Bands try to unite Cuban diaspora with song

Bands try to unite Cuban diaspora with song
Jeff Franks, Reuters Published: Monday, September 21, 2009

HAVANA - Hundreds of thousands of people jammed Havana's Revolution
Square yesterday for a concert by Colombian rocker Juanes and other
international pop stars who hope music can do what politics has not --
bring together Cubans here and in the U.S.

"Kids, we came to Cuba out of love ... it's important to swap hate for
love," Juanes told the crowd of hundreds of thousands. Organizers had
expected at least half a million, but concert organizer Juanes said it
topped one million people.

The much-hyped event was beamed live to an international television
audience, including viewers in Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile
community and centre of opposition to Cuba's communist-led government.

Many exiles had accused Juanes of helping to legitimize a government
that they said denied its people basic human rights and stifled dissent
by throwing opponents in jail.

Playing before a swaying, dancing audience dressed in white -- Cuban
authorities asked people to come dressed in white as a symbol of peace
-- the 37-year-old singer responded to critics by saying music was above
politics or ideological enmity.

"Music should travel like air, it should reach everywhere, whatever we
think," said Juanes, winner of 17 Latin Grammy awards.

The audience, which endured soaring temperatures in the huge square,
chanted "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba" and "Juanes, Juanes."

Citing the case of fellow Colombians kidnapped and held by guerrillas in
the Colombian jungle, Juanes dedicated a song to "all those deprived of
their freedom, wherever they are."

Puerto Rican Olga Tanon, on the bill with 14 other musicians from six
countries including Miguel Bose of Spain and Jovanotti of Italy, kicked
off the show by shouting its central message: "It's time to change."

In Miami, across the Florida Straits, a small group of anticommunist
exiles staged a protest against the concert.

Bands try to unite Cuban diaspora with song (21 September 2009)
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2015371