According to official Cuban history, in the mid-1950s revolution, one of the emblems of Fidel Castro and other guerrilla fighters during the war were the three words: Land or dead. An emblem that has been repeated millions of times in speeches, statues or official propaganda, as famous as Ever on the road to victoryBut nearly six decades later, a group of musicians dared to insult the official logo and the government of Cuba, which did not stop the song’s digital broadcast, responded with deep irritation. It all started last week, on Tuesday February 16, when the musicians published a song on various platforms Homeland and Life
“We are the dignity of a whole people who are trampled underfoot; At gunpoint and with words that are still nothing, ”says the song by Cuban rappers Maykel Osorbo and El Funky – who live on the island – along with other musicians living outside Cuba, such as Yotuel, Gente de Zona and Descemer Okay. “No more lies, my people are asking for freedom, no more doctrines; Let’s no longer shout ‘Homeland or Death’, but ‘Homeland and Life’.
“This will be a hymn of freedom” Rapper El Funky told CubaNet from Havana. “Making the video was quite difficult, because in the situation we are in, people don’t want to take any risks. They don’t want to rent lights for you, they don’t want to rent cameras for you. Everything was running, under a huge mystery in a house we were able to put on those black curtains, to make the video, and thank god it came out. But you know, under pressure. Everything under pressure ”.
Although the performers sing in a dark room, the editing of the video is just as important as the lyrics. It begins with the burning of a drawing of Cuban hero José Martí, revealing the ashes behind a dollar with the face of George Washington (“Che Guevara and Martí for Currency,” says the song about the strength of the dollar) . The second half of the video shows images of the police crackdown on the San Isidro youth movement, as well as an image of the movement’s leader, the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, embracing the Cuban flag: three weeks ago, both Otero as a rapper, Maykel was temporarily detained by the authorities after demonstrating in front of parliament to demand the resignation of the Culture Minister.
“And the world is aware that the San Isidro movement is continuing,” the song says of the hundreds of young people who took to the streets in November last year to demand freedom of expression on the island, following the capture of rapper Daniel Solís. In addition to criticizing Fidel’s motto, the song speaks of the importance of tolerating political disagreements on the island (‘Don’t let the blood flow, because you want to think otherwise’), or criticizes the opulence for foreigners in Cuban resorts when their citizens continue to try to migrate to the United States to escape extreme poverty (“Advertise for a paradise in Varadero; while mothers cry for their children who have left”).
The government’s response
In less than a week, the song added over a million and a half views on YouTube, and although the Cuban government has been trying for years to gain more control over political discourse on networks, it couldn’t stop the song from spreading like fire. “They wanted to obliterate our slogan and Cuba made it viral on networks,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on his Twitter account on Friday in defense of Land or dead, when the opposition song had already been expanded.
On Thursday evening, the government also managed to interrupt regular broadcast on official channels at 9 p.m. to show the national anthem, and the official newspapers have also published several articles criticizing the rappers’ song. “The ‘art’ that is born at the mercy of those who pay – at all costs and at all costs – smells like sulfur to try to break through the sovereignty of a nation through the crudest political interference,” the official wrote. newspaper Granma referring to an alleged foreign interference among critical voices on the island. “The text bets without squandering through the capitalist restoration and overthrow of revolutionary power,” explains another official article.
The attempt to silence rappers amplified the song instead of censoring it. ‘Two independent activists last night [Osmel Adrián Rubio y Anyell Valdés] they wrote ‘Patria y Vida’ on the porch of their home in Havana. Today, the regime’s security forces laid siege to the house and shut down their internet. That’s how nervous the regime is about this song ”, canceled on twitter José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch, which broadcasts the video to its 159,000 followers in America. The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dita Charanzová also shared the video
“I think that song reflects the state of orphan the country is in. I can hardly find any other reference than Donald Trump in which a president responds to artists by slandering them. In Cuba, not only Díaz-Canel does it, but also the entire state apparatus, ”Cuban writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez told El PAÍS. “This situation reflects the vulnerability or state of fear the Cuban government has, which may feel that a song composed by six or seven musicians jeopardizes political stability.”
The episode is a new chapter in the exciting political history of Cuban music, in which some singers remained close to the regime (such as the troubadour Silvio Rodríguez), others became symbols of Cuban exile (such as the queen of salsa, Celia Cruz). , and more recently many young rappers living on the island confronted the government with their verses inspired by the most critical hip-hop in the United States (like the rappers Los Aldeanos, now in Miami, who had been speaking for a few years now. Havana that “Che Guevara had traded for money”).
The song of Homeland and Life The verse is: ‘It’s over, you five nine, I double two; It’s over, sixty years of blocking the domino ”. It’s a mystery: the famous domino game on the island has the number 9, while in other Caribbean countries they only go up to 6, and it “hangs” when there is no more tile to play. The fifth nine, the 59, was Fidel’s glorious year when he won the war, and the rappers appeal that this has been the government’s record for sixty years to shout Land or dead and stop the game. The rappers’ record in this story, on the other hand, is the future: double two, either in 2020 where the San Isidro movement was strengthened, or in 2022, where they hope to see a Cuba with much more life than death.
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