Dozens of Cuban exiles gathered this Friday night in front of the Charles Dodge City Center, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, to reject the presentation of the Van Van orchestra. Shouts of “let them go,” “accomplices,” and “homeland and life,” were among the most heard on a rainy night.
There were also times when the hundreds of people who attended the concert were called “traitors” and “communists”, where the Alexander Abreu and Havana D’Primera orchestras were also invited.
In a perimeter guarded by the local police with about 14 patrols, the Cubans protested peacefully. “It seems to me a lack of respect towards the Cuban community in exile the number of people who are coming to the concert and above all how they make fun of us, gesture with their hands, laugh,” he told 14ymedio one of the participants.
“You come to see the Van Van and the families dying of hunger in Cuba,” one of the people was heard saying over a loudspeaker, while stressing that the artists are complicit in all the repression that is happening on the island. How are they able to attend a Van Van concert and not support the mothers of the political prisoners of July 11?
Among the protesters was the influencer Alexander Otaola, who called for the protest this Friday and another for this Saturday with the aim of repudiating a concert by Cuban reggaeton artist José Manuel Carvajal, the taiger, in Miami’s Brickell Bay. El Taiger is questioned about his recent visit to Havana, where he stayed at the luxurious Iberostar Grand Packard hotel, charge of the Gaesa military conglomeratesanctioned by the USA.
In addition, representatives of the independent Cuban press in South Florida and activists such as Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, recently arrived in the United States after crossing part of Central America and Mexico, were also in front of the Charles Dodge City Center.
Among those present there were also claims to President Joe Biden for the measures announced At the beginning of the week, they reverse some of the toughest provisions of their predecessor, Donald Trump, because some consider that they will not contribute to political change on the Island.
After the death of Juan Formell, founder of Los Van Van (1942-2014), his son Samuel took over the direction of the band. The orchestra, considered iconic within the island’s popular dance music, has performed on several occasions in the United States and has also been rejected by Cuban exiles.
In 2010, he performed at the James L. Knight Center theater in Miami, before 2,000 people, while around 200 Cubans demonstrated abroad protesting against the link of the singers with the Castro regime.
One of their longest tours in the US It happened in 2015, in the middle of the thaw between Washington and Havana, and served to present the album The fantasywhich was recorded in Cuba but mixed and mastered on US soil.
In one of the most recent international presentations of the orchestra, it was at the opening of the Cervantino International Festival held last October in Guanajuato, Mexico, where “the presence of the Cuban community was noted, carrying the flags of their country”, some in against and others in favor of the Government, the press reviewed then. In particular, a group stood out carrying a blanket with the phrase “Homeland and life”, the title of the song released last February and converted into the anthem of the July 11 protests on the island.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
