The death of Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés has generated mourning in the Latin American left.
Representatives of that wide and sometimes diffuse political spectrum, which leaves its differences when it sings the songs of the new trova or of the musicians that accompanied the social movements of the continent, have expressed their regret for the departure of the author of
Yo no te pido
, who died on Monday in Madrid due to an oncological disease.
“He was a great singer-songwriter.
Many of us benefit from his music, ”the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said this Tuesday morning at the beginning of his daily press conference.
"It is a very unfortunate loss for the world of music, for trova, an entire era is gone," added the president, one of the first Latin American leaders to mourn the death of the musician.
López Obrador closed the event by projecting a series of videos and songs by Milanés.
In Mexico, the head of government of the capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, and who aspires to succeed López Obrador, has also expressed her regret.
Sheinbaum shared a photo of Milanés on her Twitter profile and wrote: “The death of Pablo Milanés hurts.
We are left with his beautiful music and lyrics.”
The mayoress also shared verses from
El breve espacio en que no estás
, one of the great successes of the Cuban artist.
Milanés had planned, before his relapse, to give a concert in Mexico City as part of his "Días de Luz" tour.
In fact, the city's Culture authorities had promoted the recital as a "proposal that opens a new horizon for music, so necessary in these times, that invites the most intimate and at the same time hopeful reflection on his work."
Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, has also expressed his mourning on social media.
The president has shared a video of
Song for Latin American Unity
on Twitter , which reflects Milanés's political commitment: exploiting that mission / seeing everything so clearly / one day he was released / by this revolution.
"Music, in theory and practice, the search for art in it, must be studied in our public schools," wrote Petro.
“This is how the sensitivity of a society and its growth is achieved.
Art is part of Peace.
Goodbye to Pablo Milanés, the poet," added the president, who also said that with the death of the Cuban singer-songwriter "art abandons music."
Music in theory and practice, the search for art in it must be studied in our public schools.
This is how the sensitivity of a society and its growth is achieved.
Art is part of Peace.
Goodbye to Pablo Milanes, the poethttps://t.co/meEJeWSckn
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 22, 2022
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, one of Cuba's main ally in the region, has said that “the world of Latin American and Caribbean music and culture has lost a great trova player.
His beautiful lyrics and his singing will transcend into immortality.”
Maduro's message is a sign of the respect that Milanés arouses despite the fact that he had distanced himself from the drift that the Cuban revolution had taken.
“I am a standard bearer of the revolution, not of the government.
If the revolution gets stuck, it becomes orthodox, reactionary, contrary to the ideas that originated it, and one has to fight,” said Milanés in the 1990s.
Also in Spain there have been words of regret for the death of the Cuban artist.
Pedro Sánchez, head of the Spanish Government, has written a message on Twitter vindicating the leftist struggles: “We will step on the streets again and we will cry for those absent in your name.
The music of Pablo Milanés will always be with us.
He gave voice to the life and feelings of an entire generation.
Forever in our memory."
For her part, Yolanda Díaz, second vice president of the Government, has already said that Milanés "has composed, verse by verse, the song of our lives."
For Díaz, the Cuban artist is “troubadour of beauty, memory of all loves.
His transparent voice, free of him, left us a poetic and an ethic of the essential and the small.
Today, Pablo, you fly from your beloved island to our hearts forever.
Latin American musicians, writers and intellectuals have recorded their pain.
One of them, the writer and former vice president of Nicaragua, Sergio Ramírez —Cervantes Award winner— and who has an arrest warrant issued by the Daniel Ortega regime, has shared an emotional message on Twitter.
Along with a photograph that shows him hugging a Milanés in a wheelchair, who accompanied him during the presentation in Madrid of his book
Tongolele no sabe bailar
(Alfaguara)
,
Ramírez has written: "I embraced Pablo Milanés with all my soul in the doors of the Alberti bookstore in Madrid, when he came in a wheelchair to the presentation of the novel that cost me exile and with that hug from my brother I will stay forever.
Forever, as well in life as in death."
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS America
newsletter
and receive all the latest news from the region