SPECIAL ISSUE 82 - NOVEMBER 2019 - COPIES
Trump Cuts Federal Money for ‘Cultural Exchange’ with Cuba, Russia, North Korea
President Donald Trump announced in a Monday Federal Registry statement that the federal government could no longer use taxpayers’ dollars for “educational and cultural exchange programs” partnered with the governments of Cuba, Russia, Syria, and North Korea.
The decree, handed down in a formal “Presidential Determination,” is a response to these countries’ egregious human trafficking abuses, or negligence in prosecuting criminals trafficking people in their country. The State Department has designated all four countries “Tier 3” countries for significant risk of human trafficking crimes, which allows the president to unilaterally restrict non-humanitarian aid at his discretion.
President Trump’s announcement limits funding through 2020, or until the governments on the list prove they have cracked down on human trafficking.“I determine that the United States will not provide nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related assistance to, or allow funding for participation in educational and cultural exchange programs by officials or employees of, the Governments of Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Russia, and Syria for FY 2020,” President Trump wrote.
That ban could cease to be in effect if the governments listed “bring themselves into compliance with the minimum standards” on fighting human trafficking.
The decree also ordered “United States Executive Director of each multilateral development bank … and of the International Monetary Fund to vote against and use best efforts to deny any loan or other utilization of the funds” to the four previously stated governments and China, Iran, and several other states. Trump wrote the ban does not apply to money intended for “humanitarian assistance; for trade-related assistance; or for development assistance that directly addresses basic human needs,” assuming that money is not “administered by the government” and “confers no benefit to that government.”
“Cultural exchange” is one of the many exceptions to the increasingly porous “embargo” allegedly in place against the communist Cuban regime. Its existence allows for travel by well-connected, pro-communist Cuban acts into the United States to perform. The significantly stricter Cuban embargo on the United States allows no such travel for Cuban-American artists who publicly support their government or oppose communism.
The result has been a growing flood of non-Cuban American celebrities into Havana – Katy Perry, Kanye West, and Madonna – and the bizarre phenomenon of pro-Castro Cuban artists like Gente de Zona and Descemer Bueno frequenting Miami, but a complete lack of interaction between Cuban audiences and Cuban exile stars, many of whom refuse to visit the island until it is free.
The “cultural exchange” program that allows pro-Castro Cuban artists into the United States has caused tensions in Florida, home to the nation’s largest Cuban-American population. In June, the city of Hialeah, a largely Cuban working-class community, canceled the appearances of several pro-Castro artists in its July 4 celebration after former political prisoners and human rights activists protested.
“I have always said that my true heroes are the political prisoners who did suffer and have sacrificed everything for the cause,” Mayor Carlos Hernández said in a press statement at the time. “Even the most minimal suggestion from them is enough to make any kind of change.”
In September, Cuban American host Alexander Otaola announced
a campaign to rescind the work visas of Gente de Zona, a pop music outfit that
has performed for members of the Castro family, noting that similar
Cuban-American pop acts would not similarly be granted visas to Cuba.
President Trump’s decree only bans the use of federal money for “cultural
exchanges,” leaving open the possibility that local and state governments will
use taxpayers’ money to book pro-communist performers.
The Cuban communist regime reacted with the usual outrage at Trump’s
move. Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, published the news with a doctored
photo of Trump on the poster of the Netflix series House of Cards.
Unlike other nations on the list, Cuba
not only neglects to adequately prosecute human traffickers, but the state itself
participates in a form of human trafficking: the “slave
doctor” system. Cuba
makes an estimated $11 billion a year forcing its doctors to travel to
underdeveloped nations and work in unsafe conditions without receiving a
working salary. As many as 100,000 doctors are forced to work in dangerous
areas of rural Brazil,
Kenya, and Pacific
Island states. Doctors have faced
jihadist attacks in
Africa and, survivors have revealed, been forced to fabricate
medical statistics to make the program appear more productive than it actually
is.
Cuban dissident groups have offered evidence that
the Cuban doctors cannot escape the system if they wished to return home.
“As in the case of forced prostitution,
professionals were being retained their passports after passing customs,
impeded from legalizing their university degrees and experience, prohibited of
speaking with ‘native’ population, denied social or sentimental relationships,
or kept crowded living in degrading conditions, and forced away from their
families, threatened every day,” the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), the
island’s largest dissident group, asserted in a report in
January.
Mayor of Miami declares Haila María Mompié, a well-known Cuban singer, to love Fidel Castro
By
Published on
The mayor of Miami, Florida, Francis Suarez, declared
persona non grata to the renowned singer of Cuban music Haila María
Mompié, who has said “love” the deceased president Fidel
Castro during , visit to the city, where , has a concert scheduled
this week.
“We do not want to have in our city a person who offends us in that way. It is disgusting that they use our freedoms against us, and return to Cuba talking about a dictator who has killed thousands of people .. ”said Mayor Suarez in statements that the chain collects today Telemundo.
Member of the famous dance music duo in the 90s Wobble, with whom, made a career before singing also with the popular Cuban orchestra La Habanera Charanga, Mompié faces a boycott in Miami for attending Castro's funerals.
Also, of the communist leader the singer said on one occasion “I love , with all my heart”, in addition to kissing , on the cheek during an official televised act.
Mompié has a concert at the nightclub scheduled for next Thursday Studio 60, located in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, but according to Telemundo, there is a boycott on social networks to suspend it.
Mompié, who was already in a similar situation recently in La Vegas with the cancellation of a concert, also the Cuban exile in Miami reproaches, for vocalizing an emblematic song of the communist revolution that praises the work of the Defense Committees of the Revolution (CDR).
During a press conference that Telemundo reviews on Monday, the artist says , has “the fortune that I am always granted a work visa to come. I had a five-year visa, ”, said.
Last June, the US government banned cultural and educational contact trips with the Cuban people, known in English as “people to people” and that allowed thousands of Americans to visit the island after the thaw started in 2014 by the US president. .UU. Barack Obama and , Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.
That same month, the city of Hialeah, neighboring Miami and the most Hispanic and Cuban in the United States, according to a 2017 study, canceled a show with well-known reggaeton who had to travel from the largest of the Antilles for the concert of the Day of American Independence, July 4.
The reggaetons were Jacob Forever, Miss Dayana Y The Micha, who were replaced to perform at the Milania Park in Hialeah by the Cuban singer based in Miami Willy Chirino, author of “Our day (It is coming)”, the “hymn” of what Castro used to call “worms”, and the singer Albite Rodriguez, also exiled.
The American government allows “cultural exchanges” with Cuba, one of the exceptions to the longstanding embargo on the communist island. Cuba’s much stricter embargo on the United States does not allow American artists to perform there, however, unless they explicitly submit to the demands of the Castro regime or help it generate profit.
The Cuban embargo on American artists is particularly stifling of ethnically Cuban Americans, whose citizenship in the United States the Castro regime does not legally recognize. Many such artists reject allowing pro-regime artists to make money in the United States and return home to praise the Castro regime and have stated they would not collaborate with pro-regime artists.
“I have always said that my true heroes are the political prisoners who did suffer and have sacrificed everything for the cause,” Mayor Carlos Hernández said in a press statement canceling the concert. “Even the most minimal suggestion from them is enough to make any kind of change.”
“We understand that the history exile community deserves to continue receiving all the respect and support of the city of Hialeah. That is what our decision to change the invites for our 4th of July celebration is based on,” the statement read.
It remains unclear at press time if Hialeah will schedule artists to replace the Cubans or if it will cancel the event entirely.
Members of the Cuban exile community reacted to the announcement of performances by Cuban reggaetón artists Jacob Forever, El Micha, and la Señorita Dayana with outrage given their cozy relationship with the communist regime, which allows them to enrich themselves in the United States and bring that money back to Cuba. Cuban-Americans had scheduled a tentative protest against the concert in front of Hialeah City Hall for June 25.
“There’s a strong connection between Miami and Cuba,” explains Cimafunk. “We’re all Cubans regardless of where we live, or how or why we got to where we are now.”
Following President Obama’s 2014 restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and subsequent cultural exchange program, there has been an artistic renaissance between the Cuban people and its diaspora — but it’s now facing increasing opposition in South Florida. Old feelings die hard in Miami, home to many Cuban exiles and their families; and since Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel signed off on Decree 349, which prohibits artists from performing in public or private spaces without approval from the Cuban Ministry of Culture, Miami officials share suspicions that Cuba manipulated the cultural exchange agreement to favor artists who do not criticize the regime.
In June, Miami’s City Commission passed a resolution asking Congress to enact legislation “to permit states and local governments to prohibit the contracting with performers and artists who do business with or are funded by Cuba.” Until the Cuban government realigns with the word and spirit of the cultural exchange, reads the resolution, private bookings may face a ban.
Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, a Cuban American, is one of the resolution’s sponsors. “I think there is a frustration; it is very difficult when you have artists come from Cuba under a supposed cultural exchange program,” says Suarez. “They are making money from our citizens and go back to Cuba, essentially talking up a brutal dictatorship which has denied people basic human rights.”
But promoters have doubts that throttling the cultural exchange is an effective strategy. “The lack of exchange only perpetuates these closed-minded systems,” says James Quinlan, executive director of the Rhythm Foundation and co-presenter of the Global Cuba Festival. “Once the exchange begins to demystify and de-demonize the ‘other,’ it is a beginning of an awareness and an understanding that leads to change.”
President Trump’s restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba have only further emboldened Miami’s growing anti-engagement movement. U.S. embassy consular services in Havana ceased nearly two years ago, meaning U.S. visas now have to be obtained abroad, usually in Colombia or Mexico. Additional layers of State Department security questions and data requests make the process ever more opaque. Such measures pose additional difficulties for Cuban artists, already persecuted and censored at home, seeking to grow their audience. “[The resolution] is somewhat symbolic of the last stand of the old guard in Miami,” says Collin Laverty, Cimafunk’s international manager.
South Florida Cuban Americans are a politically powerful group. When Los Van Van, a Cuban dance band that has been accused of loyalty to the late Fidel Castro and his successors, played the Miami Arena in 1999, thousands angrily demonstrated against them. When they returned in 2010, however, the reception was less hostile.
“A lot of the rhetoric from the anti-engagement folks is no different from what they did and have done for many years,” says Bill Martinez, an immigration lawyer and Cuban arts advocate. “I doubt it is going to get very far. The majority of the country wants to see better U.S.-Cuba relations. Nothing gets done without being able to talk and engage and have these cultural exchanges.”
The anger bubbled over in 2019, when Cuban stars Señorita Dayana, El Micha and Jacob Forever were scheduled to perform in the city of Hialeah on July 4th. Following residents’ complaints, the city’s mayor cancelled their appearances. Forever, a former member of Cuban reggaeton group Gente de Zona whose real name is Yosdani Jacob Carmenates, was surprised. “I feel bad; very sad about not being able to sing in a place where I had already been in front of 20,000 people in 2018,” says Carmenates. “It’s unfair. I live in the United States. I have residence and I pay taxes. I’m not a politician. I’m not a communist. I am simply a family man and I am an artist.”
Dr. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, co-founder of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a Miami-based anti-Castro organization, consulted with the mayor of Hialeah on the show’s status. “A good chunk of Cuba tourism and entertainment is controlled by the [Cuban] armed forces, through multiple different corporations,” says Gutierrez Boronat. “Many of these artists are playing a double game of coming here and at the same time, complying with or collaborating with regime corporations.” Supporting such bans, some Miami-based artists see the cultural exchange as unbalanced, with Cuba refusing visas to artists like the Miami-based, Grammy-winning Cuban singer Willy Chirino.
Chirino served as the replacement for the artists banned from the Hialeah concert. The 72-year-old crooner came to Miami in “Operation Peter Pan,” or the 1961 exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors to the United States. Chirino has dreams of performing in Cuba, but lyrics denouncing the Cuban government — namely from his anthem amongst Cuban exiles, “Nuestro Día Ya Viene Llegando” (“Our Day is Coming”) — puts it out of reach.
“My biggest frustration is if you are Cuban and you know what goes on over there, you have a moral obligation to your own people to speak out,” Chirino says. “Whatever the consequences, to let the world know what goes on politically over there. Instead, they decide to shut up about it.”
In Cuban-American relations, the common ground seems to be quicksand, once again. “You don’t defeat censorship with censorship,” says Miami-based Cuban American filmmaker Joe Cardona. “I think people have the right to play. There is a debate to be had whether public money should be spent on it. Without that debate, to just decide to ban people or to not have them play, seems like a knee-jerk reaction. I don’t think that is the way to combat it.”
FROM PAGE # 7
El Micha referred to Fidel Castro as his
“idol” in a 2011 interview, adding, “that’s the only idol there is.”
La Señorita Dayana has not publicly praised the regime in Florida, but walked out of a television show after another panelist criticized the Castro regime’s response to the destruction following Hurricane Irma.
The Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio) confirmed that it had advised Hialeah officials against the concert.
“They asked us our opinion and we gave it: we believe that it is a false cultural exchange because the artists who disagree with the regime are not allowed to enter the island,” Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, president of Directorio, told the Miami Herald. “The regime uses and pressures the artists it lets leave the island so that they become their political instruments, [to] maintain control over the recently emigrated Cuban population. This is a matter of controlling Cubans who are leaving the country using culture.”
The Hialeah controversy is the latest win for a growing movement to keep Cuban artists from exploiting the U.S. market while abetting the communist regime’s human rights abuses. Last week, Miami Mayor Francis Suárez led the passage of a city resolution urging federal action to keep these artists out. The resolution pushes for Washington to grant states the right to ban Cuban performers “until freedom of expression is restored for all Cubans, and not just a few favored artists.”
“This resolution asks the federal government to end cultural exchanges and give us the power necessary for us, as a local government, to prevent artists from the island from using public resources,” Suárez said. “We are very proud to have the suort of so many important people, artists, and community activists backing this effort.”
Miami announced the measure with the support of multiple Cuban-American artists who have rejected collaborations with pro-regime politicians.
“Art installations in the city of Miami should not lend themselves to those artists for them to come here and mock us, making money and returning to Cuba to use those funds against their own people,” Suárez added.
Jacob Forever and the other artists no longer performing in Hialeah join a long list of regime-approved artists like singer Haila Mompié, who openly boasts about singing for Fidel Castro but performs in Miami, and reggaetón artist Yomil, who physically assaulted Cuban-American cultural commentator Alexander Otaola last year after the latter repeatedly criticized him for supporting the Castro regime.
“The issue is not the punch,” Otaola said after the assault, “The problem is that these people, these pseudo-artists, come to Miami, are in Miami, leave Miami, make money in Miami, and do not respect the rules and laws of the United States.”
He went on to call the assault a homophobic “hate crime” (Otaola is gay) and “an attack against the free press … by stooges of the Cuban regime against people who live in freedom.”
Among the artists supporting the Miami city measure is salsa legend Willy Chirino, who said in a recent interview that he would never collaborate with performers who do not stand up for the human rights of their own people.
Haila Mompié, sing and don't cry
It would be good if she, and others who are in a burning chapel, lose all possibility of living and working in the United States
Javier Prada
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 | 8:15 am
These are the Cuban artists that bother Miami
The exile is mobilized to reject that artists who consider supporters of the regime present themselves in the US.
Buena Fe
Other artists are under constant scrutiny, such as Descemer Bueno, whose ambiguous statements regarding politics always arouse controversy. Last May the singer-songwriter was suspended from a presentation at the Mosaic Theater & Lounge in Las Vegas with Cuban humorist José Coll Herrera.
Despite this, Bueno has performed in Miami this year at the Flamingo Theater Bar.
Gente de Zona
In 2017, the Mayor of Miami withdrew "in a symbolic way" the Key of the City to Gente de Zona after the dissemination of a video in which they share the stage with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of General Raúl Castro. Recently a campaign promoted by the presenter Alexander Otaola asks to withdraw permanent residence in the US to the duo of reggaetonists, and Cuban exiles have demonstrated against the artists in Las Vegas and Tampa
Haila
The most recent case is the singer Haila María Mompie, who had the mischief to sing and praise the dictator Fidel Castro in life, and the exiles do not forgive him.
This was made clear on November 14 in a mass protest called by Otaola. "It is a protest for dignity, for exile, against impudence, so that these people who come to find dollars here after laughing at the pain of us," said the influencer.
Another request was the cancellation of Haila's concert, something that finally happened after the proclamation of the singer as "persona non grata" in Miami, by the mayor of the city.
"I was prepared psychologically for that, but I am calm," said Haila, and admitted "there were many factors" that were against him "so that this concert was not done."
The artist has said "love" the late Fidel Castro, from whom he received a kiss in life during a presentation of the ex-wobble in an official act of the Government.
Haila, resigned, assumed her cancellations in Miami and Las Vegas,
and returned to the Island.
Silvito
"El Libre" responds to Descemer: "In Cuba they knew Peter El Aguila more than you"
The battle of the nets continues on fire, and the main contenders cross their swords ... at a distance.
Now it has been Silvito "El Libre" who has responded directly to Descemer Bueno, after he claimed that he had supported both Aldo "El Aldeano" and Silvio Rodríguez's own son when they arrived in the United States.
"Oh DESEMEN, you say you helped us in Miami? Haha how crazy are you, where did you get that if with you I crossed 2 words if anything, why do you dig into a past when in reality you have darker things to hide? that I?"
Osmani García apologizes and says
he will not sing more in Cuba or Miami
“We do not want to have in our city a person who offends us in that way. It is disgusting that they use our freedoms against us, and return to Cuba talking about a dictator who has killed thousands of people .. ”said Mayor Suarez in statements that the chain collects today Telemundo.
Member of the famous dance music duo in the 90s Wobble, with whom, made a career before singing also with the popular Cuban orchestra La Habanera Charanga, Mompié faces a boycott in Miami for attending Castro's funerals.
Also, of the communist leader the singer said on one occasion “I love , with all my heart”, in addition to kissing , on the cheek during an official televised act.
Mompié has a concert at the nightclub scheduled for next Thursday Studio 60, located in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, but according to Telemundo, there is a boycott on social networks to suspend it.
Mompié, who was already in a similar situation recently in La Vegas with the cancellation of a concert, also the Cuban exile in Miami reproaches, for vocalizing an emblematic song of the communist revolution that praises the work of the Defense Committees of the Revolution (CDR).
During a press conference that Telemundo reviews on Monday, the artist says , has “the fortune that I am always granted a work visa to come. I had a five-year visa, ”, said.
Last June, the US government banned cultural and educational contact trips with the Cuban people, known in English as “people to people” and that allowed thousands of Americans to visit the island after the thaw started in 2014 by the US president. .UU. Barack Obama and , Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.
That same month, the city of Hialeah, neighboring Miami and the most Hispanic and Cuban in the United States, according to a 2017 study, canceled a show with well-known reggaeton who had to travel from the largest of the Antilles for the concert of the Day of American Independence, July 4.
The reggaetons were Jacob Forever, Miss Dayana Y The Micha, who were replaced to perform at the Milania Park in Hialeah by the Cuban singer based in Miami Willy Chirino, author of “Our day (It is coming)”, the “hymn” of what Castro used to call “worms”, and the singer Albite Rodriguez, also exiled.
Justin Trudeau unleashes fury for praising Fidel
Castro
Ozzie Guillen doesn't think Marlins think about firing.
From link: https://celebcover.com/mayor-of-miami-declares-haila-maria-mompie-a-well-known-cuban-singer-to-love-fidel-castro/
From link: https://celebcover.com/mayor-of-miami-declares-haila-maria-mompie-a-well-known-cuban-singer-to-love-fidel-castro/
Studio 60 owner about Haila cancellation:
"We listen to the people of Miami"
"All we did was listen to the people of Miami."
This was summarized today by the owner of the Studio 60 nightclub the reason behind his
decision to cancel the concert of the Cuban singer Haila, scheduled for next Thursday 14.
Joel Artiles, a Cuban-American born in New Jersey, confessed to CiberCuba that not only
did
he not know the magnitude of Haila among the artists who have praised Castroism and
its figures,
but that he had not even heard a single song from her.
“I did not hire Haila. The way we work is that I hire some artists to act in my club, and
other times
they are promoters that are like intermediaries, and that close the business with me.
For example in
this case I had a percentage of the earnings from tickets, but not the majority.
My biggest gain was
the entire sale of alcoholic beverages during that night, ”Artiles told us.
According to the businessman, the number of calls he began to receive and the
messages that
remained in his voicemail were the cause of the decision being reversed.
“I am the son of Cuban exiles, and I respect this exile very much. I ask you not to
think that my
intention was to offend or make fun of anyone's pain, ”added the businessman
during his interview
with CiberCuba.
Sapingos, stupid, terrorists': 
Haila's son explodes after cancellation
of his mother's concert in Miami
The Studio 60 club suspends
the presentation of the Cuban interpreter.
Haned Mota Mompié, son of Cuban singer Haila Mompié, exploded on Facebook after the
cancellation of her mother's concert at the Studio 60 club in Miami, announced Tuesday.
"An artist at the same level as my mother Haila María Mompié is with so much
discography, so much history, so many world awards, with so many years of artistic
career,
that they have been fought with a lot of sacrifice and with lungs so that two sapingos
come to put her in head to the stupid mayor of Miami, that terrorist, because he is
what he is ...
"Haned attacked from his Facebook wall.
That reaction of the son of the interpreter occurs after knowing the suspension of the
presentation of the interpreter in Miami, after Monday the mayor of the city,
Francis Suárez,
declared her "persona non grata". The suspension was announced b
Telemundo 51.
"So many terrorists entering the city of Miami, so many teenagers killing
themselves for
the use
of weapons and drugs and the mayor of Miami worried about a singer ...
they forgot,
Sapingos,
that we are all CUBAN," said the son of Haila, reggaeton interpreter in Cuba.
The singer kissed in 2010 the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the middle
of a concert in
greeting 50 years after the creation of the Committees for the
Defense of the Revolution (CDR).
"May God give me great health. Thank you very much for existing.
I love you with all my heart," he wished the dictator on that occasion.
"We do not want to have in our city a person who offends us in that way.
It is disgusting that they use our freedoms against us, and return to Cuba
talking about a
dictator who has killed thousands of people ...", he said Mayor Suarez
announcing the
declaration of "persona non grata".
Last week, host Alex Otaola had received the approval of the Miami Police
to hold a peaceful demonstration against Cuban artists who have declared
their support
for the Cuban regime, especially next Thursday in reaction to the
now suspended
Haila concert.
"It is a protest for dignity, for exile, against impudence, so that these people
who come
to find dollars here after laughing at the pain of us," said Otaola.
Recently the city of Las Vegas canceled another concert of the singer, who in the
past in addition to singing to Fidel Castro, also dedicated a song to
the Committees
for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).
Haila, who has not offered statements, just posted a message on her Instagram
profile that says:
"Fight for your dreams so that others do not impose theirs…”
Florida City Cancels Cuban Regime-Friendly Acts at 4th of July Concert
The city of Hialeah, Florida, canceled acts on Monday of a scheduled Independence Day concert featuring Cuban artists after the exile community protested against allowing artists who support the Castro regime to profit from performing in the United States.
Hialeah’s move followed the passing of a resolution by the city of Miami last week “urging the United States Congress to enact legislation that would permit states and local governments to prohibit the contracting with performers and artists who do business with or are funded by Cuba.”The American government allows “cultural exchanges” with Cuba, one of the exceptions to the longstanding embargo on the communist island. Cuba’s much stricter embargo on the United States does not allow American artists to perform there, however, unless they explicitly submit to the demands of the Castro regime or help it generate profit.
The Cuban embargo on American artists is particularly stifling of ethnically Cuban Americans, whose citizenship in the United States the Castro regime does not legally recognize. Many such artists reject allowing pro-regime artists to make money in the United States and return home to praise the Castro regime and have stated they would not collaborate with pro-regime artists.
“I have always said that my true heroes are the political prisoners who did suffer and have sacrificed everything for the cause,” Mayor Carlos Hernández said in a press statement canceling the concert. “Even the most minimal suggestion from them is enough to make any kind of change.”
“We understand that the history exile community deserves to continue receiving all the respect and support of the city of Hialeah. That is what our decision to change the invites for our 4th of July celebration is based on,” the statement read.
It remains unclear at press time if Hialeah will schedule artists to replace the Cubans or if it will cancel the event entirely.
Members of the Cuban exile community reacted to the announcement of performances by Cuban reggaetón artists Jacob Forever, El Micha, and la Señorita Dayana with outrage given their cozy relationship with the communist regime, which allows them to enrich themselves in the United States and bring that money back to Cuba. Cuban-Americans had scheduled a tentative protest against the concert in front of Hialeah City Hall for June 25.
Jacob Forever, a former member
of the Grammy award-winning group Gente de Zona, has outraged Cuban-Americans
in the past by wearing a shirt with the image of
communist mass murderer Ernesto “Che” Guevara and refusing to comment on the
widespread human rights abuses on the island. The members of Gente de Zona
itself has faced controversy after performing for
dictator Raúl Castro’s grandson and heaping praise on Fidel Castro
following his death, receiving the key to the city of Miami but
subsequently having it rescinded over their support for communism.
GO TO PAG # 9
GO TO PAG # 9
Miami Politicians Are Moving to Ban Cuban Artists, Again
Under Obama’s cultural exchange program, Cuban artists like Cimafunk could perform freely in the U.S. Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez asks Congress to think twice.
Cuban musician Cimafunk performs live at Miami’s
Global Cuba Festival, March 30th, 2019.
“We're all Cubans regardless of where we live," he tells Rolling Stone.
Eloy Costa
When 30-year-old Erik Iglesias Rodríguez — the med school
student-turned-bandleader Cimafunk — took the stage at Miami’s Global Cuba Festival in March, the crowd’s
enthusiastic roar nearly overwhelmed the sound system. Cimafunk represents Havana’s
modern street sound: an electrifying combination of funk and soul, layered over
the five-beat clave, or the heartbeat of Cuban music, brought to Cuba
by enslaved people from West Africa.“There’s a strong connection between Miami and Cuba,” explains Cimafunk. “We’re all Cubans regardless of where we live, or how or why we got to where we are now.”
Following President Obama’s 2014 restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and subsequent cultural exchange program, there has been an artistic renaissance between the Cuban people and its diaspora — but it’s now facing increasing opposition in South Florida. Old feelings die hard in Miami, home to many Cuban exiles and their families; and since Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel signed off on Decree 349, which prohibits artists from performing in public or private spaces without approval from the Cuban Ministry of Culture, Miami officials share suspicions that Cuba manipulated the cultural exchange agreement to favor artists who do not criticize the regime.
In June, Miami’s City Commission passed a resolution asking Congress to enact legislation “to permit states and local governments to prohibit the contracting with performers and artists who do business with or are funded by Cuba.” Until the Cuban government realigns with the word and spirit of the cultural exchange, reads the resolution, private bookings may face a ban.
Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, a Cuban American, is one of the resolution’s sponsors. “I think there is a frustration; it is very difficult when you have artists come from Cuba under a supposed cultural exchange program,” says Suarez. “They are making money from our citizens and go back to Cuba, essentially talking up a brutal dictatorship which has denied people basic human rights.”
But promoters have doubts that throttling the cultural exchange is an effective strategy. “The lack of exchange only perpetuates these closed-minded systems,” says James Quinlan, executive director of the Rhythm Foundation and co-presenter of the Global Cuba Festival. “Once the exchange begins to demystify and de-demonize the ‘other,’ it is a beginning of an awareness and an understanding that leads to change.”
President Trump’s restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba have only further emboldened Miami’s growing anti-engagement movement. U.S. embassy consular services in Havana ceased nearly two years ago, meaning U.S. visas now have to be obtained abroad, usually in Colombia or Mexico. Additional layers of State Department security questions and data requests make the process ever more opaque. Such measures pose additional difficulties for Cuban artists, already persecuted and censored at home, seeking to grow their audience. “[The resolution] is somewhat symbolic of the last stand of the old guard in Miami,” says Collin Laverty, Cimafunk’s international manager.
South Florida Cuban Americans are a politically powerful group. When Los Van Van, a Cuban dance band that has been accused of loyalty to the late Fidel Castro and his successors, played the Miami Arena in 1999, thousands angrily demonstrated against them. When they returned in 2010, however, the reception was less hostile.
“A lot of the rhetoric from the anti-engagement folks is no different from what they did and have done for many years,” says Bill Martinez, an immigration lawyer and Cuban arts advocate. “I doubt it is going to get very far. The majority of the country wants to see better U.S.-Cuba relations. Nothing gets done without being able to talk and engage and have these cultural exchanges.”
The anger bubbled over in 2019, when Cuban stars Señorita Dayana, El Micha and Jacob Forever were scheduled to perform in the city of Hialeah on July 4th. Following residents’ complaints, the city’s mayor cancelled their appearances. Forever, a former member of Cuban reggaeton group Gente de Zona whose real name is Yosdani Jacob Carmenates, was surprised. “I feel bad; very sad about not being able to sing in a place where I had already been in front of 20,000 people in 2018,” says Carmenates. “It’s unfair. I live in the United States. I have residence and I pay taxes. I’m not a politician. I’m not a communist. I am simply a family man and I am an artist.”
Dr. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, co-founder of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a Miami-based anti-Castro organization, consulted with the mayor of Hialeah on the show’s status. “A good chunk of Cuba tourism and entertainment is controlled by the [Cuban] armed forces, through multiple different corporations,” says Gutierrez Boronat. “Many of these artists are playing a double game of coming here and at the same time, complying with or collaborating with regime corporations.” Supporting such bans, some Miami-based artists see the cultural exchange as unbalanced, with Cuba refusing visas to artists like the Miami-based, Grammy-winning Cuban singer Willy Chirino.
Chirino served as the replacement for the artists banned from the Hialeah concert. The 72-year-old crooner came to Miami in “Operation Peter Pan,” or the 1961 exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors to the United States. Chirino has dreams of performing in Cuba, but lyrics denouncing the Cuban government — namely from his anthem amongst Cuban exiles, “Nuestro Día Ya Viene Llegando” (“Our Day is Coming”) — puts it out of reach.
“My biggest frustration is if you are Cuban and you know what goes on over there, you have a moral obligation to your own people to speak out,” Chirino says. “Whatever the consequences, to let the world know what goes on politically over there. Instead, they decide to shut up about it.”
In Cuban-American relations, the common ground seems to be quicksand, once again. “You don’t defeat censorship with censorship,” says Miami-based Cuban American filmmaker Joe Cardona. “I think people have the right to play. There is a debate to be had whether public money should be spent on it. Without that debate, to just decide to ban people or to not have them play, seems like a knee-jerk reaction. I don’t think that is the way to combat it.”
FROM PAGE # 7
El Micha referred to Fidel Castro as his
“idol” in a 2011 interview, adding, “that’s the only idol there is.”La Señorita Dayana has not publicly praised the regime in Florida, but walked out of a television show after another panelist criticized the Castro regime’s response to the destruction following Hurricane Irma.
The Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio) confirmed that it had advised Hialeah officials against the concert.
“They asked us our opinion and we gave it: we believe that it is a false cultural exchange because the artists who disagree with the regime are not allowed to enter the island,” Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, president of Directorio, told the Miami Herald. “The regime uses and pressures the artists it lets leave the island so that they become their political instruments, [to] maintain control over the recently emigrated Cuban population. This is a matter of controlling Cubans who are leaving the country using culture.”
The Hialeah controversy is the latest win for a growing movement to keep Cuban artists from exploiting the U.S. market while abetting the communist regime’s human rights abuses. Last week, Miami Mayor Francis Suárez led the passage of a city resolution urging federal action to keep these artists out. The resolution pushes for Washington to grant states the right to ban Cuban performers “until freedom of expression is restored for all Cubans, and not just a few favored artists.”
“This resolution asks the federal government to end cultural exchanges and give us the power necessary for us, as a local government, to prevent artists from the island from using public resources,” Suárez said. “We are very proud to have the suort of so many important people, artists, and community activists backing this effort.”
Miami announced the measure with the support of multiple Cuban-American artists who have rejected collaborations with pro-regime politicians.
“Art installations in the city of Miami should not lend themselves to those artists for them to come here and mock us, making money and returning to Cuba to use those funds against their own people,” Suárez added.
Jacob Forever and the other artists no longer performing in Hialeah join a long list of regime-approved artists like singer Haila Mompié, who openly boasts about singing for Fidel Castro but performs in Miami, and reggaetón artist Yomil, who physically assaulted Cuban-American cultural commentator Alexander Otaola last year after the latter repeatedly criticized him for supporting the Castro regime.
“The issue is not the punch,” Otaola said after the assault, “The problem is that these people, these pseudo-artists, come to Miami, are in Miami, leave Miami, make money in Miami, and do not respect the rules and laws of the United States.”
He went on to call the assault a homophobic “hate crime” (Otaola is gay) and “an attack against the free press … by stooges of the Cuban regime against people who live in freedom.”
Among the artists supporting the Miami city measure is salsa legend Willy Chirino, who said in a recent interview that he would never collaborate with performers who do not stand up for the human rights of their own people.
“One cannot be Cuban and apolitical,” Chirino told the Diario Las
Americas in May. “I have no other choice but to have strong political
convictions, as all Cubans from here [the U.S.]
and there should. And it is lamentable that most who live on the island
don’t speak up.”
Chirino noted that the Cuban government for decades censored the
music of some of the island’s most legendary performers, like Celia
Cruz, because they chose exile over communism.
“I would be very disappointed to do a duet with a Cuban from over
there, one of those who tries to swim in both seas – who are very
talented, by the way, I am not discrediting them – and for me to sing with them
and then see them on stage … in Cuba or saying hi to [Cuban
“President” Miguel] Díaz-Canel at a concert,” Chirino told the newspaper.
Haila Mompié, sing and don't cry
It would be good if she, and others who are in a burning chapel, lose all possibility of living and working in the United States
Javier Prada
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 | 8:15 am
Havana Cuba. - The Cuban singer Haila María Mompié
gave an interview to the Hispanic network Telemundo, in which she presented her
opinion on the cancellation of the concert she had scheduled at an Allapatah
theater. The controversial images of the artist kissing the deceased dictator
Fidel Castro on the cheek and also saying: “I love him with all my heart”,
caused the mayor of Miami, Francis Suárez, to declare her “Persona Non Grata”,
a qualifier that led to The suspension of the show.
Questioned by the conductor Gloria Ordaz, in a fairly short and edited material as the Educational Channel of Cuban Television would have done, Haila tried to make the blame for everything fall on the Cubans of historical exile, who, she said, “have it caught with she". The self-styled "diva of the people" argued that she has not been the only Cuban singer sympathetic to the regime that has performed in Miami, pointing to others who have spent years balancing flattering of Castroism and flirting with businessmen in La Florida.
Questioned by the conductor Gloria Ordaz, in a fairly short and edited material as the Educational Channel of Cuban Television would have done, Haila tried to make the blame for everything fall on the Cubans of historical exile, who, she said, “have it caught with she". The self-styled "diva of the people" argued that she has not been the only Cuban singer sympathetic to the regime that has performed in Miami, pointing to others who have spent years balancing flattering of Castroism and flirting with businessmen in La Florida.
It is true that many artists have composed and
sung songs to the CDRs, Latin American unity and leaders who came down from the
Sierra Maestra. But none has reached the point of the former Bamboleo. Perhaps
Haila is included among those who believe that black-skinned Cubans began to
become people after 1959, and she feels compelled for life with the character
that destroyed the economy and the Cuban family. Perhaps she is only one more
opportunist, who neither short nor lazy, in a gesture of misguided mischief,
tried to defend herself by putting the focus of Miami's censorship on other
colleagues.
Before the cameras of Telemundo, he declared that he did not agree to censor anyone, for any reason. But his confession was lukewarm, and uprooted by circumstances. If the campaign had not been carried out to suspend his concert, everything would have continued as is: harvesting greens in the “enemy” country under the pretext of cultural exchange, and returning to Cuba to guataconearle to the regime. It is possible that the freedom of Cuba does not happen to withdraw visas; but it is good that Haila and company happen this kind of thing, just to prove a dose of the violence that is done to opponents, activists and independent journalists.
Before the cameras of Telemundo, he declared that he did not agree to censor anyone, for any reason. But his confession was lukewarm, and uprooted by circumstances. If the campaign had not been carried out to suspend his concert, everything would have continued as is: harvesting greens in the “enemy” country under the pretext of cultural exchange, and returning to Cuba to guataconearle to the regime. It is possible that the freedom of Cuba does not happen to withdraw visas; but it is good that Haila and company happen this kind of thing, just to prove a dose of the violence that is done to opponents, activists and independent journalists.
Today the "diva of the people" is
perplexed and offended. They have also felt the almost 200 regulated when for
no reason they have been forbidden to travel. At least Haila has been made
clear why they do not want her in Miami, and although it seems extremist, it is
logical that those who were robbed, imprisoned, tortured and expatriates by the
dictatorship of Fidel Castro, refuse to accept in their city who He publicly
undid in smoothies with the tyrant.
The singer will have to settle, in the future, to offer concerts in La Piragua, La Tropical and other places, better and worse, offered by the promoter agencies within the Island. To Miami she will travel only to buy trinkets, and even then she will have more luck that those who dare to oppose the Diaz-Canel regime; those irreverent pacific who suffer the same deficiencies as the rest of the Cubans and cannot travel to bring what their relatives need, even medicines.
Haila would do well to think about all this, and pass it on to her misplaced son, who talks about injustice and terrorism on social media because they didn't let his mother sing in Miami. Tell him how State Security threatens opposing mothers and fathers by taking away the parental rights of their children. Let him talk about the unjust prison suffered by Roberto Jesús Quiñones and the "accustoming" to which they are subjecting José Daniel Ferrer; an atrocious method that causes deep pain to your loved ones.
Haila Mompié is well deserved to cancel her show, and it would be better to have her visa taken away so that she is deprived of the good and cheap sludge that, with dedication, she buys for that protocharanguero waiting for her at home. It would be good if she, and others who are in a burning chapel, lose all possibility of living and working in the United States. That they perceive the outrage, that they feel vexed and disrespected so that they think about the violated rights of others.
It must be glorious to falter communism with the dollars of the Empire; or give them ambiguous political issues, residing at all milk in Miami and working in Havana with Mr. Continuity. But that is over; and if they re-elect Trump in 2020, the legion of sneaks who make their little jump by jumping the puddle, they will have to be content with rocks in the Casa del Alba Cultural and other red squares that pay little and late. Haila is just the beginning, so go packing.
The singer will have to settle, in the future, to offer concerts in La Piragua, La Tropical and other places, better and worse, offered by the promoter agencies within the Island. To Miami she will travel only to buy trinkets, and even then she will have more luck that those who dare to oppose the Diaz-Canel regime; those irreverent pacific who suffer the same deficiencies as the rest of the Cubans and cannot travel to bring what their relatives need, even medicines.
Haila would do well to think about all this, and pass it on to her misplaced son, who talks about injustice and terrorism on social media because they didn't let his mother sing in Miami. Tell him how State Security threatens opposing mothers and fathers by taking away the parental rights of their children. Let him talk about the unjust prison suffered by Roberto Jesús Quiñones and the "accustoming" to which they are subjecting José Daniel Ferrer; an atrocious method that causes deep pain to your loved ones.
Haila Mompié is well deserved to cancel her show, and it would be better to have her visa taken away so that she is deprived of the good and cheap sludge that, with dedication, she buys for that protocharanguero waiting for her at home. It would be good if she, and others who are in a burning chapel, lose all possibility of living and working in the United States. That they perceive the outrage, that they feel vexed and disrespected so that they think about the violated rights of others.
It must be glorious to falter communism with the dollars of the Empire; or give them ambiguous political issues, residing at all milk in Miami and working in Havana with Mr. Continuity. But that is over; and if they re-elect Trump in 2020, the legion of sneaks who make their little jump by jumping the puddle, they will have to be content with rocks in the Casa del Alba Cultural and other red squares that pay little and late. Haila is just the beginning, so go packing.
About the author
Javier Prada
Havana, 1979. Graduate of English Language by the Higher Pedagogical Institute "Enrique José Varona", for eight years he was a teacher in the Middle and Higher education levels, where he also had to teach Cuban History classes due to the shortage of teaching staff. Since 2014 he works as a private English teacher. In his spare time he devotes himself to fishing and drawing. Currently ventures into the independent press.
Javier Prada
Havana, 1979. Graduate of English Language by the Higher Pedagogical Institute "Enrique José Varona", for eight years he was a teacher in the Middle and Higher education levels, where he also had to teach Cuban History classes due to the shortage of teaching staff. Since 2014 he works as a private English teacher. In his spare time he devotes himself to fishing and drawing. Currently ventures into the independent press.
TRANSLATED by LPP Print-Shop From Cubanet.org
Yotuel did not know about the terrible 60 years of Havana during dinner with Mariela Castro?
Posted on Monday, November 18, 2019 - 12:09 (GMT-4)
Ernesto Morales
CiberCuba journalist
CiberCuba journalist
As I write this, right now, a CiberCuba survey
gives us the thought of an important portion of Cubans in the diaspora about
cultural exchange. Asked if they believed that the
cultural exchange between the United States and Cuba should disappear, an
overwhelming majority of 66% (until the moment this is published) said yes.
They had voted more than 2,000 people.
The artists have become - and I say it bitterly -
in repositories of tiredness against Cuban nonsense. Sometimes
with solid arguments. Sometimes, too, in the most
miserable way possible. There one walks with his minute
of glory for spitting rudeness against a reggaeton at the Miami airport.
I think about that now that I have to ask Yotuel,
the talented and charismatic singer of Orishas, if at the time of partying with
Mariela Castro just a year ago, in May 2018, she had already realized that the
last six decades of Havana had been a monumental disaster.
The images of Yotuel with the Empress of the Castro, the woman who kneads more influence and power than even her late mother ever had, come to us at this moment of warmth against hypocritical and opportunistic positions
The images of Yotuel with the Empress of the Castro, the woman who kneads more influence and power than even her late mother ever had, come to us at this moment of warmth against hypocritical and opportunistic positions
Being with God and the Devil is comfortable, but
unseemly.
The photos were taken at Artedel Luxury Penthouse,
a private property quite frequented by CENESEX for high-level activities, and
where also singer Pastora Soler tasted that famous lobster next to Mariela
Castro herself, apparently a "friend of the house" .
A year later, the best-known man in Orishas is
explaining against the destruction of Havana in a post made viral by the coup
and grace of its author's weight. Let no one forget that
neither Gente de Zona nor absolutely any other Cuban group has been more
international in the last twenty years than these Cubans who from Paris became
world stars. HBO has just filmed a documentary.
In July of this year, Yotuel said that it took
away the dream of what was happening on the island. "The
poverty and scarcity of Cuba take away my dream," he said in reference to
his Insomnia issue. His complaint was fierce. We applaud her.
The problem is that just thirteen months before, Yotuel was at the same table as the daughter and granddaughter of the causes of that insomnia he told us. And he is not upset, really. You can not see the bitterness that sings in "Insomnia", that theme with which he told us he wanted to atone for the pain.
Go to Page # 14
The problem is that just thirteen months before, Yotuel was at the same table as the daughter and granddaughter of the causes of that insomnia he told us. And he is not upset, really. You can not see the bitterness that sings in "Insomnia", that theme with which he told us he wanted to atone for the pain.
Go to Page # 14
These are the Cuban artists that bother Miami
The exile is mobilized to reject that artists who consider supporters of the regime present themselves in the US.
Madrid 20 Nov 2019 - 12:58 CET
The Cuban exile passes from the time of the
disk-maker to the protest in the street, and the mobilization in social
networks. The reason remains the same: to oppose the presentation in the US of
artists sympathetic to the regime.
The increase of a new generation of exiles less involved in the condemnation of Castroism diminished these manifestations, which came with a time of relaxation where many exponents of the Island have appeared in the US thanks to the door that Obama opened with the flexibility of Politics towards Cuba. However, now the exiles (of all generations) return to the charge against cultural exchange.
For their part, politicians in Florida refuse to have events where these types of artists participate using public money.
Entrepreneurs like Hugo Cancio, who has promoted tours of the US by Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and the Van Van, have seen their events more than once in danger. This was the case in 2011 with the World Festival of Cuban Music "Fuego", which was to be held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, about 40 kilometers from the city of Miami.
On the poster were artists from the Island like Juan Formell and Los Van Van and David Calzado and his Charanga Habanera; and musicians who reside in Miami like Isaac Delgado and Manolin. But the event was canceled.
Pablo Milanés
In 2011, the exiles asked for the cancellation of a concert by Pablo Milanés, organized by Cancio in Miami. Exile organizations tried to suspend the event. In addition, about twenty exiles destroyed Milanés records with a small steamroller. But the concert was performed.
The scarce hundred people who protested before the concert evidenced the loss of weight of the radical positions in exile. The 1,500 empty seats — 30 percent of the capacity — made it clear that the event's production overvalued the singer's chances in the community.
Milanés returned to Miami in 2016 and crowded The Fillmore theater in Miami Beach, although some still do not forget their past as a revolutionary minstrel.
Pancho Céspedes
Defending a dictator is unforgivable, as Francisco Céspedes knew when they canceled their concert in 2016 for demonstrating in favor of Fidel Castro.
The controversy arose when Céspedes recriminated the pianist Orlando Guanche for his slogans after a concert behind the scenes, in which he shouted in an informal video: "Long live free Cuba! Down with the Castro!" Céspedes wrote to Guanche on Facebook: "You can be an artist without shouting down the deceased."
This cost him the cancellation of his presentation with Guanche and the criticism of the community. Already in 2013 Céspedes had caused a stir for his statements about exile: "In Miami, there are many extremists who follow a very old thought at the political level. Sometimes I suspect they would not want Cuba to improve," he said.
However, in September of this year he acknowledged that on a visit to Havana he felt "guarded." Perhaps it had to do with his decision not to sing in the acts of July 26 in Cuba. Something that could be the cause of the refusal to enter the country he received last August to visit a sick brother.
"Now I will be a dissident for Cuba again and a communist for the politicians of Miami," said the artist based in Mexico.
The increase of a new generation of exiles less involved in the condemnation of Castroism diminished these manifestations, which came with a time of relaxation where many exponents of the Island have appeared in the US thanks to the door that Obama opened with the flexibility of Politics towards Cuba. However, now the exiles (of all generations) return to the charge against cultural exchange.
For their part, politicians in Florida refuse to have events where these types of artists participate using public money.
Entrepreneurs like Hugo Cancio, who has promoted tours of the US by Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and the Van Van, have seen their events more than once in danger. This was the case in 2011 with the World Festival of Cuban Music "Fuego", which was to be held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, about 40 kilometers from the city of Miami.
On the poster were artists from the Island like Juan Formell and Los Van Van and David Calzado and his Charanga Habanera; and musicians who reside in Miami like Isaac Delgado and Manolin. But the event was canceled.
Pablo Milanés
In 2011, the exiles asked for the cancellation of a concert by Pablo Milanés, organized by Cancio in Miami. Exile organizations tried to suspend the event. In addition, about twenty exiles destroyed Milanés records with a small steamroller. But the concert was performed.
The scarce hundred people who protested before the concert evidenced the loss of weight of the radical positions in exile. The 1,500 empty seats — 30 percent of the capacity — made it clear that the event's production overvalued the singer's chances in the community.
Milanés returned to Miami in 2016 and crowded The Fillmore theater in Miami Beach, although some still do not forget their past as a revolutionary minstrel.
Pancho Céspedes
Defending a dictator is unforgivable, as Francisco Céspedes knew when they canceled their concert in 2016 for demonstrating in favor of Fidel Castro.
The controversy arose when Céspedes recriminated the pianist Orlando Guanche for his slogans after a concert behind the scenes, in which he shouted in an informal video: "Long live free Cuba! Down with the Castro!" Céspedes wrote to Guanche on Facebook: "You can be an artist without shouting down the deceased."
This cost him the cancellation of his presentation with Guanche and the criticism of the community. Already in 2013 Céspedes had caused a stir for his statements about exile: "In Miami, there are many extremists who follow a very old thought at the political level. Sometimes I suspect they would not want Cuba to improve," he said.
However, in September of this year he acknowledged that on a visit to Havana he felt "guarded." Perhaps it had to do with his decision not to sing in the acts of July 26 in Cuba. Something that could be the cause of the refusal to enter the country he received last August to visit a sick brother.
"Now I will be a dissident for Cuba again and a communist for the politicians of Miami," said the artist based in Mexico.
Buena Fe
This duo has expressed countless times
his support for the revolution and his admiration for Fidel Castro:
"Eternal glory to Fidel! History, open the gates! They could not stop him
when he was flesh and blood. Now he is invincible. He will be reborn again and
again. ", wrote Buena Fe Faith on Facebook in 2016.
Then, his tour of the United States was
canceled after these statements. Numerous people contacted the organizers of
the event, which had to be held in Tampa, and expressed their disagreement.
The indignation of the Cuban-American
community led to the creation of a petition on Change.org to avoid concerts by
musicians who supported the regime who have made statements in favor of De
Castro.
Los Van Van
The emblematic Cuban band has historically
supported the regime. They have participated in political events calling for
the release of the five spies of the Wasp Network, and in February of this year
they were in one of the so-called Concerts for the Homeland, whose explicit
claim was to support the Yes in the constitutional referendum. Then they
justified their presence by arguing in their social networks that "Van Van
is the homeland."
Although in 2015 one of its members
declared that "exile is a necessary evil, that it is there ... because they
hurt us ... from the point of view on how they manifest themselves," the
band presented last May in Miami as part of its US tour celebrating its 50th
anniversary.
For Samuel Formell, current director of
the group, the Miami concert "was a total success, resounding, where there
were people who remained without entering." He also said that despite the
"boycotts of musicians on the Island that are made in Florida, there are
many Americans who are not interested and many Hispanics who go to the concerts
to have a good time."
Reggaeton in focus
The world of reggaeton does not escape
this crusade of exile. On July 4, Independence Day in the US, a concert was
canceled where Jacob Forever, Ms. Dayana and El Micha were going to
participate. The argument: that they play a double standard supporting the
regime in their presentations on the Island.
Orlando Gutiérrez, president of the
Cuban Democratic Directorate, was one of the voices that the mayor of Hialeah,
Carlos Hernández, took into account when making the decision to cancel the
performances of the Cuban reggaetons, although the event was not with public
funds but by private sponsors.
"It hurts me to take a measure
based on arguments against me, which are also not real. I frankly regret this
decision and I have faith that everything will be clarified at the time,"
said Jacob Forever on that occasion, which has been criticized for exile for
wearing a shirt with the photo of Che Guevara.
Descemer Bueno
Other artists are under constant scrutiny, such as Descemer Bueno, whose ambiguous statements regarding politics always arouse controversy. Last May the singer-songwriter was suspended from a presentation at the Mosaic Theater & Lounge in Las Vegas with Cuban humorist José Coll Herrera.
Despite this, Bueno has performed in Miami this year at the Flamingo Theater Bar.
Gente de Zona
In 2017, the Mayor of Miami withdrew "in a symbolic way" the Key of the City to Gente de Zona after the dissemination of a video in which they share the stage with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of General Raúl Castro. Recently a campaign promoted by the presenter Alexander Otaola asks to withdraw permanent residence in the US to the duo of reggaetonists, and Cuban exiles have demonstrated against the artists in Las Vegas and Tampa
HailaThe most recent case is the singer Haila María Mompie, who had the mischief to sing and praise the dictator Fidel Castro in life, and the exiles do not forgive him.
This was made clear on November 14 in a mass protest called by Otaola. "It is a protest for dignity, for exile, against impudence, so that these people who come to find dollars here after laughing at the pain of us," said the influencer.
Another request was the cancellation of Haila's concert, something that finally happened after the proclamation of the singer as "persona non grata" in Miami, by the mayor of the city.
"I was prepared psychologically for that, but I am calm," said Haila, and admitted "there were many factors" that were against him "so that this concert was not done."
The artist has said "love" the late Fidel Castro, from whom he received a kiss in life during a presentation of the ex-wobble in an official act of the Government.
Haila, resigned, assumed her cancellations in Miami and Las Vegas,
and returned to the Island.
TRANSLATED by LPP Print-Shop From Diariodecuba.com
FROM PAGE # 9
FROM PAGE # 9
Could it be that you remembered it a month ago,
Yotuel dear, when you shared the video of the police brutally repressing
defenseless Cubans and told us that "People who submit, perish"?
At that time, the applause of those who advocate
that the artists, the highest ambassadors of Cuban culture and idiosyncrasy in
the world, feel a commitment to what they suffer from below was shocking.
Yotuel's criticisms of the causes of the Cuban tragedy are felt deep inside who
we adore part of the musical career of this super group, and who believe that
silence in the face of ignominy is a way to perpetuate it.
But seeing the images slightly aggravates the face. Because Yotuel knew who he had dinner with, who he posed with, who he celebrated during that evening at Artedel Luxury Penthouse. And if not, it is worth summarizing: with the granddaughter of the cause of what takes your sleep away, Yotuel, with the daughter of the one who has kept Havana in a catatonic state, so that you celebrate her 440 years, do not remaining 60.
The growing rejection of an exiled majority towards Cuban artists trying to circumvent enemies on both sides of the Florida Strait was not born of a sudden collective madness. He did not inject himself from nothing. The process of tiredness has been gradual, sustained and increased year after year.
But seeing the images slightly aggravates the face. Because Yotuel knew who he had dinner with, who he posed with, who he celebrated during that evening at Artedel Luxury Penthouse. And if not, it is worth summarizing: with the granddaughter of the cause of what takes your sleep away, Yotuel, with the daughter of the one who has kept Havana in a catatonic state, so that you celebrate her 440 years, do not remaining 60.
The growing rejection of an exiled majority towards Cuban artists trying to circumvent enemies on both sides of the Florida Strait was not born of a sudden collective madness. He did not inject himself from nothing. The process of tiredness has been gradual, sustained and increased year after year.
That is why the cultural exchange (of which Yotuel
is not part, let's make it clear in a strict sense although inevitably yes on
the symbolic level) has earned the animosity of those who do not endure more
dictatorship but also more opportunism.
That is why a demonstration against a singer -Haila- irrelevant at this point in Miami became a plebiscite against the weaving of hypocrisy and double standards. Because it's not only disgusting that Fernando Echevarría comes to spend some vacations in the same city of the empire against which he loads in his pathetic propaganda spots. So it is that Yotuel himself to whom we celebrate his current openness, and to whom we want to believe his principles, has no qualms about posing and partying with the most powerful and representative lady of the dictatorship to which he says he detests.
I will not ask Yotuel Romero for explanations or pronouncements: he does not have to offer them to me. He owes me nothing. Perhaps it is the other way around: I owe him the enjoyment of that album "A la cuano" that still seems unattainable, and that made me even double Orishas in the pre-university galas of my adolescence!
That's why I don't demand anything from Yotuel. Rather I ask: sing, do not write. Your post is blown away after three days of publication in any media. Sing, because your music is great and it does transcend and it is heard in millions of ears around the world.
That is why a demonstration against a singer -Haila- irrelevant at this point in Miami became a plebiscite against the weaving of hypocrisy and double standards. Because it's not only disgusting that Fernando Echevarría comes to spend some vacations in the same city of the empire against which he loads in his pathetic propaganda spots. So it is that Yotuel himself to whom we celebrate his current openness, and to whom we want to believe his principles, has no qualms about posing and partying with the most powerful and representative lady of the dictatorship to which he says he detests.
I will not ask Yotuel Romero for explanations or pronouncements: he does not have to offer them to me. He owes me nothing. Perhaps it is the other way around: I owe him the enjoyment of that album "A la cuano" that still seems unattainable, and that made me even double Orishas in the pre-university galas of my adolescence!
That's why I don't demand anything from Yotuel. Rather I ask: sing, do not write. Your post is blown away after three days of publication in any media. Sing, because your music is great and it does transcend and it is heard in millions of ears around the world.
If you really hurt the last six decades of Havana,
why didn't you include it in “Cuba did not leave me”, the single released only
three days ago? It was a golden opportunity. It has already become clear that
you miss the reeds, the creek and the palm grove. Orishas, dear friends: we
have no doubt that you long for your land and your roots. They have been
telling us the same thing in different ways for twenty years. Isn't it time to
sing, for example, why they had to go? Or does that not sell?
If as they say in that last single, "I will always sing to the people of my land," where is the issue of Cuban emigration? Or does it only sell singing to Central American emigration next to Calle 13, in that "Emigrant" that is a piece of virtuous song?
Yes there is hunger in Cuba, Yotuel. Yes it's like to lose sleep. Yes they have destroyed Havana in 60 years to the point of making it look like the grandmother of Europe. Yes it is true that people who submit, perish. You are clear, mulatto. Of course, like the melodic sound your group makes, for music bliss. Take your anger and your pain to the lyrics, and leave your laughter of Calvin Klein off the table of those who have rotten the country you love. Or you will be a little complicit, even if you don't want it.
If as they say in that last single, "I will always sing to the people of my land," where is the issue of Cuban emigration? Or does it only sell singing to Central American emigration next to Calle 13, in that "Emigrant" that is a piece of virtuous song?
Yes there is hunger in Cuba, Yotuel. Yes it's like to lose sleep. Yes they have destroyed Havana in 60 years to the point of making it look like the grandmother of Europe. Yes it is true that people who submit, perish. You are clear, mulatto. Of course, like the melodic sound your group makes, for music bliss. Take your anger and your pain to the lyrics, and leave your laughter of Calvin Klein off the table of those who have rotten the country you love. Or you will be a little complicit, even if you don't want it.
TRANSLATED by LPP Print-Shop From Cibercuba.com
Census Cuba bothers with censorship
Foreigners called those who "imagined" with Lennon, because Cubans could not imagine beyond their noses, beyond what the government authorized to assume
This
man says a lot of nonsense that I will not repeat, it would be best if the
reader has time to read it in the Granma and check what I say, then judge
whether or not I am right. He is upset and judges the Cubans who spoke out
against their "diva," of the woman of exaggerated volumes in contrast
to a very short stature. Oni supposes unscrupulous the actions of that exile
that pronounced against the singer, and claims, and raves, and it even occurs
to her to link her with Celia Cruz.
And all that because they did not let her sing in the US, which I find curious, and extremely delusional and irresponsible, deranged. Oni Acosta should not have written a line on the matter, he had to turn in bed and fall asleep, but chose the worst. Acosta had to keep quiet so as not to make a fool of himself, especially since his analysis is, in the extreme, biased. Oni did not review the most recent history, that which began in 1959, with the arrival of the bearded men to power, and "escaped."
Today,
when I planned to write these lines, I was remembering those Sundays in which
Nildita Marante and Eduardo Sánchez had not yet married, when they had not left
for Miami, and we met in the living room of my house to listen to the Queen's
records my family in the USA He sent me. We listened to "Under pressure"
under pressure, with the fear that the black plate would shatter us. We adored
Freddie, we loved “A night at the opera” and “Bohemia Rhapsody”, but we
couldn't shout it because they could accuse us of “ideological diversionism”
and throw us out of scholarships, prevent us from entering university.
Foreigners called those who "imagined" with Lennon, because Cubans could not imagine beyond their noses, beyond what the government authorized to assume
Jorge Ángel Pérez
Friday, November 22, 2019 | 10:40 am
Friday, November 22, 2019 | 10:40 am
HAVANA, Cuba.- I have a hard time imagining a
dyslexic Cervantes, I find it difficult to match the writing of the ingenious
gentleman ..., with that dislalia attributed to the author, but that is said of
the man who wrote the most famous of all the written books in our language
Cervantes could be anything, and none of them would be detrimental to his
writing; but the same does not always happen, not everyone has the distinction
of a deprived writing and that they also manage to structure the sounds of a
language well.
I notice that if I relate dyslexia and writing it is not on a whim. If together the two things it is not the fault of Cervantes, who despite the problems with his sounding device wrote very well; However, the same does not happen with Oni Acosta, a Cuban “journalist” who is interested in music and singing and who has spaces in the written press to develop his ideas, and also on television in which he is forced to use your voice, and that makes your problems with the sounding device evident, making your dyslalia very noticeable, in its extremely extensive interventions.
Oni, who seems to have a voice from someone who has just come down from a UFO, is very visible in these days when he has tried to vindicate Haila, that Cuban woman whose exile countrymen did not let her fulfill the commitments that I had in "the yuma". Haila returned without being able to sing, fulfill the commitments of her singing voice, and Oni defends her and tries to vindicate the "diva", and incidentally begins to revile Cubans who live their Floridian exile. Oni speaks and writes in the most visible and privileged space of the Island, choose Granma, the newspaper of the Communist Party, to defend Haila and attack Cuban exile in the US.
I notice that if I relate dyslexia and writing it is not on a whim. If together the two things it is not the fault of Cervantes, who despite the problems with his sounding device wrote very well; However, the same does not happen with Oni Acosta, a Cuban “journalist” who is interested in music and singing and who has spaces in the written press to develop his ideas, and also on television in which he is forced to use your voice, and that makes your problems with the sounding device evident, making your dyslalia very noticeable, in its extremely extensive interventions.
Oni, who seems to have a voice from someone who has just come down from a UFO, is very visible in these days when he has tried to vindicate Haila, that Cuban woman whose exile countrymen did not let her fulfill the commitments that I had in "the yuma". Haila returned without being able to sing, fulfill the commitments of her singing voice, and Oni defends her and tries to vindicate the "diva", and incidentally begins to revile Cubans who live their Floridian exile. Oni speaks and writes in the most visible and privileged space of the Island, choose Granma, the newspaper of the Communist Party, to defend Haila and attack Cuban exile in the US.
And all that because they did not let her sing in the US, which I find curious, and extremely delusional and irresponsible, deranged. Oni Acosta should not have written a line on the matter, he had to turn in bed and fall asleep, but chose the worst. Acosta had to keep quiet so as not to make a fool of himself, especially since his analysis is, in the extreme, biased. Oni did not review the most recent history, that which began in 1959, with the arrival of the bearded men to power, and "escaped."
This man forgets because his memory is very
selective, and irresponsibly hides the multiple events that contradict his
speech, which make him useless, ridiculous for all that he forgets, or seems to
forget. It is not possible that he, who has some musical training and sure that
many details of the history of music "made in Cuba and made in
outside", are able to put aside what is obvious, the center of this matter
, the crux of the matter. The most visible "musicologist" in Cuba
capriciously forgets to give legitimacy to his rant.
His speech is a political harangue very easy to
disassemble. It is enough to mention the infinite prohibitions that the
communists dictated since they came to power. It will be enough that we mention
how the official discourse limited, censored, a certain musical production made
in Cuba and even abroad; that John Lennon has a statue in Vedado today does not
forget the prohibitions that the Cuban power will devote to the English. The
Rolling Stones made a concert in the Sports City but before it was thrown out
of the university classrooms to those who dared to listen to them.
Foreigners called those who "imagined" with Lennon, because Cubans could not imagine beyond their noses, beyond what the government authorized to suppose, that which was reverential with the official discourse. The Cubans could not shout "sugar" with Celia and Meme Solis was denigrated, ignored, banned. Many were the greats who left and the power punished them, and incidentally also sacrificed those who stayed and could not hear the music they longed for, and nothing else.
Oni Acosta did not find out yet, at least that simulates that political fanaticism was not invented in Miami; some of those who left already had it incorporated, and there they still respond. Celia could not enter Cuba to see her family, to say goodbye to her living even if they were about to enter death. No, what happened with Haila in the US It is not fanaticism, it is a response to what happens here every day, instrumented by the “revolutionary” power.
Now Haila complains, Oni complains, and neither of them remembers Feliciano prohibited, Meme Solís, Willy Chirino and Bebo Valdés, Paquito de Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Gloria Stefan. How many in Cuba were accused of foreigners or harassed for listening to the "dawned" Rafael. These days they have just approved an article, whose number I do not want to remember, that can imprison anyone, and the Cuban embassy in Washington protests and asks for a relief for Haila, however, that embassy did not open the doors of its headquarters to attend to the son of prisoner writer Roberto de Jesús Quiñonez, a writer, a peaceful Christian.
Foreigners called those who "imagined" with Lennon, because Cubans could not imagine beyond their noses, beyond what the government authorized to suppose, that which was reverential with the official discourse. The Cubans could not shout "sugar" with Celia and Meme Solis was denigrated, ignored, banned. Many were the greats who left and the power punished them, and incidentally also sacrificed those who stayed and could not hear the music they longed for, and nothing else.
Oni Acosta did not find out yet, at least that simulates that political fanaticism was not invented in Miami; some of those who left already had it incorporated, and there they still respond. Celia could not enter Cuba to see her family, to say goodbye to her living even if they were about to enter death. No, what happened with Haila in the US It is not fanaticism, it is a response to what happens here every day, instrumented by the “revolutionary” power.
Now Haila complains, Oni complains, and neither of them remembers Feliciano prohibited, Meme Solís, Willy Chirino and Bebo Valdés, Paquito de Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Gloria Stefan. How many in Cuba were accused of foreigners or harassed for listening to the "dawned" Rafael. These days they have just approved an article, whose number I do not want to remember, that can imprison anyone, and the Cuban embassy in Washington protests and asks for a relief for Haila, however, that embassy did not open the doors of its headquarters to attend to the son of prisoner writer Roberto de Jesús Quiñonez, a writer, a peaceful Christian.
We listened to "Good save the Queen"
when they wanted us to shout: "Long live Fidel." Freddie, Roger, Jhon
and Brian were our idols in those days when Silvio and Pablo were already a bit
accepted, loved, but we were listening, secretly, to the weekly scale of the
WYBS, that “conscience perverter” based in Florida These were days when Lezama
and Virgil remained marginalized, those days when Arenas was already sick and
away from Cuba, and disappeared from the shelves of bookstores and libraries
were Cabrera Infante and many more. They were days of Manuel Cofiño and Luis
Pavón, they were days of sadness.
And now come with this story of Haila those who voluntarily forgot Lupe, those who do not mention Blanca Rosa Gil singing "Shadows", those who do not remember the Freddy of "Night of Round", or Olga Guillot. Reinaldo Arenas made it clear that he did not want to be published in Cuba as long as the communists decided, but there was no need for such a claim, because there was no desire to take it to the press and then put it on the bookshelves of the bookstores. Reinaldo, one of the biggest in this country, who gave some greats, is a stranger, a repudiated, so I don't care that Haila is not wanted in the North, that she boycotted her presentations and that Oni gets so upset that she takes The appearance of a UFO.
In the United States people can go out to reject, to repudiate, to make scandals and condemn, and in the end the organizers have to accept the claims. I would not have manifested myself, but many decided otherwise, and that will also have to be respected. It was worse for us, we were forbidden to even put a black plaque on the record player, listen to the tapes that kept the voices that were considered enemies, read the books of those who were stinking.
And now come with this story of Haila those who voluntarily forgot Lupe, those who do not mention Blanca Rosa Gil singing "Shadows", those who do not remember the Freddy of "Night of Round", or Olga Guillot. Reinaldo Arenas made it clear that he did not want to be published in Cuba as long as the communists decided, but there was no need for such a claim, because there was no desire to take it to the press and then put it on the bookshelves of the bookstores. Reinaldo, one of the biggest in this country, who gave some greats, is a stranger, a repudiated, so I don't care that Haila is not wanted in the North, that she boycotted her presentations and that Oni gets so upset that she takes The appearance of a UFO.
In the United States people can go out to reject, to repudiate, to make scandals and condemn, and in the end the organizers have to accept the claims. I would not have manifested myself, but many decided otherwise, and that will also have to be respected. It was worse for us, we were forbidden to even put a black plaque on the record player, listen to the tapes that kept the voices that were considered enemies, read the books of those who were stinking.
In Cuba, decrees are approved that can take anyone
to jail. In U.S.A. It is protested if it is considered that the voice of a
visitor who communes with a power that has been banning for sixty years can be
offensive. Barbara Dane came to Cuba as much as she wanted, and I have no news
of being "repudiated" on her return. In Cuba they received Barbara
Dane, and forbade many Cubans to leave, many foreigners because they felt like
it. I don't know why they make such a fuss then because they ban Haila in the
United States, and because Cuban exile decides to protest. I don't know why
they forget that that is also a right.
Jorge Ángel Pérez
(Cuba) Born in 1963, he is the author of the storybook Lapsus calami (David Award); the novel The Candida Walker, awarded the Cirilo Villaverde Award and the Grinzane Cavour of Italy; the novel Smoking I hope, that divided in jury verdict to the jury of the International Prize of Novel Romulo Gallegos 2005, being the first finalist; In a water stanza, distinguished with the Julio Cortázar Ibero-American Short Story Award in 2008; and In Havana they are not so elegant, winner of the Alejo Carpentier Short Story Award 2009 and the Annual Literary Critic Award. He has been a juror in important national and international awards, including Casa de Las Américas.
(Cuba) Born in 1963, he is the author of the storybook Lapsus calami (David Award); the novel The Candida Walker, awarded the Cirilo Villaverde Award and the Grinzane Cavour of Italy; the novel Smoking I hope, that divided in jury verdict to the jury of the International Prize of Novel Romulo Gallegos 2005, being the first finalist; In a water stanza, distinguished with the Julio Cortázar Ibero-American Short Story Award in 2008; and In Havana they are not so elegant, winner of the Alejo Carpentier Short Story Award 2009 and the Annual Literary Critic Award. He has been a juror in important national and international awards, including Casa de Las Américas.
TRANSLATED by LPP Print-Shop From Cibercuba.com
A campaign asks the mayor of Miami
to declare 'persona non grata'
to Osmani García
Members of exile ask to apply
the same sanction to Haila.
DDC
Miami Nov 2019 - 21:48 CET
A petition on the Change.org platform has begun the collection of accessions to send a
collective request to the mayor of Miami, Francis Suárez, to declare the reggaeton
Osmani García
as "persona non grata" in the capital of Cuban exile.
"This petition is addressed to Mayor Francis Suárez to declare the reggaeton
Osmany García 'persona
non grata' in the city of Miami," says the brief request, in the name of Edgar López,
who at the
end of this information had signed more than a thousand people.
García, who lives in Miami after suffering several episodes of censorship in Cuba,
lashed out at
the exiles who demand political definition from Cuban artists, whom he described as
"sneaky cederistas" and "regretful communists" in a live Facebook broadcast loaded
with abuse.
The reggaeton publicly showed his support for Raúl Castro after he sat down to talk
to Barack Obama
and declared that he lacked respect for all who did not support the Government of Cuba.
In recent months, the malaise of exile against Cuban artists who sympathize
with the regime
or have an ambiguous political attitude has increased. Among the actions
promoted by
the exiles are campaigns for the withdrawal of residence or visa in the US, or
the cancellation of their concerts.
The artists in the spotlight are the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno and
Haila Mompié,
among others.
Last week, the Mompié suffered the suspension of a presentation in Miami, after the mayor
declared it "persona non grata".
In 2010, the singer kissed Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the middle of a concert in greeting
50 years after the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).
"May God give me great health. Thank you very much for existing.
I love you with all my heart," he wished the dictator on that occasion.
"We do not want to have in our city a person who offends us in that way. It is disgusting that
they use our freedoms against us, and return to Cuba talking about a dictator who has killed
thousands of people ...", he said Mayor Suarez announcing the declaration
of "persona non grata".
Subsequently, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Studio 60 club in Miami,
where Haila would act, to express his outrage at the presence in the city of artists
without a clear
position on the human rights violations suffered by Cubans on the Island.
Osmani García to Aldo El Aldeano:
"Let's go to war for Cuba, answer yes or no"
Reggaeton Osmani García challenged rapper Al2 El Aldeano on Facebook.
"Let's go to war for Cuba,
you write down, answer YES OR NO ????", he wrote next to a photo that shows
the urban singer
with a sign that says "Díaz-Canel Lechona". The image corresponds to a march held
in Tampa
this weekend to demand the freedom of José Daniel Ferrer and the remaining
political prisoners
in Cuba.
With the same photo of Al2 Osmani reiterated shortly after: "Would you give your
life like me
for the freedom of Cuba ??? Are we going to attack communism yes or no?
JOIN THE WAR YES OR NO ???".
Last week Osmani García criticized those who try to force Cuban artists to talk
about politics
when they visit Miami, while accusing the "cederistas, regretful policemen"
who in Cuba did not
have the courage to rise against the Government.
Artists like Silvito el Libre and Al2 El Aldeano reacted later to Osmani's words and
defended their
right to talk about politics.
Al2 accused the reggaeton of "chivatón", during a live broadcast.
The direct interpellation now made
by Osmani García to El Aldeano can add more firewood to the fire at the
crossing of statements.
In an intervention last week, Osmani García asked Miguel Díaz-Canel,
Raúl Castro and
Mayor Miami,
Francis Suarez, that Cuban artists can "live in peace."
“Raul Castro - Diaz Canel - Francis X Suarez, what 99% of Cubans want
is to live in peace,
have a
healthy family, a comfortable and prosperous life ... fight and fulfill
whatever their dream or
existential
purpose as any human being in the world, ”wrote Osmani García in the
publication that
accompanies his live.
"Where is this going?", Asked the reggaeton several times in his extensive
20-minute intervention,
and said that it is not only the artists who are being under a lot of pressure
to talk about politics,
and also
alluded to actors, athletes and any public person in general.
Osmani said that for him, communism and what dictates a dictatorship is
"to force someone
to do something", and for that very reason it has "broken" the idea that
"there are people here who are
resembling those of over there. ”“ Why do we have to live that
pressure that someone
wants to send us?
”he said at another time.
"We musicians do not have the power to, with words and songs,
change a president, that is in
the hands
of Cubans, the day they do not give more they will express themselves
and claim the same rights
as the entire world," he said.
In a rather vulgar tone, on Tuesday Garcia called the haters, contrary
to cultural exchange,
"cederistas, regretful police," "sneaks from there who came here."
In recent months the movement of Cubans residing in the United States
who oppose the concerts
and presentations of Cuban artists sympathetic to the regime of the Island,
or whose political attitude
is not defined, has been increasing.
Among the actions are campaigns for the withdrawal of residence
in the US, visa or
cancellation of concerts.
The most noted artists so far have been the People of Zone duo,
Descemer Bueno and Haila Mompié,
although the list is much more extensive.
Translated Print-Shop LPP
Ernesto Morales
CiberCuba journalist
CiberCuba journalist
The battle of the nets continues on fire, and the main contenders cross their swords ... at a distance.
Now it has been Silvito "El Libre" who has responded directly to Descemer Bueno, after he claimed that he had supported both Aldo "El Aldeano" and Silvio Rodríguez's own son when they arrived in the United States.
"Oh DESEMEN, you say you helped us in Miami? Haha how crazy are you, where did you get that if with you I crossed 2 words if anything, why do you dig into a past when in reality you have darker things to hide? that I?"
This is how the rapper began saying, after the
song "Desemen" that he and Aldo recorded in duet he provoked some
words from the composer of "Dancing", who said last night in another
of his usual Facebook direct that Silvito "El Libre" He was the
baddest rapper in the world, and that Aldo "The Villager" was more
envious than talented.
"You never helped us at all or did anything for us, I remind you that your fame is only a few years old and in 2010 when I came to the USA to introduce myself for the first time in Cuba they knew Peter La Anguilla more than you, you never rang in Cuba, you came to the USA because your father brought you, not because of a good musician, "Silvito continued his plea.
"One day you could strain one of your compositions into the repertoire of a world figure and you became famous overnight, you know that in that small industry as you say it takes more luck than talent, if not a few of your colleagues of the urban genre they were selling guavas in the streets of Miami. Cuban composers and interpreters better than you have not had the same fate and of that we are all clear. "
In his direct last night, Descemer Bueno alleged that Aldo currently had no artistic life, and that such "inactivity" has made him "side with the haters" and especially the "leader of the haters", referring to the presenter Alexander Otaola In addition, Descemer criticized the musical quality of the rap practiced by the son of Silvio Rodríguez, of whom he said directly that it was a shame as an artist. Silvito also counterattacked this:
"I am a rapper and rap belongs to the Hip Hop culture, a culture based on rebellion and awareness, for me it is more important to give a message, I do not follow commercial patterns to sell so you can not compare your product with the I do not even expect it to have the same results. Even so I have known 12 countries without promotion and without giving up to anyone even being censored in all the media and stages of Cuba, for a Guajirito de Banes that is more than fulfilling a dream, "he wrote artist.
"What you lack as a man you have of ego, so you do not perceive the ridiculousness that you star these days, you see yourself as a superhuman superior to others when in reality what is sad to see you with your age acting as a teenager, "Silvito" El Libre "continued in his Facebook post. "I knew that you would compare me with my dad because that is the bullet that they always use against me when they have nothing else to attack me with, that is called dead kick. It is impossible to compare my dad's work and talent with me (or with you)".
Then, the rapper closed his answer: "This is the last thing I write about you because I feel like I'm stomping on a dead cockroach, I hope you find help. Greetings family, get this to the" Master "
"You never helped us at all or did anything for us, I remind you that your fame is only a few years old and in 2010 when I came to the USA to introduce myself for the first time in Cuba they knew Peter La Anguilla more than you, you never rang in Cuba, you came to the USA because your father brought you, not because of a good musician, "Silvito continued his plea.
"One day you could strain one of your compositions into the repertoire of a world figure and you became famous overnight, you know that in that small industry as you say it takes more luck than talent, if not a few of your colleagues of the urban genre they were selling guavas in the streets of Miami. Cuban composers and interpreters better than you have not had the same fate and of that we are all clear. "
In his direct last night, Descemer Bueno alleged that Aldo currently had no artistic life, and that such "inactivity" has made him "side with the haters" and especially the "leader of the haters", referring to the presenter Alexander Otaola In addition, Descemer criticized the musical quality of the rap practiced by the son of Silvio Rodríguez, of whom he said directly that it was a shame as an artist. Silvito also counterattacked this:
"I am a rapper and rap belongs to the Hip Hop culture, a culture based on rebellion and awareness, for me it is more important to give a message, I do not follow commercial patterns to sell so you can not compare your product with the I do not even expect it to have the same results. Even so I have known 12 countries without promotion and without giving up to anyone even being censored in all the media and stages of Cuba, for a Guajirito de Banes that is more than fulfilling a dream, "he wrote artist.
"What you lack as a man you have of ego, so you do not perceive the ridiculousness that you star these days, you see yourself as a superhuman superior to others when in reality what is sad to see you with your age acting as a teenager, "Silvito" El Libre "continued in his Facebook post. "I knew that you would compare me with my dad because that is the bullet that they always use against me when they have nothing else to attack me with, that is called dead kick. It is impossible to compare my dad's work and talent with me (or with you)".
Then, the rapper closed his answer: "This is the last thing I write about you because I feel like I'm stomping on a dead cockroach, I hope you find help. Greetings family, get this to the" Master "
Translated Print-Shop LPP
The most read
Osmani García apologizes and says
he will not sing more in Cuba or Miami
The Cuban reggaeton Osmani García has declared
that he will not sing more in Cuba or in Miami, amid the controversy that has
been unleashed between part of the exile and the artists of the Island that
perform in the United States.
"I already decided not to sing more in Cuba until the thing changed and not to sing more in Miami," said the singer. "If I ever deserve to sing again for crowds in the arena," he said.
In a live video on Facebook, Osmani spoke as a reconciliation with both his followers "that they had to see him saying bad words", as with the presenter Alexander Otaola.
"I already decided not to sing more in Cuba until the thing changed and not to sing more in Miami," said the singer. "If I ever deserve to sing again for crowds in the arena," he said.
In a live video on Facebook, Osmani spoke as a reconciliation with both his followers "that they had to see him saying bad words", as with the presenter Alexander Otaola.
About Otaola, Osmani García said that he would not
say more names, since these days he called it "communist pigeon," and
said he was playing "with the pain of Cuban families."
According to Osmani, the pressure they are exerting against the artists is very hard. "It is unfair what they have been doing for years with musicians," he said.
"It's painful to see your friends put you in that political pot," he added.
He also said that he and the other Cuban artists want their relatives to be well within the Island.
In recent statements, Osmani also called Otaola "modern communist" for his campaigns against Cuban artists, who he says do not appear against the Cuban regime.
"I know what you have in your son-son's heart, as I tell you," Osmani told Otaola in the video shared here. "You know I don't hate you or anything like that, on the contrary, I admire you like many people, but you have to admit that your hand has gone."
According to Osmani, the pressure they are exerting against the artists is very hard. "It is unfair what they have been doing for years with musicians," he said.
"It's painful to see your friends put you in that political pot," he added.
He also said that he and the other Cuban artists want their relatives to be well within the Island.
In recent statements, Osmani also called Otaola "modern communist" for his campaigns against Cuban artists, who he says do not appear against the Cuban regime.
"I know what you have in your son-son's heart, as I tell you," Osmani told Otaola in the video shared here. "You know I don't hate you or anything like that, on the contrary, I admire you like many people, but you have to admit that your hand has gone."
A few days ago, the reggaeton asked the Cuban
president Miguel Díaz-Canel, the former president Raúl Castro and the mayor
Miami Francis Suarez, that Cuban artists can "live in peace."
He also called "haters" those who demand political definition from Cuban artists on both banks. He also offended them by telling them "cederistas, regretful police", "sneaks from there who came here."
"You have not done ni P ...", "You are some pennies," said the reggaeton to Cubans residing in Miami who have campaigned for the withdrawal of residence in the US, visa or cancellation of concerts of artists like those of the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno and Haila Mompié.
Descemer
Bueno: "Good, you don't have to ask me to release anyone"
"They should apologize to Haila"
He also called "haters" those who demand political definition from Cuban artists on both banks. He also offended them by telling them "cederistas, regretful police", "sneaks from there who came here."
"You have not done ni P ...", "You are some pennies," said the reggaeton to Cubans residing in Miami who have campaigned for the withdrawal of residence in the US, visa or cancellation of concerts of artists like those of the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno and Haila Mompié.
Descemer Bueno responds to Aldo El Aldeano and Silvito
El Libre
Cuban singer-songwriter Descemer Bueno responded
to Cuban rappers Al2 El Aldeano and Silvito El Libre, who dedicated a song
entitled Desemen, in which they branded the artist to make a fool of himself on
social media, to talk about men from behind, of to be a
colonel, sneak and to have links with the Security of the State of the Island.
Descemer, who is in Cuba, said he was one of the first people who helped Aldo when he arrived in the United States and has never thanked him for helping out.
When Aldo arrived in Miami I was one of the people I always gave myself and I was always there supporting him, speaking well of him and the work he did. It will be neither the first nor the last that does not thank me, he said.
Descemer, who is in Cuba, said he was one of the first people who helped Aldo when he arrived in the United States and has never thanked him for helping out.
When Aldo arrived in Miami I was one of the people I always gave myself and I was always there supporting him, speaking well of him and the work he did. It will be neither the first nor the last that does not thank me, he said.
Next, the artist alleged that Aldo currently did
not have an artistic life, so that such "inactivity" has made him
"side with the haters" and especially the "leader of the
haters", referring to the presenter Alexander Otaola.
Descemer also commented that the rapper was "captain onion" and that he was repeating everything that was said on social networks with an "absurd way of attacking." He also said that years ago Los Aldeanos, a group that Aldo shared with El B, accused the people of Miami of being "the worst" and that when they arrived in the United States they did not want to talk about politics.
As for Silvito El Libre, the singer-songwriter commented that it was "a great shame" as an artist. That although he was the son of Silvio Rodríguez, he believed that he was the most evil rapper that existed on planet earth and that he lacked talent.
You are the baddest rapper that exists on planet earth, you have absolutely no talent, said Silvito El Libre.
Moments later Descemer lashed out again against Aldo and explained that the rapper was "more envious than talented" and hinted that the song he made with Silvito El Libre was not going to take them "out of the hole" in which you were professionally involved.
As a climax, the artist dared to ensure that for these reasons neither of them was called to sing in the Cubatonazo and that Cuban reggaeton El Kamel had much more talent than Aldo.
Descemer also commented that the rapper was "captain onion" and that he was repeating everything that was said on social networks with an "absurd way of attacking." He also said that years ago Los Aldeanos, a group that Aldo shared with El B, accused the people of Miami of being "the worst" and that when they arrived in the United States they did not want to talk about politics.
As for Silvito El Libre, the singer-songwriter commented that it was "a great shame" as an artist. That although he was the son of Silvio Rodríguez, he believed that he was the most evil rapper that existed on planet earth and that he lacked talent.
You are the baddest rapper that exists on planet earth, you have absolutely no talent, said Silvito El Libre.
Moments later Descemer lashed out again against Aldo and explained that the rapper was "more envious than talented" and hinted that the song he made with Silvito El Libre was not going to take them "out of the hole" in which you were professionally involved.
As a climax, the artist dared to ensure that for these reasons neither of them was called to sing in the Cubatonazo and that Cuban reggaeton El Kamel had much more talent than Aldo.
Roberto San Martín explodes against
Descemer Bueno:
"You are licking boots"
The Cuban actor Roberto San Martín joined the confrontation that has been generated
in networks between Osmani García and Descemer Bueno against the
presenter Alexander Otaola
and recently joined by rappers Al2 El Aldeano and Silvito El Libre.
Descemer came out in defense of the reggaeton asking the rappers to leave him
alone and not
to mess with him, because they "have not been able to realize the dream that Osmani
has realized",
that the world of music is small and that it was not smart to take wrong
with him, which
provoked a strong response from the artists through the theme Desemen.
San Martín could not contain himself and during his program Mariela Qué Tal,
which broadcasts
live through the La Familia Pérez YouTube channel, took off his costume to answer
Descemer Bueno directly.
"That of saying that 'you know how this works, the world of music is tiny and the
famous musicians of the world ask me' is bullshit from you. In the world of artists it is
very fucking to be consistent and you you are not. You are trying to
blackmail two guys who
are extremely consistent. (...) It is disappointing that you use the same tactics that the
Cuban government uses, "said the artist visibly upset.
Roberto also reminded the singer-songwriter when he was "starving in New York for years
and had to return to Cuba to record a record in a shit studio", and that despite the good
music he has bequeathed, his attitude is disgusting: "What you are
doing is one of the most
repudiable things a human being can do, because you are licking boots,
you do know that
to get where you are you have to do it, that's why I'm so glad that you
They have written
this subject, that although some say that it was their hand, you deserve it at 200%,
because honestly it has become bullshit to have money and have fame,
"he concluded,
referring to the song that Al2 and Silvito wrote to him .
For his part, Descemer decided to continue the game of war in networks,
and in a new direct
response to the rappers, ensuring that Aldo was "more envious than talent"
and that he was
a thankless, and that Silvito, despite being a son of Silvio Rodríguez,
he didn't have "any kind
of talent" and that he is "the baddest rapper that exists on planet earth."
Descemer
Bueno: "Good, you don't have to ask me to release anyone"
Cuban singer-songwriter Descemer Bueno sent a
message to his followers and said they no longer have to ask him to release
anyone, in reference to the alleged evidence presented on Thursday by the
Island regime against the opponent José Daniel Ferrer.
"It's good, they don't have to ask me to release anyone anymore. Everything is seen, everything is known," said the artist, who was constantly asked by fans in his live shows to request the release of the UNPACU leader.
"I am not asked to release anyone, I do not have the key to any jail, I do not care about that. Those who care about you," he added during the live broadcast he made on Facebook.
"It's good, they don't have to ask me to release anyone anymore. Everything is seen, everything is known," said the artist, who was constantly asked by fans in his live shows to request the release of the UNPACU leader.
"I am not asked to release anyone, I do not have the key to any jail, I do not care about that. Those who care about you," he added during the live broadcast he made on Facebook.
Recently the composer, who lives in Miami, said in
a video that he did not know who José Daniel Ferrer was.
The representative of the Patriotic Union of Cuba was arrested on October 1 and is still awaiting trial and still does not know the charges against him.
This Thursday the European Parliament passed a resolution in favor of Ferrer's immediate release. MEPs demanded from the Cuban regime that the opponent have access to a lawyer.
The representative of the Patriotic Union of Cuba was arrested on October 1 and is still awaiting trial and still does not know the charges against him.
This Thursday the European Parliament passed a resolution in favor of Ferrer's immediate release. MEPs demanded from the Cuban regime that the opponent have access to a lawyer.
"They should apologize to Haila"
The singer criticized the "supposed artists
who are supporting those who attack the artists." "I
never expect anything, neither from the good nor from the bad. Life taught me
to expect nothing from anyone," he said.
"If you're not going to defend the music and you're not a great musician, keep quiet," he added. He also said he has nothing against Cuban hip-hop.
He also came out in defense of the Cuban singer Haila María Mompié, who was declared persona non grata by the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez; and to which they canceled a concert in this city.
"If you're not going to defend the music and you're not a great musician, keep quiet," he added. He also said he has nothing against Cuban hip-hop.
He also came out in defense of the Cuban singer Haila María Mompié, who was declared persona non grata by the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez; and to which they canceled a concert in this city.
"That is not done to anyone. How are you
going to agree with someone who is doing that to Haila, who is a woman with a
huge heart. How are they going to allow them to do that. They should apologize
to Haila," assured.
Jose Nacher
Journalist of CiberCuba. Degree in Journalism from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University of Valencia, Spain. Editor in the 21st Century, Agencia EFE, Las Provincias and El Mundo.
Journalist of CiberCuba. Degree in Journalism from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University of Valencia, Spain. Editor in the 21st Century, Agencia EFE, Las Provincias and El Mundo.
Cuquita la
Mora to Descemer Bueno: "You are not well"
The Cuban humorist Cuquita La Mora made a parody
dedicated to the Cuban singer-songwriter Descemer Bueno, following the
controversy with other artists in which the performer has been involved in
recent weeks.
In the song, the comedian asked for "respect for the Village" referring to Descemer's problem with Aldo "El Aldeano" and Silvito El Libre, after the Cuban rappers made him a song called Desemen in which he was accused of being sneaky , Colonel and have close ties with the State Security of the Island, as well as make a fool of yourself in social networks and have a reputation for talking about men from behind.
With the refrain "I did not graduate, I did not graduate, but I make a joke in a two by three", Cuquita La Mora also touched on the theme of musical studies referred to by Descemer during his controversy with Aldo and Silvito , where he mentioned that the rappers did not have any academic training and instead he did.
Cuquita La Mora also expresses in his letter that Descemer has "left the brain for his feet" and gives him a few tips in which he recommends that he stop drugs because "respect has gone down his nose ".
It also invites you to change your profession to "youtuber", because in that area you will feel much better and will surely "give more size" than uploading videos to your social networks.
In the song, the comedian asked for "respect for the Village" referring to Descemer's problem with Aldo "El Aldeano" and Silvito El Libre, after the Cuban rappers made him a song called Desemen in which he was accused of being sneaky , Colonel and have close ties with the State Security of the Island, as well as make a fool of yourself in social networks and have a reputation for talking about men from behind.
With the refrain "I did not graduate, I did not graduate, but I make a joke in a two by three", Cuquita La Mora also touched on the theme of musical studies referred to by Descemer during his controversy with Aldo and Silvito , where he mentioned that the rappers did not have any academic training and instead he did.
Cuquita La Mora also expresses in his letter that Descemer has "left the brain for his feet" and gives him a few tips in which he recommends that he stop drugs because "respect has gone down his nose ".
It also invites you to change your profession to "youtuber", because in that area you will feel much better and will surely "give more size" than uploading videos to your social networks.
An art of
dictatorship
By Andrés Reynaldo
Miami
Nov 30, 2019
Miami
Nov 30, 2019
In this year that is ending, there has been a
decrease in the tolerance of exile towards artists, intellectuals and academics
committed to Castro's disinformation.
The Soviets, who inherited the epistemological pruritus of the great Tsarist academy, called it dezinformation.
Apparently, the term was coined by Stalin. Translations diminish the meaning it has in Russian. Dezinformation is much more than simply spreading false information to deceive public opinion. It is an art, a strategy, a concept of dominance implemented by powerful, tentative secret structures.
The first time I heard the word was from the late writer Joaquín G. Santana. We had gathered a small group of young writers to present a book that attacked the dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Translated by a Cuban publishing house, the pamphlet presented Solzhenitsyn as a resentful, self-conscious, mediocre guy, to whom the West gave him a Nobel Prize.
"This is a jewel of dezinformatsiya!" Santana told us, tasting the prestige of exotic words.
That book, he added, was being edited, at the same time, in all the countries of the socialist camp. And he repeated "At the same time!", Admired by that totalitarian synchrony. From Santana we were commenting on petit committee that, although he was not a companion who attended to us, he was undoubtedly the companion who did not neglect us.
Important component of the dezinformatsiya are a designated group of artists, writers and academics inside and outside the Island. The reasons, the negotiated one, the spectrum of their collaboration, are multiple and for the time being inscrutable. Fulano will have a sealed case of child abuse, Mengana will be threatened with not letting her in and out, the other one can close her palate, the other they promised her a house. And there will be one, there will be another one, which will be of the mere ones, with their rank, their training, their regular congratulations from the high command and their support staff anywhere in the world where they set foot.
The Soviets, who inherited the epistemological pruritus of the great Tsarist academy, called it dezinformation.
Apparently, the term was coined by Stalin. Translations diminish the meaning it has in Russian. Dezinformation is much more than simply spreading false information to deceive public opinion. It is an art, a strategy, a concept of dominance implemented by powerful, tentative secret structures.
The first time I heard the word was from the late writer Joaquín G. Santana. We had gathered a small group of young writers to present a book that attacked the dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Translated by a Cuban publishing house, the pamphlet presented Solzhenitsyn as a resentful, self-conscious, mediocre guy, to whom the West gave him a Nobel Prize.
"This is a jewel of dezinformatsiya!" Santana told us, tasting the prestige of exotic words.
That book, he added, was being edited, at the same time, in all the countries of the socialist camp. And he repeated "At the same time!", Admired by that totalitarian synchrony. From Santana we were commenting on petit committee that, although he was not a companion who attended to us, he was undoubtedly the companion who did not neglect us.
Important component of the dezinformatsiya are a designated group of artists, writers and academics inside and outside the Island. The reasons, the negotiated one, the spectrum of their collaboration, are multiple and for the time being inscrutable. Fulano will have a sealed case of child abuse, Mengana will be threatened with not letting her in and out, the other one can close her palate, the other they promised her a house. And there will be one, there will be another one, which will be of the mere ones, with their rank, their training, their regular congratulations from the high command and their support staff anywhere in the world where they set foot.
Of course, chance also has its tricks. Many
contribute to dezinformation by ignorance, opportunism, effect and dependence
on toxic substances, desire to figure or the childish enjoyment of exile. There
will even be some who collaborate, plainly, in good faith. Is there anything
more childish than Descemer Well blaming the embargo for not being able to
drink a juice? Can an intelligence design be conceived in the pa'trá and
pa'lante of Pancho Céspedes?
No one takes away from these people the right to freely express their ideas. Under the same premise, these ideas are not exempt from debate, criticism, condemnation. In that aspect, Castro's dezinformatsiya tries to impose a straitjacket on us. In order not to be intolerant, we must inhibit ourselves from judging his message and ripostar his messengers. All this without them being inhibited at all.
Days ago he was accused of intolerant who protested the presentation of Haila Mompié in Studio 60, in Miami. Haila is one of those artists fascinated with Fidel. The same thing appeared kissing him in a public act that mourning his death in the tail of the funeral in the Plaza de la Revolución. In the end, Studio 60 canceled the concert. I think I didn't have to. Haila would have sung with the police protecting her from the protest. Because here the police protect. Now, you can't always swim between two waters. If you love Fidel, it is pertinent that they hate you in Miami.
There is nothing reprehensible in being intolerant of a 60-year dictatorship. In hating their representatives, their spokesmen, their solicitors, their clowns. To those who want to disarm indignation and memory. To those who dare to trivialize your pain. To those who want to tie your words in the dead tongue of servitude. Be bongoseros or novelists. They are stupid of drawer or consummate agents of dezinformation.
No one takes away from these people the right to freely express their ideas. Under the same premise, these ideas are not exempt from debate, criticism, condemnation. In that aspect, Castro's dezinformatsiya tries to impose a straitjacket on us. In order not to be intolerant, we must inhibit ourselves from judging his message and ripostar his messengers. All this without them being inhibited at all.
Days ago he was accused of intolerant who protested the presentation of Haila Mompié in Studio 60, in Miami. Haila is one of those artists fascinated with Fidel. The same thing appeared kissing him in a public act that mourning his death in the tail of the funeral in the Plaza de la Revolución. In the end, Studio 60 canceled the concert. I think I didn't have to. Haila would have sung with the police protecting her from the protest. Because here the police protect. Now, you can't always swim between two waters. If you love Fidel, it is pertinent that they hate you in Miami.
There is nothing reprehensible in being intolerant of a 60-year dictatorship. In hating their representatives, their spokesmen, their solicitors, their clowns. To those who want to disarm indignation and memory. To those who dare to trivialize your pain. To those who want to tie your words in the dead tongue of servitude. Be bongoseros or novelists. They are stupid of drawer or consummate agents of dezinformation.
Translated LPP Print-Shop from/ baracuteycubano.blogspot.com
'The 349 says what you say,'
warns Otero Alcantara to Descemer Bueno
The singer does not talk about
politics because if he does he runs
out of 'all the perks that
the regime offers him', he says.
DDC
La Habana 01:34 CET
The artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara said that musician Descemer Bueno
"is behaving like Deputy Minister [Fernando] Rojas" for emulating him by defining
"who is an artist and who is not", in reference to Bueno's criticism
of Aldo musicians Rodríguez Baquero, known as "Al2 El Aldeano",
and Silvio Rodríguez Varona, known as Silvito "El Libre".
"He behaves like the elite of those who call themselves
the Cuban intelligentsia and are the
ones who supposedly define who is an artist and who is not," said Otero Alcantara,
in a video posted on his Facebook wall.
The leader of the San Isidro Movement acknowledged that the controversy
that has occurred in recent months among Cuban artists in exile, who question
others who reside inside and outside the Island for not denouncing the
human rights violations committed by the Cuban Government It had been
his business until he heard Bueno.
"It bothered me on a personal level," he said, when Descemer Bueno criticized
his colleagues because "they didn't study music," and recalled that those who access
those careers in Cuba often belong to an elite.
He noted that Bueno says he does not talk about politics because doing so runs out
of "all the perks offered by the regime."
"Everyone can have the position they want, but answer for it too," he warned.
"You are justifying the dictatorship by raising Diaz-Canel's hand, singing to the dictator,
" he added, referring to the People of Duet duo and Haila Mompié, respectively,
some of the most questioned artists have been for exile.
"The 349 says what you say," he reminded Bueno, referring to the decree that outlaws
Cuban independent art, of which Otero Alcantara has been one of the main critics.
For that reason, the regime's political police harass him regularly, and he
has arrested him 17 times in 2019.
During one of them, Deputy Minister Fernando Rojas said that the activist
"has no artistic endorsement" to be considered part of the guild on the Island.
"You are part of the entire oligarchy that defines who is a musician and who is not,
who charges and who does not, who leaves Cuba and who enters, who has
an account in the bank ... and can have a good life in any place of Europe when there
is a people going through tremendous need, "he said.
The composer of international successes such as "Dancing" has received
many criticisms from users of social networks and other artists for weeks for
his declared apoliticism.
"I want to apologize for my political ignorance," he said in a video in late November.
"I apologize to the diaspora, to all those who think of politics, to all those
for whom politics is the most important. And I apologize forever because
I will continue to be that way, I will continue to ignore what other people do ".
On the calls he has received to pronounce himself in favor of the release
of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), José Daniel Ferrer,
a prisoner in Cuba since October 1, Descemer warned that he is "a person whom
I didn't know, I didn't have any information. Don't ask me to release anyone,
I don't have the key to any jail, "he defended.
"I do not know the life of José Daniel Ferrer. As a musician, as an artist,
as a creator I am not at all related to the political activism of any country,
much less mine," he said. "I can't take responsibility for not knowing.
I don't have a history of following political things," and he said
he doesn't know about baseball either, and that he worries "much more"
about not knowing who the main figures of Cuban classical music are today.
However, he acknowledged that despite this position, the repression of the
Cuban regime has touched him closely. "My father, Pedro Bueno,
was a political prisoner, he was a prisoner for years ... The prisoners of conscience,
political prisoners, are people I respect."
Previously, also the Cuban actor Roberto San Martín had been very hard
on Bueno for his position. On his YouTube channel, he said: "It's very fucking
to be consistent in the world of artists, and you're not consistent.
It made you crap to have money and have fame."
Print-Shop LPP traslated
