Pablo Milanés in 36 sentences: "I am a born sufferer of love"

The singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés, who died this Tuesday in Madrid, was the great singing voice of Ibero-American music and also the great spoken, calm and accurate voice of his country, Cuba.

His phrases are already part of his legacy.

He sang and spoke of love, he denounced inequality and when the Cuban Revolution became perverted he denounced that the dream in which he believed was just that, a dream.

They called him "the singer of the regime" of Fidel Castro, but he knew how to disassociate himself from that label in the early 2000s, to the point of not wanting to "tarnish his last interview with political issues."

With closeness and sympathy, the singer has responded in this time to an endless number of questions with emotional as well as forceful responses.

Here are some examples published in the pages of EL PAÍS.

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Pablo Milanés, great voice of Ibero-American music, dies at 79

1. "My father spoke to me every day about dignity, integrity and sacrifice instead of giving me a slap on the head."

(2015)

2. "Young people pay too much attention to companies that know nothing about music or popular culture."

(2015)

3. "I feel indebted when I hear people ask for

, but I feel sorry that they don't want to hear the other 20 songs I have to offer."

(2015)

4. "I am disappointed by some leaders [those of his native country, Cuba] who promised a better tomorrow, with happiness, with freedoms and with a prosperity that never came in 50 years."

(2015)

5. “When Nancy [his wife] decided to donate her kidney to me, she expressed it to my children, my friends and those who loved me, with a conviction that was not reproached by anyone;

she showed everyone that this act of love was untouchable ”.

(2015)

6. "I am a crybaby, I cry with a book, a movie, an absence, with many things."

(2015)

7. “Those apparent openings [the opening reforms in Cuba] have been a simple make-up.

You have to go to the bottom, to the people on foot to see that nothing has changed ”.

(2015)

8. “Between 1965 and the end of 1967, more than 40,000 people were in isolated concentration camps in the province of Camagüey, with forced labor from five in the morning until nightfall without any justification or explanation, much less the forgiveness that I am waiting for the Cuban government to request it.

I was 23 years old, I escaped from my camp —280 other prisoners from my territory followed me— and I went to Havana to denounce the injustice they were committing, later they arrested me”.

(2015)

9. "For me, the greatest example of a revolutionary in America is José Mujica, imprisoned for 14 years and later a man without rancor, capable of creating a free, sovereign, non-dependent and prosperous State."

(2015)

10. “There are really only two kinds of music: good and bad.”

(2012)

11. "By history and culture, Cubans are eminently revolutionary."

(2008)

12. “No matter how optimistic one may be, and I am a very optimistic man, there is always a moment of the day when nostalgia invades you and you remember the glorious moments or the failures, and from that remains the shadow that you carry with you. your back".

(2008)

13. “If I don't walk along the boardwalk, I get sick.

I have to see that sun, I have to see that sea and I have to see the people, especially the people”.

(2008)

14. "If Fidel [Castro] has relinquished power and it was done in peace, if Raúl [Castro] assumed those powers, if there have been changes in the country's power structure without blood and without war, I believe that this transition can be give in peace."

(2008)

15. "I like people more than architecture, more getting lost in the streets than in museums."

(2003)

16. “It's terrible to arrive at a hotel for the first time.

In Spain I always repeat and I have been staying in the same room for 10 years.

I know its nooks and crannies and even the stains on the walls, and that is welcoming to me”.

(2003)

17. "The world is not understanding poetry, but war, and unfortunately arms are being imposed."

(2003)

18. “I have never been at the head of the regime.

I don't like generals or ministers, and marginal people almost always come to my house, which I like better”.

(2003)

19. “I look in the mirror and say: 'Damn, he's 60 years old and the mulatto is still fine.'

(2003)

20. "I am a born sufferer of love, because I am very sensitive, and any detail makes me suffer."

(2003)

21. “I have known pain up close, too many times the closeness of death with my illnesses.

And I realize that life is much simpler than one imagines and everyday life is more valuable”.

(2002)

22. “September 11 is painful to the extent that a horrible and unforgivable crime is committed, but those of us who have always been on the side of justice and peace, those of us who have always made a song of solidarity, have already been denouncing the crimes of imperialism in the world.

It is as reprehensible as what the United States had done with other countries.

(2002)

23. "Between consumerism, globalization and terrorism are ending the world."

(2002)

24. “Cuban music is not a simple fad, it is a movement in continuous development.

Cuba is a huge talent factory, it amazes me to see boys of 15 or 20 years old playing like virtuosos”.

(2001)

25. “Cuban music was blocked and an expression called salsa was invented in its place, which flooded the international market.

Only when this formula was exhausted did Cuban music begin to be known”.

(2001)

26. "I consider myself entitled to love the Revolution and not love the men who made it, although I respect them a lot."

(1999)

27. "I think that in Cuba there is corruption, but not at those levels of millions of dollars that are being speculated on all over the world, where the apparently most sensitive, most dignified politician steals by hand."

(1999)

28. "Cuba is one of the musical reserves of humanity."

(1998)

29. “The transition is almost always requested by the enemies.

A transition is being considered without the figure of Fidel [Castro] and eliminating what the Cuban people have conquered for thirty-odd years, which is unacceptable for the Cuban people”.

(1993)

30. "The only thing that could bring a bloodbath to Cuba would be a direct intervention by any country that attacks the dignity of the people."

(1993)

31. "The Cuban Nueva Trova is still alive because its base lies in the experiences of the singer-songwriters."

(1990)

32. "The singers of the Cuban Nueva Trova try to express a new way of singing love and politics, daily concerns, without concessions and with authenticity."

(1988)

33. "In Cuba and in the rest of the world, it has been difficult for us to be able to talk about love in a profound and not sentimental way."

(1988)

34. "Opening yourself to youth is the secret of being many years old and not getting old."

(1988)

35. "In Cuba, women are fighting more than men, they are conquering and imposing their rights both in the private and public facets."

(1988)

36. "Freedom of creation is possible to the extent that each creator demands it and earns it with their work."

(1988)