2 03/15/2021 – 7:25 PM (GMT-4)
Comedian Alexis Valdes and the singer Willy Chirino they premiered this Monday with the musical theme I am Cuban, a collective project that has been viewed more than 33,000 times on the YouTube video platform in just five hours.
The song presentation It was created through a funny video in which Willy calls Alexis, who was repairing an old motorcycle, to invite him to eat the traditional Cuban taro fritters.
The song features the musician’s unmistakable trumpet Arturo Sandoval and it is already circulating among Cubans inside and outside the island, proudly shouting the sentence.
The author, Alexis Valdés, told the news agency EFE that the song cites different countries of the world as a sign of “national pride and dignity” and justifies the Cuban character of “all of us living outside Cuba”
“I wrote it on the rebound because someone from the Cuban Ministry of Culture, a year or so ago, referred to people who question the government’s policies as not Cubans, especially those of us who live outside of Cuba,” the said. popular humorist. .
He said that “as he wrote it, it became a song of national unity, of national pride, but the beginning was a claim to a right “.
“In Miami or in Japan I am Cuban (…). In Madrid, in New York or in the Vatican, and when I go to the moon, I will be Cuban (…), in a sailboat on the high seas I’m Cuban, even though I’m in Madagascar, I’m Cuban. Even if I can’t return, I’ll be Cuban. No one can take it away from Cuban. “says the letter of the song that has started to go viral on social networks.
“This song is made between countries and cities,” explained Valdés when introducing the Cuban musicians who took part in the project.
Among them, the arranger Yandro Reinoso, who lives in Budapest (Hungary), stands out; the timpanist Leandro Mena, in Las Vegas (USA); the tresero René Avich, in Sarasota, Florida; Arturo Sandoval on the trumpet from Los Angeles (California) and Yoandi Vera, also on the trumpet, who participated from Santa Clara (Cuba).
Maikel Dinza from Santiago de Cuba was on the bass, while the arranger himself and Michel Carballo took part in the choirs with his harpsichord.
Mixing and mastering was done by Wady D., of the Hialeah, South Florida based company M Plus Media, who works regularly with Chirino.
Valdés reported that To make the video, different people sent pictures of themselves from different parts of the world, as is the case with Nelson Peña, principal dancer of the Abay Kazakhstan State Ballet Theater, in Central Asia.
Chirino, for his part, had explained that in his networks they chose this date to release the song for historical reasons, in reference to the Baraguá Protest of March 15, 1878, starring Mambí General Antonio Maceo against the Spanish Martínez Campos.
“Friends, one of the most memorable events in the history of Cuban freedom and most closely associated with the present reality that exists on the island is THE PROTEST OF BARAGUÁ on March 15, 1878. Therefore Alexis Valdés chose this date as the release of the song YO SOY CUBANO, which he co-wrote and recorded last January, ”said the popular salsa singer.
I am cuban is dedicated to all Cubans scattered around the world who keep their roots and identity alive, he assured.
Recently Valdés and Chirino were invited to participate in the virtual meeting of Cuban artists with members of the European parliament, entitled “Homeland and Life, art and politics united by Cuba”, in response to the song’s success Homeland and Lifeperformed by Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and el Funky.
At that meeting, they denounced the arbitrariness of the Cuban regime towards artists living in other countries, such as herself and Sandoval herself, who are not allowed to return to the island where they were born.