other occasions, the
crowd sang along with
Pablo´s mythical songs
and the music
transcended any kind of
opportunism or
manipulation.
When, more than a year
ago, the same newspaper
El Mundo
published some comments
by Pablo Milanés
supposedly against the
Revolution, a young
Cuban intellectual,
Carlos Rodriguez
Almaguer, regretted
the attitude of the
author of songs that are
part of the life of
entire generations of
Cuban men and women.
“It is painful for me to
believe that Pablo of
Cuba may have been
manipulated by El
Mundo or any of the
members of the anti-Cuba
choir who over the years
banged their heads
against the unshakeable
will of one man. I
refuse to believe that
that Pablo, who knows
how much his name is
worth for a youth that
never tires of dreaming
of and struggling for a
better world, may allow
himself to be used by
our enemies at times of
undeniable peril for the
homeland whose glories
he always sang. I refuse
to believe that a man
who with his songs made
Cuba grow, and who in
the eyes of the whole
world grew in turn to
his present stature
alongside Cuba may
diminish himself at “the
hour of the furnaces”.
*
Edited by Walter
Lippmann. Cubanews
translation. |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
. . .
