The Grammys and the example of Spain

The Cuban regime turns everything into a ridiculous battle. He is unable to look at himself in the mirror. He fears the image of octogenarians defeated by life and assumes a heroic vision of themselves. Right now he has transformed the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards into an epic fight against Me you him, Maykel Osorbo, whom he keeps in jail, Descemer Good, Yadam Gonzalez, The Funky, People of the Zone and Beatriz Luengo. Why? Because they are the authors or interpreters of Homeland and Life (Chancleta Records), and because the organizers, in all fairness, chose that song as the best, the most outstanding of the year. Simultaneously, they received the Award for Best Urban Song of 2021.

They weren’t even the only Cubans to win a Grammy. Gloria Estefan and the Aragón Orchestra were also worthy of one. Gloria Estefan was awarded for the Best Tropical Album of the year with Brazil-305, while the Aragón Orchestra, founded in 1939, 20 years before the Cuban Revolution arose, received the award for Best Traditional Tropical Album for its Cha-Cha-Cha: Tribute to the traditional. The news surprised the members of the orchestra, according to Rafael Lay, its current director and son of one of the founders, although the sound quality was achieved in Los Angeles by the efforts of Isaac Delgado and Alain Perez, two excellent and charismatic performers.

Look at the sequence of events. First was the clash with the San Isidro Movement. A group of very poor young artists, separated from political power, went in good faith to the Ministry of Culture to speak with the Minister. They were not granted that grace. Months later, the civic protests of July 11 occurred.

Thousands of people rose up across the country. You don’t have to be a lynx to link the two events. Finally, on November 15, the Archipelago civic association took over, provisionally led by Yunior Garcia Aguilera, who ended up in exile in Spain, and who owes a magnificent explanation of these phenomena delivered at the press conference.

The fact that the Song of the Year award has been awarded to ‘Patria y Vida’ should have revealed to the revolutionary leadership that it has a message that smells like mothballs »

The fact that the Song of the Year award has been awarded to Homeland and LifeIt should have revealed to the revolutionary leadership that it has a message that smells like mothballs. It is very old. 20 or 30 years ago they would have awarded a song around the motto Country or Death, and it would have been given to him by a kid who wore a Che shirt, but today it is unthinkable that something like this would happen.

January 1 will begin the year 63 of that revolution and of that regime! Of course, they can remain in the command chair, but until when? The general Francisco Franco died in bed like Fidel, and as presumably will happen with RaulBut what they will not prevent is that the young generations completely modify the political course of the country. So it has always been in the history of the planet.

Franco had carefully supervised the education of his successor in the executive branch – the king – to ensure there were no surprises. Even in Parliament – which was called “the Cortes” at that time and was made up of thirds, as the fascist manuals indicated – there were some fierce parliamentarians who made up the 40 of Ayete. They were called that because of the mansion in which they used to meet, very close to San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, Franco’s place of residence in some summers. It was the group of Franco supporters who, supposedly, would resist any attempt to change. Only in front of himos 40 of Ayete I was, nothing more and nothing less than Adolfo Suarez, the man who, together with the king, led the transition once Franco died.

Neither him King Juan Carlos neither Adolfo Suárez were traitors to Franco. Or, if they were, they had to choose one of two conflicting loyalties: the one they owed to the old Caudillo who had personally elevated them, or the one they owed to the new generations who had not actively participated in the civil war, as was the case. themselves.

Both Juan Carlos de Borbón and Adolfo Suárez were products of the Second World War, or, if you like, of the Cold War that was then being fought. They chose to lead their compatriots to modernity and extract them from the first part of the 20th century to which the so-called Generalissimo had drawn them. I don’t know how the example of Spain can be ignored, despite the fact that, from an economic point of view, the last 15 years of the Franco regime were splendid.

Cuba has a golden opportunity to correct the wrong course taken in 1959. All it has to do is rectify, consult society, and go, as indicated Oswaldo Payá, “From law to law.” Otherwise the country may succumb to another stage of unnecessary violence.

@CarlosAMontaner. CAM’s latest book is Without going any further (Memorias). The work it has been published by Debate, a imprint of Penguin-Random House. It can be obtained through Amazon Books.