Cuba
Cuba has a long tradition for limitation and suppression of freedom of expression since colonial times, including repression of music and musicians. In the 19th century, for example, Afro-Cuban instruments and music – specially music related to religious groups and rituals such as the abakuá, and music played by/in the societies of mutual assistance that developed among former slaves around the harbour of Havana and in cities like Matanzas – were banned or restricted.
After the independence from Spain in 1898 many of the restrictions were maintained in spite of the formal guarantees of freedom of expression given in the new constitution of 1902. Many restrictions were due to racism and prejudices towards black people and their music.
American occupations between the independence and 1933, and different dictatorships up to the revolution in 1959 meant repression, discrimination and censorship of media and music, forcing many Cubans abroad. Many Cuban musicians left the Island between the 1920's and the 1950's, mainly for economical reasons, but often also because of the discrimination of black people. They settled in countries like USA, Mexico, France and Spain, mainly.
Cuba – the Island
With the revolution in 1959 many musicians returned to the island supporting the new regime. During the first years of the revolution the Cubans could breath an air of freedom they had never known before. But gradually, as the confrontation with the USA escalated and Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement consolidated its position, limitations on freedom of expression were introduced.
In an attempt to dissipate the worries of many journalists, intellectuals and artists about the beginning limitations of the freedom of expression Fidel Castro in June 1961 met three consecutive Sundays in Havana with hundreds of artists and intellectuals. As a conclusion he gave speech where he stated that "the Revolution defends freedom; the Revolution has brought to the country a big sum of liberties; that the Revolution can essentially no be an enemy of the liberties; that if somebody's preoccupation is that the Revolution will asphyxiate his creative spirit, that preoccupation is unnecessary, as this preoccupation has no raison d'être".
However, the worries were not diminished during the intense discussions, and Castro's speech was sufficiently ambiguous as to generate more doubts about the limits of freedom of expression, specially because one sentence became a key to the future cultural policy: "Within the Revolution everything is permitted, outside the Revolution, nothing".
Gradually the grip on culture was tightened. Music performed by those musicians who chose to go into exile criticising the new regime, such as the extremely popular Celia Cruz and her orchestra, Sonora Matancera. The new music which was developed in North America and Western Europe at that time by groups and musicians like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Grateful Death, Frank Zappa, Janis Joplin, Earth, Wind and Fire, was labelled decadent and counterrevolutionary.
The banning was so consequent that for years it was even forbidden to mention some of those names. The banning on Celia Cruz was specially tough because she was so popular before the revolution and when in exile she for many years supported on of the exile terrorist groups, Alpha 66, economically. Her name and Sonora Matancera were among those omitted in the Cuban musicologist Helio Orovio's 'Diccionario de la música cubana' (Dictionary of Cuban Music, Havana 1981). In a later edition these omissions have been corrected.
Nevertheless, many Cubans managed to listen to it through their radios, and trough mysterious channels even records found their way into the country. At the same time younger musicians found a haven at the Cuban Film Institute ICAIC, where they could experiment and develop new kinds of music. An experimental music group was formed and from this very fertile environment grew a new generation of wall-breaking musicians, among them Chucho Valdés, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Emiliano Salvador, and groups like Irakere.
The 1970's and the early 1980's were perhaps the most restricted years. With a few exceptions Cuban musicians were internationally isolated. Gradually the high quality of the Cuban musicians won them recognition abroad – and some decided to stay abroad instead of returning from tours, where their skills and musicality were warmly acclaimed. Recognising the risk of loosing an important cultural potential and a possible source of foreign currency, the regime loosened the grip on the musicians (and partly on other artists), allowing them to travel freely and to keep part of the dollars they earned abroad.
At the same time – from the late 1980's through the beginning of the 1990's – a new generation of musicians grew up. They are people born after 1959, thus with another vision of the revolution and the Cuban society.
Some of them began writing rather critical songs which became extremely popular among young people. The songwriter Carlos Varela is one of them. He was not banned, maybe because he became so popular, while others less popular, and – in some cases – more explicitly in their criticism (not only expressed in songs, but also in declarations and interviews), Albita Rodríguez, were either directly censored or did simply not get engagements or chances to record their songs (the pretext was often that there was no resources – the late 1980's and most of the 1990's were economically very difficult years for Cuban economy because of the breakdown of the Soviet Block) Albita chose to leave Cuba and settle in Miami.
Up through the 1990's there has been a change in the Cuban authorities' attitude towards music that criticises aspects in the Cuban society. This is seen most clearly in the room given to the new and rich Cuban rap, a Cuban variation of rap and hip hop that developed in the beginning of the 1990's causing a lot of controversy and rejection in the official media and the population. It was the lyrics based on street slang, often very outspoken in their political criticism, which were some times considered "aggressive" to the country, as some commentators labelled them. Many of the songs deal with the social and economic gap created by the new economic policy and the legalisation of the dollar since the beginning of the 1990's, and criticise what they call some people's loss of the ideals of social equality and justice
On the other hand this new, urban music was warmly accepted among the youth, mainly in Havana, a social group considered "difficult" by the authorities. The riots in Havana in the early 1990's were not forgotten by the authorities, who thus chose to accept the existence of this new music. The acceptance has developed to support to festivals like Hip Hop Havana, which was held last August for the 7th time, supported by the Communist Youth and the Ministry of Culture.
However, one recent case indicates where the line is drawn by the authorities. One of the most popular musicians in the 1990's was Manuel González, better known as Manolín, el Médico de la Salsa, a doctor who skipped medicine to dedicate himself to music. Everything was fine, until he performed in the USA in 1998 singing and speaking about the necessity of building bridges between Cuba and Florida where most Cuban exiles live.
He was heavily criticised by the official media and from then on not allowed to perform in radio and TV, nor in official concerts.
In April 2001 he was invited to participate in the 13th anniversary of NG La Banda, one of Cuba's most popular dance orchestras, at the "Salón Rosado Beny Moré" in Havana, the biggest and most popular dance place in Cuba. He sang the song he had also presented in Miami, asking for a ceasefire in the long conflict, wishing a long bridge between Havana and Miami, so those in Miami could come to Cuba and those in Havana could go to Miami ("...Viva la paz en nombre de los espíritus / pido una tregua para esta larga guerra, pido cordura; / que se contagien de mi sabrosura... Si se pudiera hacer un puente, un puente de mangas largas, / pa' que la gente de Miami venga / y la gente de La Habana vaya").
The official reaction came immediately. The communist party's newspaper Granma accused Manolín of "musical fickleness" and of singing "for a rosy road between Miami and Havana, when it is well known how troubled and tense the relation is because of those there who attack our identity". Granma reminded that "the Salón Beny Moré is located in Havana and not in Dade County (the county here most of the city of Miami is located). And with the sensibility of those of us who are dancing here ... or simply listening to our best dance orchestras you do not play games". Finally the newspaper warned Manolín that he continued "by the wrong road".
The conclusion is not difficult. The Cuban authorities will not under any circumstances allow Cuban citizens to approach the Cuban exile community in the USA on their own. The regime wants to keep a tight control in spite of a widespread wish among Cubans, in Cuba and abroad, to loosen the grip and end the more than 40 years old conflict.
Censorship against music and musicians has not only been exercised for adducing political reasons. Even in Cuba, a country known for a more relaxed attitude towards sexuality than most other Latin American countries, the authorities seem to feel called to protect "public morality". This has lead to the banning of several songs and pieces for shorter or longer time for "moral" reasons. One case was the "suspension" of the popular Charanga Habanera in the mid-1990's because many of the songs and the orchestra's performance of them were considered "immoral" or "attemptive against public morality". The suspension of David Calzado and his Charanga Habanera was lifted and the group is active again. A splinter group from Charanga Habanera, Charanga Forever, has also been suspended for "moral" reasons.
In both cases the argument is that the lyrics and the performance are too explicit in their sexual allusions.
The Cuban community in exile (Miami)
It is not only in Cuba that music and musicians are censored. In the Cuban community in exile in Southern Florida, where more than one million Cubans and their descendants practically control the economic and political life, the leaders for many years have managed to censor music from Cuba for political reasons. For example music produced in Cuba after 1959 is generally banned in radio and TV.
Even non Cuban musicians who have visited Cuba and expressed admiration or friendship for the Cubans in the Island (not necessarily for the regime) have been pressed to retract or at least to promise not to return to Cuba. That was the case with the popular Venezuelan salsa bassist, singer and band leader Oscar D'León in the mid-1980's.
With Miami's increasing importance as a financial, commercial and cultural center and bridge between the USA and Latin America, it was natural to convince the organisers of the Latin Grammy Award ceremony to place it in that city. There was, however, one problem. The Cuban community did not want musicians from Cuba to attend, even if they were nominated. With the success for Cuban music over the later years it was natural for the organisers to invite musicians from Cuba. That created so much controversy in Miami, that the organisers in 2001 decided to move the ceremony to Los Angeles, where the latino population – mainly consisting of Mexicans and Central Americans – is more than three times as big as in Miami. The economical losses that would mean, has lead to new pressures against the formerly strong leadership of the right wing Cuban exile organisations to change its positions towards the participation of Cuban musicians, in an attempt to get the Grammy celebration back to Miami.
Useful sources
There are many sources, but one problem is that most of them are politically biased against or for the Cuban regime. The Barcelona based, non partisan www.cubanueva.com can be useful. Also the USA based www.cubanet.com is useful. It has links to foreign sources, official Cuban sources and not least to independent and oppositional sources in Cuba. Finally, newspapers like the Miami based El Nuevo Herald (published by Miami Herald) and Miami Herald, plus Cuban newspapers like Granma and Juventud Rebelde may occassionally bring some information.
|
|
Cuba
|
