Why was Pablo Milanés subjected to forced labor in Cuba?
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(CNN Spanish) --
The Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés left behind a musical legacy marked by the Cuban revolution —of which he would later be critical— and he was the founder, together with Pablo Milanés of Nueva Trova Cubana, a movement that arose from Fidel Castro's revolution, and which marked generations not only in his native country, but beyond its borders.
His lyrics are the "inseparable voice of the soundtrack" of an entire generation, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel said when mourning his death, which, according to the state newspaper Granma, occurred the same year that marked the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Cuban Trova, a current closely associated with the growing leftist wave in Latin America and whose songs often criticized US policy towards the region.
Singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés dies at 79
Cuban musician Pablo Milanés sings during the opening of the XXXVI Latin American Film Festival at the Karl Marx Theater on December 4, 2014 in Havana.
(Credit: AFP PHOTO/Yamil LAGE)
His songs not only gained fame in his voice, but in those of Latin American artists such as Victor Manuel and Ana Belén Luis Eduardo Aute, Mercedes Sosa, Marco Antonio Muñiz, Armando Manzanero, Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat and Carlos Varela, according to Reuters.
The Cuban singer, guitarist and composer was born on February 24, 1943 in Bayamo, in Granma and recorded his first album in 1965, according to Granma.
That record, titled "Mis 22 años", is considered the musical bridge between which led him to Nueva Trova, says the state newspaper.
Milanés's legacy, poet, singer, musician and revolutionary, was forged as "the soundtrack of Cuban identity and culture," says Granma, adding the "immortality" of his work that echoes in his last concert in Havana, on June 21, 2022, when, according to that newspaper, music crossed time and space and songs were still sung that remain in the memory of old and new generations: "It will be said, with reason, that Pablo's work arrives, impacts and grows in any environment", reported the state newspaper.
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In November 2015, the Latin Recording Academy awarded him the Grammy Award for Musical Excellence for a Lifetime Devoted to His Art at a ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Milanés, considered one of the voices of the revolution, has also criticized Cuba from public positions due to what he has considered errors.
In fact, shortly after the historic protests in Cuba in July 2021, the singer-songwriter signed a document titled "Cuban Civil Society Manifesto," in which he urged "urgent" social and economic reforms in Cuba.
"Our country needs - with the union of all - to take steps to new voices and new ways of thinking, which demand our laws, new liberties (...)", he wrote after signing the document, reported Reuters.
During his career, Pablo Milanés composed hits known worldwide such as "Yolanda", "El breve momento en que no estas", "De qué callada manera", among others.
Yolanda, 1970
to live, 1981
The brief moment when he is not there, 1984
In what a quiet way, 1985
The love of my life, 1999
-- With information from Gerardo Lemos of CNN en Español and Reuters.
Pablo Milanes