I greatly fear the response of "never" Pablo Milanés
The last time I went to a Pablo Milanés concert I couldn't hum a single one of his songs. In the middle of the anti-imperialist bandstand* several friends and I unfurled a cloth with the name Gorki on it, to demand the release from jail -- in August of 2008 -- of that punk rock musician charged with "pre-criminal dangerousness." The painted sheet survived a few brief seconds in the air before a well-trained mob fell all over us. The next day my whole body ached and I felt a particular annoyance toward the author of Yolanda, imagining him as a passive witness to what had happened. I was wrong, however. Afterward, I learned that thanks to his mediation, we hadn't slept that night in a dungeon, and that he had also interceded to get Gorki returned to the streets.
This coming August 27, Pablo Milanés is scheduled to give a concert in Miami, an event that has sparked the irritation of those who consider him a "minstrel of the Castro regime." But not even the most passionate critics should forget that his own life has been -- like that of so many Cubans -- a sequence of blows dealt by intolerance: his imprisonment in a UMAP forced labor camp, the misunderstandings in the early days of Nueva Trova, and the closing of the foundation that bears his name. They should also recognize that Pablo Milanés had the courage to refuse to sign that letter where innumerable intellectuals and artists supported the repressive measures taken by the government of the Island in 2003, among which was the execution of three young men who had hijacked a boat to emigrate.
Pablo, the chubby Pablo, who in the eighties was heard at every point on the dial when we tuned our radio, evolved as many of us did. He has made his differences heard for several years and his face is no longer present in those profoundly politicized acts with which the authorities try to demonstrate that "the artists are on the side of the Revolution." I sense, also, that he would like to share a stage in Havana with those exiled voices who are still not allowed to appear in their own country. The troubadour who proposes to sing in Florida in a few days is a man who has grown and matured artistically and civically, conscious, as well, of the need for both shores of our nation to be reunited. Thus, to receive Pablo Milanés with shouts and insults could delay the necessary embrace between Cubans from here and from there... but it will not prevent it.
Translator's note: The "anti-imperialist bandstand," also called the "Protestodrome," is a stage and concert area built in front of the United States Interest Section in Havana, along the waterfront boulevard and seawall known as the Malecon.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
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Yoani Sanchez: Cuba's Dual Currency System Provides a Way to Cheat Shoppers
This was the precursor to the systematic confinement in 1965, Camagüey province, of dissidents, homosexuals, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and others, under the UMAP (Military Units to Help Production). Herded into busses, they would be transported into concentration camps. Some would never return; others would be raped, beaten, or mutilated; and most would be traumatized for life as Néstor Almendros's documentary "Improper Conduct" showed the world a couple of decades ago. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcF5ubWiy5k&feature=related
Che's homophobia is expressed in the poster placed at the entrance to the forced labor camp, where homosexuals were confined, which read: “The work will make you men”', replica of the slogan “The work will make you free” used in the Nazi concentration camps. It intended to correct the homosexual behavior applying rigorous punishments with the intention of modifying this social deviation. Link: The Fish Die by the Mouth, http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y09/enero09/23_O_3.html
I respect Yoani and those inside Cuba fighting for a voice. I too am working to bring reconciliation in my own way. But I also respect those who may welcome Milanes with shouts and insults. It is their right (at least on this shore). I also understand where the need to shout is coming from. A great evil was done, and this man unfortunately, was one of many duped into believing it was okay that peoples lives and homes were stolen from them, and their families separated for the sake of still more idealism put forth by yet another despot. Don't expect this shore to quietly acquiesce. It is not the way of Cubans on any shore, especially in light of the last half century.
But there is a tiny, influential minority who want to impose their verkrampte (it's a word in the Afrikaans language spoken by the South African Boer racists in that country. Google the word to see what it actually means) politics on the overwhelming majority of Cuban immigrants and everyone else who lives in Miami. It is THEY who want to prevent Pablo Milanes from singing to his fellow Cubans and others who live there.
Ms. Sanchez makes reference in this commentary to a punk singer named Gorki Aquila.
Background on this punk, including a New York Times report:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2151.html
Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
It seems you are confusing Cubans out of Cuba and Cubans inside Cuba with exile and castrofascism. Cubans outside Cuba not only are “the exile” but part of Cuban nation too, Cubans inside Cuba are not castrofascism but its hostages. Both groups are united and we have a common enemy: castrofascism…… and we, the whole Cuban nation inside and outside, don’t want any kind of embrace with castrofascism but we want it out. Pablo is still part of castrofascism by confession, devotion and conviction in spite the shyly few steps of “discordance” he gave in the past.
Of course, I will not be one of those showing rejection to Pablo outside the concert hall; I believe we must to leave all disgusting actions to castrofascism and not to imitate it……. That does not mean that I not support the right of those that prefers to make such demonstration.