Juanes concert gave Cuba's youth hope
OUR OPINION: Juanes concert in Havana created a small opening for youth
Juanes sang in Havana, along with an assorted group of Latin artists
from Cuba, Europe and the United States. Will life change in Cuba
because of it?
For Americans living 24-7 and used to fast food, instant polling and
more choices on television than a typical Cuban on the communist island
can imagine, the answer is No. Cuba remains a dictatorship, with laws
against dissent, with a constant churn of political prisoners and food
rations for the masses.
But for Cubans, there may have been a nugget of hope. As Yoani Sánchez
of the award-winning Generation Y blog wrote from Havana after the
Sunday concert: ``It would be unfair to demand of the young Colombian
singer that he propel those changes that we ourselves have not managed
to make, despite wanting them so much.''
As much as Juanes insisted that his would not be a ``political'' event,
there's no way to remove the face of Ché Guevara -- who oversaw the
revolution's firing squads -- from the concert's backdrop. But in a
small way, Juanes nudged the tent of ideas open when he called out at
the end of the concert: ``Cuba libre!'' and ``For one Cuban family!''
The Generation Y blog showed video of young Cubans cheering those
proclamations.
South Florida's exile community continues to have a healthy debate about
the after-effects of the concert -- in their homes, with their friends,
in their workplaces. The shouting match outside Versailles restaurant in
Little Havana Sunday -- when both sides sought attention from the TV
cameras -- was to be expected, though once again the face of Miami's
exiles was distorted by the actions of a few. It captured the passion of
the moment but not the long-term thinking of so many Cuban Americans in
South Florida who recognize that after 50 years of Fidel and Raúl
Castro's dictatorship, a little nudge is better than being frozen in time.
Juanes certainly learned some lessons from his trip, too, as
international media captured on camera some of his travails. He realized
that he was being followed by state security. He and other performers
got into an argument with one Cuban handler before the Sunday
performance about what they would be doing, and they held firm. There
are reports, too, that one Spanish-radio shock jock from Miami, Javier
Ceriani, was being held in a Havana hotel because he dared to wear a
T-shirt at the concert that proclaimed ``Libertad'' -- Freedom.
Those are all worthy lessons to understand about Cuba's reality. But for
Cuba's youth, long yearning for the freedoms that so many Americans take
for granted, a day at the plaza without having to shout government
slogans was as welcome as the breeze sweeping from the Malecón on a hot
summer's day.
Juanes concert gave Cuba's youth hope - Editorials - MiamiHerald.com (24
September 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1248798.html
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