Cubans Flock to Iconic Plaza for 'Peace Concert'

[flamingdem]

Source: New York Times



HAVANA (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of Cubans flocked to sprawling Revolution Plaza on Sunday for an open-air ''peace concert'' headlined by Colombian rocker Juanes, an event criticized by some Cuban-Americans who say the performers were lending support to the island's communist government simply by showing up.

Miguel Bose of Spain, one of the other singers in the 5 1/2-hour concert, announced the crowd size at 1.15 million -- which would be one of every 10 Cubans. It was impossible to independently verify that number, but Juanes' visit to Cuba was clearly the biggest by an outsider since Pope John Paul II's 1998 tour.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/20/world/AP-CB-Cuba-Peace-Concert.html?src=tptw

---

This was a beautiful moment for Latin Americans and the world. For me it was thrilling to see my favorite Cuban music being seen by so many people. I hope that Obama relents and allows these excellent musicians to tour in the USA again.

Concert finale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TMRSpzjvY

Documentary about Cuban music:
http://www.havanabuzz.com

[flamingdem]

1. Juanes stated that 1,150,000 people were in attendance

And you can see that this is an accurate accounting.

Check out this image:


Compare it to the Teabaggers march!

[flamingdem]

2. Obama: Cuban mega-concert doesn't hurt US outreach (AP)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hhpjqyW3BfBVnG3yHrizM0Vj_juAD9AR47900

(AP) – 10 hours ago

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says cultural diplomacy with Cuba can be helpful to a point.

But he says the effect of performances such as the concert set for Sunday in Havana by Colombian singer Juanes should not be overstated.

Obama tells Univision's "Al Punto" show that Juanes' concert carries no U.S. stamp of approval.

The pop singer met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of the concert, which was to take place under a huge image of revolutionary leader Che Guevara.

Obama says the United States is not a concert promoter.

He also says he hopes Cuba's communist government will respond to his overtures, such as opening up some travel restrictions.

[roody]

14. "opening up travel restrictions"

Is this an irony contest, Mr. President?

[flamingdem]

16. Yes, I hope that he was misquoted, he can't be that thick!

I wonder who is briefing him... HILLARY CUT IT OUT!

[Mika]

24. He's not that thick. Pure pandering to maintain the status quo.

Mr Obama had been a lifelong proponent of dropping the useless US sanctions - until he came to Miami during the campaign. Wouldn'tchaknowit.. flippety flop. In Miami he promised to maintain the useless US sanctions on Cuba. He has kept to his word as uttered in Miami.

It gets worse .....

Post election, he gave the Miamicubano exiles a big wet kiss - Cuban US citizens & residents are now enfranchised with their full travel rights, and able to travel anywhere including Cuba as many times as they please.

Meanwhile the rest of us remain 2nd class citizens- still travel banned by our own government.


Mr Obama displays amazing chutzpah saying such an incredible thing about Cuban travel, and Americans are suckers for accepting this injustice - some even celebrating this recent government excursion into unequal protection right here on DU.


-

[flamingdem]

27. OK, no excuses, he needs to be held accountable and exposed on this issue widely

He doesn't need the CANF anymore!

[Judi Lynn]

23. THAT'S a crowd, especially considering their island only has 11,000,000 people on it! n/t

[silverweb]

3. That was lovely.

I really need to learn more Spanish, though. What I know is pretty much limited to giving cab drivers directions home. Shameful, I know.

Two questions:

(1) Who was the woman they called Olga, who looked like she was crying at one point? She had a yellow rose in her hair. Was she one of the organizers?

(2) I couldn't miss the large Mexican flag being waved in the audience. Are there many Mexicans living in Cuba?

[flamingdem]

4. Olga is a Puerto Rican singer

who is really liked in Cuba so she must have been so touched because it was her first concert there. The tear in her eye was a high point. Also, she performed while suffering laryngitis, ouch.

She seemed to be key to the event but I'm not sure of her role. Here is the website for the organization, it's multilingual.

http://www.pazsinfronteras.org/

I don't think many Mexicans live in Cuba really but many probably came over for the day to see the concert.

[silverweb]

7. Thank you!

It looked like a wonderful event and the camaraderie among all the performers was very evident.

I would so love to visit there some day. First I'll work on my terrible Spanish. :)

[roody]

15. You can go with Pastors for Peace.

www.ifconews.org

[silverweb]

32. Excellent idea!

Thanks for the link. :hi:

[roody]

47. I've gone twice with them and I want to go alone.

Will do soon.

[a la izquierda]

20. It's a quick flight...

from Cancun or Merida to Havana. A couple hours from Mexico City. Cuba is a favorite vacation spot for Mexicans and there's a gigantic Cuban presence in Mexico. I saw the Mexican flag too, and wasn't at all surprised. I don't know how Calderon feels about Cuba (seeing as though he's conservative), but Cuba is always viewed kind of like Mexico's little brother. Most Mexicans are very protective of Cuba and can't fathom why Americans feel the way they do.

[silverweb]

31. I'm way over on the extreme west coast.

It would be a transcontinental flight no matter how I slice it.

There's plenty of time to plan, though -- time to improve my abominable Spanish (though I did immediately understand your name! :D ) and time to maybe hook up with Pastors for Peace, as Roody suggested above, or some other group that arranges regular visits.

I'm especially interested in Cuba's pioneering work in health care delivery as well as organic urban farming that got them through the Special Period and put them light years ahead in sustainable agriculture.

[flamingdem]

35. There are direct flights from LAX to Cancun daily ;) nt

[silverweb]

Ohhhh, you're a bad influence...

...tempting me so!! :D

I must start planning now, though it still will likely be some time before I can actually go.

[flamingdem]

37. Feel free to message me

I'm pretty up on the latest including how one can go kinda legally... legalish?

[a la izquierda]

38. Make sure Cuban customs and immigration

doesn't stamp your passport ;)

[flamingdem]

44. They stopped doing that a few years ago, I believe

They used to stamp in and out with a generic stamp but the US agents caught on to that one. Now they won't stamp unless you ask. If you want to be cool return to the US wearing a Che t-shirt, smelling like cigars and rum, and carrying a Havana guide book -- and with a big Cuba stamp on your passport.

Lately, they won't even want to deal with you as a Los Angeles resident found out when he went out of his way to get caught, but they ignored him... the Cuba travel restrictions aren't really important to OFAC right now. Under Bush it was an issue.

[silverweb]

46. I've read, too, that they only stamp if asked.

By the time I get to go, it'll probably be legal anyway. :D

[netania99]

5. Thanks for posting this, flamingdem!

One of my favorite singers singing one of my favorite songs: Silvio Rodriguez, Ojala

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52IrOMq5DMg

[flamingdem]

6. That song gives me goosebumps

Thanks for the link to enjoy it again. I wonder why he only performed 1 song.

[netania99]

8. Check this out!

I wasn't aware of this, but Pablo Milanes has been granted a visa to play in the US!


Cuban Artists to Perform in US, Puerto Rico for First Time since 2003
Visas provided by State Department to Zenaida Romeu, Pablo Milanés viewed as "major breakthrough"

09.17.2009 – US-Cuba Cultural Exchange
Louis Head – [phone]

Cuban Artists to Perform in US and Puerto Rico for first time since 2003

Visas provided by State Department to Zenaida Romeu, Pablo Milanés viewed as “major breakthrough”

With a peace concert in Havana by Miami-based singer Juanes days away, Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés and composer-conductor Zenaida Romeu have been granted visas by the State Department to enter United States territory for performance purposes. This is the first time since late 2003 that Cuban performing artists have been allowed into the United States.

http://www.pitchengine.com/us-cubaculturalexchange/cuban-artists-to-perform-in-us-puerto-rico-for-first-time-since-2003/25853/

[flamingdem]

9. It just might be starting, let's hope so!

I'm sure Obama wants cultural exchange for all Cuban artists, scientists, musicians but many visas have been rejected recently. Maybe it's a matter of connections, some lawyers know the system better than others.

[flamingdem]

10. Here is Juan Formell of Los Van Van overjoyed that the concert really worked out so well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZAdTgkv28

ja se hizo, ja se hizo el concierto de la paz! Si se hizo, 'ta bueno ja del abuso.

"We did it, we had the concert for peace! Yes, it was done, okay now enough of the craziness."

I want to see Los Van Van come back to the USA as soon as possible.

If I could only twitter him:
C'mon Obama, OVERRIDE the abusers in your administration. Juan Formell is a master artist and we DESERVE to see him and Los Van Van in the USA.

[msongs]

11. US should normalize all relations with cuba no matter what expats in florida say nt

[flamingdem]

12. 70% of Americans want to see the Embargo end.

Why are we always strangled by the loudmouth 30%?

[Beacool]

13. I love Juanes.

I like his music and he's also a nice guy.

It looks like it was a great concert.

:-)

[mackerel]

17. So many Miami Cubans tried to block this concert or get

it canceled. Both Ricky Martin and Enrique Inglesias pulled out at the last minute.

I'm glad to see there was a fantastic turnout. Such a beautiful gift to give to the Cuban people.

[flamingdem]

18. Ricky Martin! I can't imagine him there

He wouldn't quite fit the vibe! Enrique Iglesias isn't a fit either.. but thanks for that information. I didn't know they were supposed to participate.

[dipsydoodle]

21. I don't really think

that those two dropping out were any great loss - more fool them.

[Beacool]

26. I like Ricky Martin.

He's a decent man who works hard trying to call attention to the trafficking of children and other causes.

[flamingdem]

28. I did not know that about Ricky Martin, that's great nt

[Beacool]

36. Yes it is.

He may not be the greatest singer, but he dedicates a fair amount of his time to stop human trafficking, particularly of children.

Here's a link to his foundation:
http://www.rickymartinfoundation.org/english/programs/people_for_children.aspx

[dipsydoodle]

34. I don't disagree

but on the other hand this wasn't really his scene.

[Beacool]

25. I wouldn't spit on Castro if he was on fire.

But the people of Cuba deserved this concert.

;-)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

39. He is sooo cute!

[flamingdem]

40. rrrrumba ! nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

41. Yummy! nt

[Beacool]

42. Yes, he is.

But he's also a good man, which in my book is far more important. One reason that I can't stand Luis Miguel is that, despite having a wonderful voice, he's an arrogant jerk.

x(

[Judi Lynn]

19. Here's an article on in from Colombia's "El Tiempo" newspaper,

translated to English using Google's translate tool which I finally grasped tonight, thanks to DU'er Wilms' example!

More than one million people in Peace without borders
According Juanes and Miguel Bose, more than a million people attended the Revolution Square. Watch the best moments on video.

http://www.translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fbogota.vive.in%2Fmusica%2Fbogota%2Farticulos_musica%2Fseptiembre2009%2FARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_VIVEIN-6153887.html&sl=es&tl=en&history_state0=

[dipsydoodle]

22. The size of the crowd

is simply awesome.:thumbsup:

Good advert for Cuba too - now even more Europeans will flock there. :)

[flamingdem]

29. And the Canadians! $200 round trips from Toronto and Montreal, grrrr. nt

[OneBlueSky]

30. I don't speak a word of Spanish, but when I heard that song I recognized it immediately . . .

as the first cut on the Buena Vista Social Club album, which I've listened to many times since it came out in 1997 . . . according to the liner notes, the song is called Chan Chan, and it's a typical example of the son style of Cuban music that was written by the then 89-year-old Compay Segundo, who was one of the largely forgotten Cuban musicians who Ry Cooder assembled for the BVSC project . . . Segundo passed away in 2003, and here's a little bit of the Wikipedia entry about him . . .

"Compay Segundo, so called because he was always second voice in his musical partnerships, moved to Santiago de Cuba at age 9. His first engagement was in the Municipal Band of Santiago de Cuba, directed by his teacher, Enrique Bueno. After a spell in a quintet he moved to Havana in 1934, where he also played in the Municipal Band, on the clarinet. He also learnt to play the guitar and the tres: these became his usual instruments. Compay Segundo was also the inventor of the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, created to eliminate a harmonic jump in the Spanish guitar and the tres. In the 1950s he became well-known as the second voice and tres player in Los Compadres, a duo he formed with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo in 1947.

"Los Compadres were one of the most successful Cuban duos of their time. Greater international fame came later, in 1997, with the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album, a hugely successful recording which won several Grammy awards. Compay Segundo appeared in the film of the same title, made subsequently by Wim Wenders.

Segundo's most famous composition is Chan Chan, the opening track on the Buena Vista Social Club album, whose four opening chords are instantly recognizable all over the world. Chan Chan was recorded by Segundo himself various times as well as by countless other Latin artists."

[flamingdem]

33. So sad he was not there to hear the international homage

but he lived a good life and fathered children in his 90s, or something like that!

[scot]

43. They'd better.

[UTUSN]

45. Here's today's backstage gossip

First, "gossip" does equate with "UNtruth."

2nd, any thread hijackers out there who want to flame in OT sub-threads about whether the word "Hispanic" is legitimate or not, this disussion is as old as DU and has been thoroughly hashed over, so please start your own thread.


Finally, I saw this information on the Univision entertainment gossip show, El Gordo y La Flaca, so there is NO link -----kay?!1

HooKAY, here we go:

Now, we know that the Univision-Miami outlet is a hub of the Cuban Exile community. We also know that the younger Exile generations are not rabidly wingnut and CIA as their parents and grandparents and have increased in Democratic voting.

Anyway, La Flaca ("the skinny female one") is the niece of more hardline Exiles Gloria ESTEFAN's hubby, and their whole family have been intimate guests and supporters of the B.F.E.E. ever since the Poppy days.

So, anyway, they did some clips from the concert, and La Flaca was flabbergasted at what to most of us would seem like unnoticeable things:

That Juanes wore a "Rock'n'Roll!" logo on his cap. She said that Rock used to be verboten, no Beatles, no nothing.

That Olga TANON, did the Catholic blessing of herself on the stage. La Flaca said that when her family ran out of or were run out of Cuba, any kind of religious observance was banned and that anybody trying to enter a church or show any sign would be chased down the street and mocked.

And that the tensions between the performers/organizers of the concert and the Cuban officials was high, and that minutes before departing the hotel for the stage, (Manuel?) BOSE, the Spaniard singer blew a gasket and threatened to call off the thing because the Cuban officials were demanding that the front row seats be given to selected students (read, "the kids of the officials"). An audio tape was played of BOSE yelling, "No!1 We have complied with all the rules and regulations that have been imposed on us, and this will not happen!1" The concert people had insisted that the admittance and seating be on a strictly egalitarian first-come-first-served basis, no special preferences.


Hookay, farewell, my poor little O.P. I'll be gone for a few hours so TAKE CARE of yourself 'cause YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!1

[flamingdem]

48. OMG all the gossip I wanted to know! This is HUGH!1 Cuba is not N. Korea!1

because I've been snurfing around the Cubano blogs in order to quell my curiosity about that argument Bose had at the Hotel Nacional. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDO-DsY0P5E

Hard to understand what's being said but easy to imagine last minute snags,
the abrupt, it's over, the concert is off!

If it's Cuba you must be driven absolutely crazy, and then when happiness arrives it tastes so much sweeter. The relief is like euforia and for this
reason people become addicted to Cuba, imo.

That's funny that the exiles are so out of it. The suffer super disconnect.
I saw bands performing with marijuana leaves on their clothes, you name it,
it's not uptight in that area in Cuba. There are all kinds of religions,
even wacky Eastern religions and evangelical churches are all too common.

Someday they will realize that their fight is dated, they are so off-trend!
Plenty of those young Cuban Americans have zero interest in la revolucion
or in their tales of suffering. They just want to listen to reggaton!