AREQUIPA, Peru – Cuban singer-songwriter Arnaldo Rodríguez, leader of the Talismán group and defender of the Castro regime, attended the celebration for Defense Day in Cuba this weekend. After the event, the artist gloated on social networks about his exchange with Castro leaders, especially the dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“Immense joy to embrace you on this olive green morning, of homeland, of reaffirmation! “A day of people and shared hugs!” he wrote. on Facebook the singer
As part of the publication, Arnaldo Rodríguez showed an image joyfully hugging the island’s ruler. Likewise, he also shared another entry on his wall in which he boasted of having been invited to the official act of the dictatorship.
“Cuban culture present at the event for National Defense Day!” says the post.
At the end of December 2024, the singer-songwriter released the song Nobody gives up herein which he romanticizes the serious economic and social crisis that Cubans suffer daily.
So far, the issue has generated a strong reaction and criticism on social networks for presenting these harsh realities as a source of pride.
The piece begins with a tenth that maintains: “Cuba gets up and dreams, because it is not afraid of the cyclone, nor the earthquake, nor the blackout, nor of cooking with firewood.” Furthermore, the chorus emphasizes that on the Island “there is no going back.”
Throughout his musical career, Arnaldo Rodríguez has been in the news for his defense of the Island’s regime and his criticism of the Cuban exile, as well as for sweetening the discourse about the shortcomings on the Island. In 2020, for example, stated that “he found it fun” to stand in long lines to purchase basic products.
That same year, the regime decorated him with the status of National Vanguard Collective 2019, granted by the National Union of Cultural Workers, recognizing alleged “contributions to the nation’s cultural heritage” and its “commitment to the defense of the homeland.”
Probably one of the most reprehensible episodes of servility was his direct participation in an act of repudiation of Cuban dissidents and opponents that was recorded in the documentary “Worm“, carried out by Sats State.
The musician has composed and performed songs such as It depends on you and Reasons “for important anniversaries, birthdays of official organizations of the Castro regime, according to the singer-songwriter himself.
“All licensed by the EGREM record label and blessed by the Ideological Department of the Communist Party of Cuba, they sing of the made-up decrepitude of a Revolution that has its artists as spokespersons,” wrote in 2015 the columnist of CubaNet Victor Manuel Dominguez.
This author defined him as “an artist who acts, sings and writes what the Party dictates: from an ode-cha to the creation of ALBA, to a timba-egy to the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Response Brigades. Quick.”
