Alejandro García, Virulo, confessed this to the press during the presentation of the phonogram “Chronicles of the pandemic”, produced by the Music Recordings and Editions Company (EGREM) and that, in many years, will allow us to revisit these times of pandemic from multiple glances, critical, hopeful and, of course, very nice, just as we Cubans have always been.
“This album for me was a gift in the middle of these two years of being locked up. The first thing is that it kept me working, entertaining …”, commented the outstanding singer-songwriter and comedian and at the same time thanked him for the ideas that he constantly gave him. They gave to compose Mario Escalona, Mayito, Director of EGREM and one of the members of the Duo Buena Fe, Yoel Martínez, who ultimately assumed the musical production of the phonogram.
“The conga song, the idea came from Yoelito, who called me from Santiago. The one for Pórtate bien was an idea from Mayito who told me that when the cultural centers began to open, people wanted to be in the recholata without taking care of themselves and there the song came out. Dale candela was the first, which came at a time when we were all scared, terrified. Donald Trump was with his aggressive policy towards Cuba and then I also mixed it, because it was also the time when he said to inject chlorine, and I thought! inject it yourself! “, Virulo recalled.
Manuel Calviño, in his capacity as a “mu-psychologist”, granted by Virulo himself, pointed out that it is a critical-reflective and also educational vision of the epidemiological situation, a thesis that the author confirmed while he continued to tell us the sources of inspiration for some of the topics:
“The story of the Tarzan of the queues happened in the supermarket that is three blocks from my house. When there was a curfew and nobody could be on the street, from my house to the supermarket I had been two minutes ago, because when I arrived, at five and two minutes, there were already 350 people there queuing. I said but how, ah, because they were climbed in the bushes, like in Alta Habana, which is where I live, there are so many bushes, they all climbed there, until one day they began to sneeze up there and the police noticed it and they lit up and it was full, that’s how the theme was born.
“The same pegason, I lived that in a queue to buy coffee, which I said is capable of not reaching coffee, but I reached coronavirus because everyone was on top of each other there. The entire pandemic passed and I was following everything that happened. The truth is, this album saved my life. “
Another pandemic gained strength simultaneously in these two years, it was infected through social networks and ruthlessly attacked every “celebrity” who defended Cuba or its Revolution. Faced with this media virus, Virulo also received songs:
“Never in my life have I been attacked or criticized as much as in this time … that lynching thing … people bring out the worst of themselves and put some horrible things, also said with many spelling mistakes , because immediately you realize on Facebook and Twitter the cultural level of the people who put any barbarism. I have never been attacked as much as in recent times, sometimes absurdly and sometimes close people. Above all this and let’s turn this page, because I believe that the pandemic has brought out the worst in many people and the best in many other people as well. “
And those, those who have known how to be an antidote to despair and hatred, also found space in Virulo’s chronicles:
“It was fortunate to meet Carlos Lazo. I hope we end the absurd aberration that is the blockade of so many years against Cuba,” he reflected and told about the song Puentes de luz that arises when he discovered a story that the Cuban-American activist He told his Facebook account, where he narrates a dialogue with his father in which he calls him to reconciliation and love.
Yoel Martínez “I have grown fond of and tremendous respect for his talent and professionalism,” he valued, referring to the work done in the musical production and Puentes de luz was precisely the example he chose to praise him:
“I started to make the song, but I generally dictate the songs to the cell phone, I sing them like that, without a guitar and with nothing, and in this case, I got up at dawn, I started singing it and the next morning I read it. I sent Yoel. He made the arrangement based on what I sent him, without chords or anything, but there was the essence of that song and I really liked the arrangement he did and all the work that Yoel did is incredible.
“Here’s the album, I hope you buy it and like it a lot, enjoy it, it’s a very positive album, the pandemic has been a terrible thing, but sometimes you get positive things out of terrible things and that’s what I have tried to do with this album “, he concluded.
