Juanes, Tañón, and others Confirm Concert in Cuba
Posted on 13. Sep, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Blog
The controversial concert to be held in Cuba later this month, which renown Latin music singer Juanes is organizing, is is still on despite the intense controversy and the death threats received by the Colombian singer. The controversy is driven by a group within the Cuban community in Miami, which strongly opposes the concert as they see it as solidarity with the communist political regime of Fidel and Raul Castro.
The “Paz sin Fronteras” Concert:
The concert is titled “Paz sin Frontera” (“Peace without borders”) and Juanes has been clear in that his intent is to loop-in the people of Cuba, who tend to be artistically forgotten as a consequence of the U.S. commercial blockade against the island. Juanes has reaffirmed there is no political agenda. The controversy has provoked death threats against Juanes. A small group of people which oppose the concert went to the streets in Miami to protest by burning Juanes albums.
The “Peace without Borders” Concert will be held on September 20th in the “Plaza de la Revolucion” in Havana, between 2:00 and 6:00 pm local time. It will be transmitted by the Cuban TV station to the whole island, and the Cuban government will make the signal available to be retransmitted by any other TV station or via the Internet. So far 15 Latin music artists from inside and outside Cuba have confirmed their participation. Cuban artists include renown trova artist Silvio Rodriguez, the group Los Van Van, Los Orichas, Amaury Perez, and Carlos Varela. Puerto Ricans Olga Tañón and Danny Rivera, Spainards Miguel Bosé, Luis Eduardo Aute and Víctor Manuel, Ecuatorian Juan Fernando Velasco, and Italian Jovanotti will join the Colombian multi-Grammy pop star in the concert.
Andy Montañez had organized a simultaneous support concert in Puerto Rico for the “Peace without Borders” concert in Cuba, with the name of “Abrazo Musical de Puerto Rico pa’ Cuba” (Musical Hug from Puerto Rico to Cuba). A bunch of local Puerto Rican artists, mostly “nueva trova” and folk groups will participate.
My Opinion on the Juanes Cuba Concert:
As most of us know, this is not the 1st time artists going to perform in Cuba causes controversy with some people in the Cuban community in Miami. Andy Montañez previously participated in a concert in Cuba, and received the backlash of the Cuban community in Miami, where is songs were no longer played on the radio, and his contracts for presentations cancelled. Ruben Blades also experienced the rejection of the Cuban community in Miami, not for performing in Cuba, but rather for performing while in Miami the song “Tiburón” (Shark), which criticizes U.S. intervention in Latin America. The story goes that Willie Colón knew the song would cause controversy in Miami, and didn’t want to play it. Rubén Blades apparently insisted in playing it, with or without the band. So, Willie Colón reluctantly agreed to play it, and consequently, they had to be escorted out by the Miami police due to the violent reaction from the concert goers.
Good thing that for the “Todos Vuelven” tour, “Tiburón” didn’t make the top 25 songs selected by the people visiting rubenblades.com. Otherwise, he would’ve had to move the November 21 scheduled concert in Miami 400 miles north to Orlando, where Puerto Ricans and Colombians make most of the Latino population there, and they don’t mind the song one bit.
Here is a video clip of a television news report (Spanish) focusing on those opposing the Juanes concert in Miami. Notice the news clip mentions it was a small group of people, which got a lot of attention.
Besides the back and forth controversy between Juanes and the Miami opposers to the concert, you don’t see many people commenting on it. Just like the politicians, many artists are afraid of alienating the Cuban community in Miami. Miami is an important market for any Latin artist, and although artistic survival is likely without the support of the Miami market, no one wants to loose some good record sales and presentation gigs.
Like Juanes, other Latin music artists put intellect before money, including Olga Tañón, Andy Montañez, and Rubén Blades. Why keep the Cuban people isolated artistically? Cuba is one of the most (if not the most) musically rich countries in the world when you consider the amount and quality of rhythms the island has produced. Also consider the great amount of artists, in all branches of art, which came out of Cuba, or have Cuban ancestry. Keeping the Cuban people artistically isolated deprives them of keeping up and enjoying the art of the rest of world, and keep us from enjoying the artistic richness that grows in Cuba.
In the below interview video (Spanish) Juanes explains his reasons for going to Cuba and all the controversy and misunderstanding surrounding the event.
César Miguel Rondón, in his book “El Libro de la Salsa” (3rd edition) has a very interesting introduction by Cuban journalist Leonardo Padura Fuentes, where he mentions the “gray decade of the 1970s”. In that decade, the Cuban government politicized the cultural activity in the island, and prevented the outside influence from permeating into Cuba, with some limited exceptions. The Cuban people missed the big evolution of Salsa which occured during the 70′s (see my related series of blogs titled “Salsa Music Ups and Downs” for more on the evolution of Salsa during this period), and we (the rest of the world) missed the rhythmical evolution which continued in Cuba. While Cubans finaly realized in the 80′s (after a policy change for the opening of the arts) that Celia Cruz was now a “salsera”, we missed that the Cubans had evolved the “Son” into “Songo” and “Timba”. I vividly remember Cachete Maldonado, saying in one of the very first public appearances of the then (early 1980′s) newly formed group Batacumbele in Puerto Rico, that we stayed rhythmically in the 60′s, while the Cubans continued to evolve. “We are rhythmically 20 years behind the Cubans” he would say. Cachete Maldonado was one of the first to catch up to the Cubans when he visited the island with the Tipica 73 in the early 80′s after the change in the arts policy. This was probably what sparked in his mind the creation of an Afro-Caribbean group, which he named Batacumbele, which means in the Yoruban language, “to kneel before the drum.”
I personally believe that opening Cuba artistically is the right thing. Isolation does not work. Political and commercial isolation has not worked in Cuba for over 50 years. Openness to external influences brings new ideas. It helps us to grow culturally, but it also may inspire openness in other areas, like socially and politically. This concert in Cuba has no political agenda. It’s intended to open peoples mind, artistically. But you have to start somewhere where progress can be made. For that reason, I specially applaud Juanes and Olga Tañón, who have weathered the most vicious criticism for doing what they feel is the right thing to do for the Cuban people. I know some of you will disagree. But let’s disagree with civility, agreeing to disagree, in the same way that you may disagree with a friend who votes for a political party which you oppose. I hope we don’t get to a point where you would give your friend or neighbor a death threat for supporting a political candidate you don’t like. In my opinion, the people that went to the extreme of burning discs and giving Juanes death threats are exhibiting the same behavior of intolerance and single-mindedness which they criticize of the Cuban dictatorship.
What do you think? Do you support the Juanes concert in Cuba? Why or why not? Leave your comments below, or email me at hector@latinowebcafe.com.
Related articles @ LatinoWebCafe.com:
Salsa Music Ups and Downs; Series Intro
Salsa Music Ups and Downs; Part 2a, the threat of Rock and Disco
Luis “Perico” Ortiz shines in Peru
Photo: “Niño Pescando, Melecon, Habana, Cuba” from http://www.colectivonomada.com/
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