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"Patria y vida", the song that annoys the government of Cuba

2021-02-22T17:16:44.454Z


The song "Patria y vida" has become so relevant that it became a topic of national and international debate in which Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba, even got involved.


People from the Zone answer if they would sing again in Cuba 1:29

(CNN Spanish) -

A rewritten revolutionary slogan, a critical song and an uncomfortable video that went viral.

The song by various Cuban artists "Patria y vida" has become so relevant that it became a topic of national and international debate in which Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba, even got involved.

"No more lies, my people ask for freedom, no more doctrines / Let's no longer shout Homeland and Death but Homeland and Life," says the theme of Yotuel Romero, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky, whose video on YouTube , launched on February 16, already has more than 1.4 million views.

It is a criticism of the communist government of the island and proposes a change in the slogan of "Homeland or death" attributed to Fidel Castro, a slogan of the Cuban Revolution.

The video begins with a bill of José Martí burning to reveal a dollar (“What do we celebrate if people are in a hurry exchanging Che Guevara and Martí for currency?” Says the song).

A Cuban flag is also burned and there are images of protests and repression by the authorities.

"Advertising of a paradise in Varadero / While mothers cry for their children who left," continues the lyrics.

The song supports the San Isidro Movement, a group of artists that last year went on a hunger strike in Cuba for the arrest of one of its members, the musician Denis Solís, and has denounced the censorship.

"They broke our door, they raped our temple / And the world is aware that the San Isidro movement continues, put".

"Sixty years locked dominoes / Bombo y satillo at five hundred in Havana / While at home in the pots they no longer have jama" says the song, a rejection of the shortage of food and the situation of many Cubans in the middle of the celebrations for the fifth centenary of the capital since 2019, something that continues in the midst of the covid-19 emergency and the recent reports of rescues and disappearances of rafters who continue to try to reach the United States.

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The reaction of the Government of Cuba

The official response came first on February 18 through President Díaz-Canel himself, who tweeted part of the song "Little diurnal serenade" by Silvio Rodríguez: "This is how the Homeland is sung / I live in a free country."

This is how the homeland is sung:


I live in a free country


Which can only be free


In this land, at this moment


And I am happy because I am a giant


……….


I am happy, I am a happy man


And I want to be forgiven


For this day


The dead of my happiness. # CubaViva #SomosCuba pic.twitter.com/FY4OzYxGjh

- Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) February 18, 2021

That same day, Pedro de la Hoz, head of Granma's cultural page, published the article "Sing the Homeland, not against it."

De la Hoz says that "there is not even the slightest hint of ingenuity, not a hint of intelligence in the crude conversion of the motto Patria o Muerte, into Patria y Vida, the title of the diatribe."

The state newspaper Granma later reported the reaction of the Association of Musicians of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac).

"With indescribable disgust, we have seen social networks invaded, with the worst attempts at musicalized speeches, in the pretended intention of providing public opinion with the image of an artistic movement in opposition to the virile stance of the Cuban Revolution", Uneac said.

Granma points out that these are "actions to destabilize this Antillean nation" and says that it is "a song of open anti-Cuban discourse."

The title of the article: "It is embarrassing that they use their voices to increase mercenary popularity."

Díaz-Canel tweeted again on February 19: «#PatriaOMuerte!

we shouted thousands last night, with the applause at 9 o'clock and the hymn of Perucho Figueredo.

They wanted to delete our slogan and #Cuba made it viral on the networks ».

#Country or Death!

we shouted thousands last night, with the applause at 9 o'clock and the hymn of Perucho Figueredo.

They wanted to delete our slogan and #Cuba made it viral on the networks.

#CubaViva #SomosCuba #SomosContinuidad pic.twitter.com/xPMK0wLbWl

- Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) February 19, 2021

The front page of Granma that day opens with an article entitled "A country is sung with a pure heart" which says that "art" that is born at the mercy of the will of those who pay - at all costs and at all costs - smells of sulfur cost - to try to break, from the grossest political interference, into the sovereignty of a nation ».

The day before, the newspaper had reproduced on the front page a fragment of a speech by the late leader Fidel Castro: "Our dilemma will always be homeland or death."

Artists say they fear for their families in Cuba

Gente de Zona, a duo of international fame for their collaborations with artists such as Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias and Becky G, told Efe at the Premio Lo Nuestro delivery in Miami on February 19 that they fear for their families in Cuba after the launch of the theme.

"It is time to have my opinion, take a step forward, take the risk and determine guilty - if something happens to my family - the government of Cuba," said Alexander Delgado, one of the members.

"Afraid?

Fear of not being able to give music to those people that need it again, "said his partner Randy Malcom.

On Instagram, where they have 1.9 million followers, they have shared stories of fans celebrating the song's lyrics.

"That the blood does not continue to flow, for wanting to think differently / Who told you that Cuba is yours if my Cuba belongs to all my people", says part of the song highlighted by several users.

It is not the first time that Gente de Zona has demonstrated against the Cuban government.

At the Free Cuba Fest in Miami in October 2020 Delgado shouted from the stage "Freedom for Cuba" and "down with the dictatorship," according to the press cameras that covered the event.

That demonstration was seen by the Cuban exiles as a form of vindication after the duo was seen in the middle of a controversy in 2019, when Miami Mayor Francis Suárez criticized them for - according to him - performing at a concert with the grandson of Raúl Castro and recognize Díaz-Canel.

Suárez lobbied for Gente de Zona not to perform in the South Florida city that year.

In October 2020, the singers told Univisión about that concert that “in Cuba we cannot prevent the son of a leader from getting on stage” and that those situations put them at “a crossroads, being between the sword and the Wall".

Message support

Opposition activist Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late Oswaldo Payá, shared several publications on her Twitter account with the hashtag #PatriayVida, retweeted the video of the song published by Yotuel and this Saturday said: «All that @ Yotuel007 did was invite them to walk through the lots of #Cuba And the regime denied its 60 years of "emancipatory" propaganda and showed themselves as they are: racists and haters.

#Racist Dictatorship # SeAcabó #PatriaYVida ».

José Daniel Ferrer, activist and coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, shared images of young people with messages of "Homeland and life."

Dita Charanzová, vice president of the European Parliament, also shared the video and wrote: "So that everyone is aware of the Cuban reality."

People of the Zone

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-02-22

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