Alexander Abreu: “Win or lose, they already did the job… and I was happy”

For days now #TeamAsere has been the label that Cubans read the most, not only online. It has become a mantra, a ritornello. could not be another The title of a song in the heat of events, such as the one that Alexander Abreu premiered on March 17 and that in just a couple of days has accumulated more than 100 thousand views on YouTube.

Together with invited musicians and his group, Havana D’ Primera, Abreu hurried so that the song would be ready as soon as possible. He wanted to let “those men know that we are grateful because of the history they are making today,” he said in reference to the Cuba team, for the first time made up of emigrant players along with local players; a squad from which great success was not expected in the world’s best baseball competitions and which, however, has been among the four strongest in the tournament, and could still go ahead.

To the Public tender What the author of “They tell me Cuba” did, Isaac Delgado, Mario Rivera, Alain Pérez, Rubén Bulnes, Yasser Ramos and Lele attended immediately. They were not the only ones.

“Other artists also called. Many came immediately; others not. I couldn’t include everyone because the topic was too long and there wasn’t enough time either, ”he tells OnCuba the director of Havana D’ Primera.

“Whole of Cuba standing up, and with hopes in baseball??? I haven’t lived this for a long time ”, he posted on Facebook when Team Asere left Australia on the road and advanced to the semifinal.

“We have not had a good baseball team for a long time; because all the good ones emigrate to look for a dream, to prove their worth in big baseball,” he says to OnCuba. They are looking for a solid story and I see it well. Today they return and give us this Joy with a capital letter of being able to dream of victory. That’s where my song comes from.”

“Be careful,” he adds, “I justify those who are not on the team. They have their reasons. Many have not even been allowed to enter Cuba. If they are not in the national team today, they have their reasons”.

If you are asked for the trigger of your express song; if it was a play, a scene, an emotion… the trumpet player recounted: “I decided to do it the moment I understood that, win or lose, they already did the job for me… and I was happy. I wasn’t so happy a while ago.”

What is the story behind so much happiness? It all started a long time ago, when Alexander Abreu was a child: “My father showed me baseball; I learned to love the game and I learned admiration for the leading figures.”

“It doesn’t matter where I’m living now. What matters is being Cuban,” says a line of the song about what many consider the team of the future, the realization of a national ideal that transcends ideologies and borders and that, of course, goes beyond sports.

“I did that verse with my heart. I wear the 79 on my back because whistle Abreu he is one of my favorite people. Today he plays for the Astros and is not with Team Asere; but I dream of seeing him play again with those four heavy letters, and that Cuba supports him; I dream that everyone can come to see their families without anyone denigrating them; I dream that those from here can go play in the Majors and that those from there can come to play here. It would be the greatest, because the ball is Cuba”.

With only hours left before the game with the United States at LoanDepot Park in Miami, which will define whether Cuba revives a final (which it has not reached since the first edition of the World Classic in 2006), the musician says that he is ready to see the game at home, “with the family and friends who arrive. It’s more exciting that way.”

As for what expectations he has, Alexander Abreu prefers to respond with a phrase from his most famous song: “A true Cuban gives his life for his land, lives straight ahead, prepared for combat and clings to his flag.”

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