Cuba’s Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) released on Friday the video clip “With Cuba you don’t mess with”, dedicated to Donald Trump and a new example of the official campaign to criminalize Cuban independent civil society that demands the regime respect to freedom of expression and an end to violence for political reasons.
“Concerned the orange president / Seeing that the election lost them / He asks those who do the errands to him / That they hurry because the party finished / And watching that the ‘baro’ is going away to finish / They have formed a titingó “, says the lyrics, written by comedian Alejandro García” Virulo “and performed by several official musicians.
Without explicitly mentioning the San Isidro Movement (MSI) or the 27N group, the issue reproduces the slang used by spokesmen and official media in the last month to attack activists who starred in a plantation at the college headquarters. In Havana before being violently evicted by the political police and the hundreds of artists and citizens who gathered in front of MINCULT the next day to demand the cessation of this kind of repressive action.
“Whoever has confusion should be confused / If someone wants clarity to come and see / The play is not complex or deep / It is clear how they want to proceed / We just need to leave them / And this will not happen,” warns the text of the topic .
José Manuel García Suárez, director of the video, which was recorded in record time and released just 48 hours later, acknowledged that the production had all the institutional support.
“We had the support of all the artistic groups that joined, of all the companies of Culture, ARTEX, EGREM, of the Ministry in full,” he declared on the official Television.
For the shooting, the MINCULT convened the Conga dels Clots, one of the heritage groups of this genre on the island, founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1902, to perform in the Prat habanero, in front of the luxury hotels SOTA / Paseo de la Prado and the Iberostar Grand Packard, instead of in one of the humble neighborhoods where the group was born and practiced.
Between the interpreters of the subject they are, besides the own “Virulo”, the salseros Moisès Valley “Yumurí”, Mayito Creek, Amaray, as well as Israel Rojas, of the pair Good Faith, Ricardo Leyva, Dayán Race and Maria Victory. Also participating are the third Pancho Amat, the Entrevoces Choir and the National Symphony Orchestra.
“Let no one be deceived, they are upset because the shamelessness of cultural exchange is over. Why didn’t they throw a number of these before? They should make another issue also by demanding civil liberties and rights, to be even. Let’s see if they would receive the same support from the Government and the Ministry of Culture, “Brayan de la Cruz commented on the official site’s Facebook wall Cubadebate, Who played the video clip.
Leo Ochoa Pompa added: “When outside Cuba they ask any of these about the situation in Cuba and they tell you that they are artists, they don’t talk about politics, but they lend themselves to the bread and circus of the Castro dictatorship.”
“Nobody messes with them. They alone finished everything. If your house is falling down it’s not your neighbor’s fault! Look inside!”, Yazmi Palenzuela pointed out.
On Twitter, Free matancero postulate: “It is striking that the video of the song was shot with the best views of Old Havana. Why was it not shot in Havana Center, Guanabacoa or Sant Miquel de el Padró?”