The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 73/No. 38      October 5, 2009

 
Havana concert highlights
decline of Miami rightists
(feature article)
 
BY ERNEST MAIHOT
AND ROLLANDE GIRARD
 
MIAMI—The latest attempt by right-wingers in the Cuban American community here to intimidate people and slander the Cuban Revolution has failed, reflecting their weakening grip and dwindling influence.

A concert in Havana organized at the initiative of Juanes, a popular musician from Colombia who lives in Miami, won widespread interest and open support among many in this city and beyond.

More than 1 million Cubans attended the September 20 event. In addition to Juanes, a Latin Grammy award winner, the “Peace without Borders” concert featured a lineup of well-known musicians from Cuba and several other countries, including Puerto Rico, Spain, Ecuador, Italy, and the United States.

For weeks before the concert rightist groups in Miami and South Florida had denounced and slandered the event and participating musicians.

The three main Spanish-language stations in Miami, including Univisión and Telemundo, covered the concert live, which is unprecedented. The next day on some Spanish-language radio talk shows, including “La tarde se mueve,” callers complained that the TV stations constantly interrupted the program with commentary against the Cuban Revolution, including by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Despite this, callers overwhelmingly said they thoroughly enjoyed the concert and it was a success.

Vigilia Mambisa, an ultrarightist Cuban American group, organized a protest of the concert outside the Versailles Restaurant on Eighth street in the Little Havana section of Miami, a hangout for many Cuban American businessmen and others. It only drew a few dozen people. Reminiscent of past actions by the rightists to stifle cultural expression and intimidate artists who openly oppose their views, the demonstrators used a steamroller to crush CDs and photos of Juanes and other artists who performed with him in Havana.

The TV stations gave prominent coverage to this action, which was attended mostly by older Cuban Americans. At one point there was a strong verbal confrontation between a woman walking by the Versailles who supported the concert. Not long after this aired, a very vocal crowd of mostly younger Cubans and other Latinos began forming across the street, outnumbering the counterrevolutionaries.

They yelled at the rightists, waved Cuban flags, held hand-lettered placards, and chanted, “Viva Juanes!” Some were interviewed and said they were for Juanes but not Fidel Castro. Others said the rightists were from the past and that the concert in Havana was about music and was great.

“I’m 100 percent for Juanes. For his courage and love of Cuba,” demonstrator Diosele Muñoz, 18, told the Miami Herald. “We are with him [Juanes]!” said Yanisel Ortegosa, 16, who was waving a Cuban flag, “because everyone wants peace.”

The rightists were clearly taken aback by the spontaneous demonstration against them, which showed their continued weakening in Miami.

Silas Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian worker from Ft. Lauderdale who watched the concert on TV, said, “This shows that Cuba is not isolated. For a long time people protested against Cuba on Calle Ocho but now others came to protest against them. We have not often seen something like this before.”
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. embargo against Cuba: What do they fear?
Meeting in Miami supports Cuban Five  
 
 
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