Don't deprive us
BY MIRIAM LEIVA
leivachepe@gmail.com
Juanes proposes on Sept. 20 to bring Cubans together on José Martí
Square, built before 1959. It would be a ``Peace Without Borders''
concert, like the one he performed in March 2008 with Miguel Bosé and
other artists on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, when the
tension in bilateral relations had reached a flash point. About 100,000
people attended.
Fortunately, those who oppose the concert outside the territory of Cuba
do not have the fire power of the Colombian and Venezuelan armed forces,
although they threaten to boycott the artists with an intensity akin to
world conflagration.
The Cuban government is enjoying this fuss because a cancellation of the
concert would free it from its uncomfortable duty as host, a task it
assumed to portray a purported cultural openness. That openness is
designed to present a kinder face abroad, to manipulate the local
artists and to entertain -- with admired foreign artists -- a people who
will face greater shortages and sacrifices till God knows when.
Against totalitarianism
We're puzzled as to why objections to the site have been raised on other
shores of the Caribbean and the Atlantic, on the grounds that the square
has been the site since 1959 of emblematic government gatherings and was
renamed Revolution Square. We are not siding with totalitarianism when
we remind those objectors that José Martí Civic Square was built with
the patriotism and the economic contributions of their ancestors, and
therefore belongs to the people.
Juanes has said: ``I do not move toward the past; it's part of history
and needs to be acknowledged. I move toward the future of Cuba and the
entire region. Let us not fear freedom, the ability to change things.
Fear is the worst feeling. Music, the arts, must be above any ideology
or condition.'' Objections also have been voiced about the political
nature of the organizers who have been authorized by the Cuban government.
Concert will be memorable
Singer Silvio Rodríguez was unmuzzled years ago, saved from repression
by Haydée Santamaría's broad vision. He discovered that his valuable
poems, set to music, would make him an authorized millionaire if he
sided with the regime, a regime that persecutes self-employed workers,
brands them as capitalists for earning a few pesos and confiscates their
businesses if they are successful.
Rodríguez can be a great impresario, whereas the small and mid-size
businesses are heresy in Cuba.
As to the concert's artistic director, Amaury Pérez, he is a consummate
sycophant, and I won't call him a Tartuffe because I don't want to
offend the memory of Molie`re.
Are those Pharisees enough reason to deprive the people of Cuba of the
enjoyment of such relevant artists? A live performance will never be
forgotten. Do people underestimate the ability of Cubans to think for
themselves and wonder if truly ``this is the best of all possible
worlds''? People from all provinces will come to the Square, and their
accounts will be told throughout the island. The show will be on television.
Last July, Willy Chirino proposed that a giant TV screen be erected in
La Piragua to show one of his concerts. The question being asked today
is: Why not? Why not Celia Cruz, Bebo Valdés, Albita, Willy, Gloria
Estefan, Paquito D'Rivera, Sandoval and so many others who are banned in
Cuba? Doesn't everybody know that their voices are heard on city streets
everywhere while the government turns a deaf ear?
Many foreign artists sympathize with Cuba's civil society. After the
Great Repression of 2003, they sent forceful letters to the rulers. Ana
Belén and Victor Manuel rightly insist that singing in Cuba does not
imply a commitment to the authorities. They will make it possible to
bring the banned Cuban artists to the island in a not-too-distant
future. They will uplift a downcast people, cultivate their intellect,
promote reconciliation and show them their rights. It will be the
beginning of normalcy and a step to the future.
Nobody has the right to deprive us Cubans on the island of what they
enjoy quite naturally abroad. Our local totalitarianism is more than enough.
Miriam Leiva is an independent journalist in Havana.
Don't deprive us - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com (22 August 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1197372.html
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