"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Freemuse in 2017 is focusing on women’s and musicians’ rights and access to cultural equality under the banner #LetWomenSing. The image they are using in their media campaign bears a striking resemblance to Celia Cruz and it is appropriate because Freemuse wants to create awareness and start a conversation about the inequality female musicians are experiencing.
Celia Cruz was and remains a nonperson in Cuba.
Celia Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the
best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban
music." The impact of the Castro regime on music in Cuba goes beyond jailing
musicians and includes systematic censorship that threatens the island's
musical legacy as has been the case with the Queen of Salsa.
According to the 2004 book Shoot the singer!: music censorship today
edited by Marie Korpe there is increasing concern that post-revolution generations in Cuba are
growing up without knowing or hearing censored
musicians such as Celia Cruz and Olga Guillot and that this could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in
future generations. This process has been described as a Cuban cultural genocide that is depriving generations of Cubans of their heritage.
Olga Guillot's music is also still banned on Cuba radio
Later this month on October 21st the world will observe the 92nd anniversary of the birth of Cuban music icon Celia Cruz. The Queen of Salsa passed away fourteen years go on July 16, 2003 and her music is still banned in Cuba today. At the time of her death in 2003 the Associated Press reported:
"While the death of salsa singer Celia Cruz was reported prominently in newspapers across the world,
the news got scant and somewhat bitter treatment Thursday in the
official media of her homeland. The Cuban Communist Party newspaper
Granma reported Cruz’s death in a tiny, two-paragraph story published
low on page 6 of the eight-page edition."
On August 8, 2012 BBC News reported
that the Cuban regime's ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted and two days later the BBC correspondent in Cuba, Sarah Rainsford, tweeted that she had been given names of forbidden artists
by the central committee and the internet was a buzz that the ban on
anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted. Others soon followed reporting on the news. The stories specifically mentioned Celia Cruz as one of the artists whose music would return to Cuban radio. This wasn't news but a rumor that nine years after her death her music would be played on Cuban radio, after a half century absence but they were dispelled by regime officials. On August 21, 2012 Tony Pinelli, a musician and radio producer, distributed an e-mail in which Rolando Álvarez, the national director of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión
(ICRT) confirmed that the music of the late Celia Cruz would continue
to be banned. The e-mail stated:
"All those who had allied with
the enemy, who acted against our families, like Celia Cruz, who went to
sing at the Guantanamo Base, theICRTarrogated to itself theright, quite properly, not todisseminate themon Cuban radio"
This e-mail refers to Celia Cruz playing at the Guantanamo Naval Base in 1990. Because she had decided to continue to play her music, as a free woman, outside of Cuba the Castro brothers barred Celia from returning to Cuba in 1962 to bury her mother who had just died. When she went to the Guantanamo Naval Base three decades later she picked up some Cuban soil, a piece of home, to take back with her into exile.
Celia Cruz picks up some Cuban soil to take a piece of home back to exile
In October of 2015 Telemundo aired the first of an 80 part - novela on the life of Celia Cruz, the woman who would become known as the Queen of Salsa and "La Guarachera de Cuba".
Google Doodle of Celia Cruz from 2013
In 2013 Google, on the tenth anniversary of her passing, honored Celia on her birthday with a Google Doodle. In 2010 the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp in her honor describing the Cuban artist as follows.
"A dazzling performer of many genres of Afro-Caribbean music, Celia Cruz (1925-2003)
had a powerful contralto voice and a joyful, charismatic personality
that endeared her to fans from different nationalities and across
generations. Settling in the United States following the Cuban
revolution, the “Queen of Salsa” performed for more than five decades
and recorded more than 50 albums."
Sadly, it is not only in Cuba, Freemuse is working to bring attention to the "very violent and direct restrictions women
musicians face in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan," and censorship elsewhere. Here in America we witnessed an ugly episode of censorship with the Dixie Chicks in 2003, but at least it was not government sponsored but Clear Channel played a sinister role in keeping their music out of their airwaves. However they are back on the airwaves and touring across the country. Something that Celia Cruz and other banned Cuban musicians were never able to do, not even posthumously in the island where they were born: have their music played on the radio. This is part of the terrible legacy of Castroism. The music of Celia and Olga will return to Cuba's radio airwaves one day and that will be cause for celebration. Azucar!
CUBA — WITHIN THE REVOLUTION EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED
Cuba remains a classic dictatorship. The Cuban Constitution allows freedom of speech and press, as long as it follows the purposes of the socialist society as understood by the Cuban government. The Cuban government has gained a reputation for its limited tolerance for public criticism, and the Communist Party is mandated to give prior approval for printing almost all publications and to censor public screenings and artistic performances.
Freemuse in 2015 documented 21 cases of violations on artistic freedom of expression in Cuba, including imprisoning one artist and keeping two in prison, detaining two artists and prosecuting another.
Throughout 2015 the Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, the legislative parliament of Cuba, announced a “recommendation” of restricting free public spaces from vulgarity and the denigration of women in order to stop foreign influence contrary to Cuban values. The assembly also “advised” comedians to avoid “irresponsible humour”. The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), a state monopoly, amplified this statement. The president of the ICRT, Danilo Sirio, emphasized that “under no circumstances will artistic content that denigrates women, or incites vulgarity, obscenity or offensiveness, or what is contrary to the Cuban values will be broadcasted”. Sirio also suggested that some materials, such as foreign television series, should be accompanied by comments from a Cuban specialist.
RAP & HIP-HOP AS DISSENT
On 28 January 2015, rapper Maikel Oksobo “El Dkano” (real name Maikel Castillo Pérez) was sentenced
to one year in prison in Havana. It is generally believed he was targeted for having used his music
to express dissenting political opinions. El Dkano was sentenced under a charge known as the
“peligrosidad predelictiva”, translated as “dangerousness that is likely to lead a crime”, which is used to
imprison dissidents for longer periods.
In April 2015 a group of Cuban hip-hop artists were expelled from the Cuban Rap Agency (ACR). In an
open letter sent out on 28 June2015, the group denounced Minister of Culture Julián González Toledo
for deteriorating Cuban hip-hop both inside and outside the country. The group also said that the Cuban
Institute of Music made “promises that never came true”, and that Cuban hip-hop is being censored more than ever. Some of the artists stated that the real reason of their expulsion was their participation
in Panama in the Summit of the Americas, a set of international summits organized by the Organization
of the American States bringing together leaders of countries in the Americas. The hip-hop artists who
participated in the summit were Soandry, Hermanos de Causa, Renovación Urbana, Maikel y El Fonky,
La Alianza, Raudel Escuadrón Patriota, Ruta 11, Bárbaro el Urbano, Charly Mucha Rima, Cuentas Claras,
Carlitos P and P, Yimi con Klase, and Onda Libre.
PASSPORT RETURNED TO BRUGUERA
US-based performance artist Tania Bruguera was not allowed to leave Cuba during the first six months
of 2015. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after trying to stage a work entitled ‘Tatlin’s
whisper #6’, in Havana’s Revolution Square. Bruguera was harassed several times in 2015, and was also
detained for a few hours in May 2015 after reading passages from Hannah Arendt’s ‘The Origins of
Totalitarianism’ outside her home in Havana. Cuban authorities didn’t file formal charges, but
Bruguera had her passport confiscated. In mid-July 2015 authorities returned her passport.
In October 2015, graffiti artist and activist Danilo Maldonado Machado, El Sexto, was released after
being detained for 10 months. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after police officers
found a drawing of two pigs named Fidel and Raul that the artist was planning to use in a performance.
Authorities explained to the artist’s family that El Sexto was detained because they considered him
“counter-revolutionary”. During this period the artist didn’t face any trial or sentence.
Gorki was detained on three occasions in 2015 and physically attacked
GORKI ÁGUILA DETAINED AGAIN ... AND AGAIN
Gorki Águila, leader of the band Porno Para Ricardo, has never had an easy relationship with Cuban
authorities. A controversial figure, Gorki has been arrested or detained many times during the past
15 years; sometimes because of his role as an activist, sometimes because of his artistic work, and
sometimes due to the combination of both his art and activism — or “artyvism” as some call it.
2015 was no exception for Gorki. On 23 May Gorki was arrested outside Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts
by Cuban authorities after carrying a banner with the image of the graffiti artist El Sexto and the word
“libertad” (freedom) on it. Gorki was incarcerated for 23 hours and said police physically attacked him
while in their custody.
In July, Gorki dedicated a song to the Damas de Blanco (Women in White), a citizen movement
that gathers wives and relatives of political prisoners. Gorki declared that “it seems that the Cuban
government planned to dismantle the Damas de Blanco with intimidation and violence, but what the
governmental interference did was to only unite them even more”.
On 5 August 2015, some weeks after
his presentation, officers of State Security waited for Gorki outside his home and detained him again
for a couple of hours. A State Security officer warned him that, if he continued to attend opposition
meetings, the government could restrict his travels to other countries. However, Gorki stated that the
State is “violating every right, one after another: the right to pacific protest, to freedom of speech, to
travel, and that the detentions in the island are totally arbitrary”.
On 7 November 2015, Gorki was again detained, along with two journalists from tv channel France 24,
for several hours in Havana. The musician and the two journalists were brought to the Playa
Municipality police station, where Gorki made a phone call to digital independent media outlet
14ymedio, and reported the situation. After hours of detention, all three were set free without charges.
In November 2015, Cuban authorities suspended theatre director and filmmaker Juan Carlos
Cremata’s permission to work following the ban of his theatre play ‘El Rey se Muere’ (The King is
Dying). Later, in December, Cremata wrote in his BBC-syndicated blog that Cuban authorities tried to
expel Eliecer Ávila, an opponent of the Castro regime, from a meeting about Cuban cinema at the
Cultural Center Fresa y Chocolate. According to Cremata, officials were spying on the event for a while
before discretely trying to take Ávila away from the crowd. When people at the event asked for an
explanation, officers just said that the event was “meant to be for film makers and revolutionaries
only”. The day after, the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry (ICAIC) defended the
position of the officials in a letter, stating that: “there can’t be place in our forums for those who are
enemies of the Revolution”.
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