‘El Enjambre’ and the ‘Podcast’ Challenges in Cuba

From left: Camilo Condis, Maykel González Vivero, Lucía Marcha and Yadira AlBet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 April 2023 — On this first Saturday of April, colleagues of El Enjambre [The Swarm] podcast celebrated the end of its sixth season and the announcement that, no later than in a couple of weeks, the seventh season will begin.

This weekly space was inaugurated in October 2019 as part of El Toque project and became independent in October, 2022. Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly.

Seated in front of a group of followers in the main hall of La Marca, in Old Havana, filmmakers of this podcast recreated anecdotes, answered questions and offered statistical data on the composition of their audience, which is mostly young and based in Cuba. Resembling themselves, there were debates, live music and a nice amusing moment about what the elections in Cuba would be like in 2077.

Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly

Asked about the future of El Enjambre, Camilo Condis told 14ymedio : “We know that it will be hard to continue because the difficulties that are coming are those that creators in Cuba, not working under an official institution, have to face. They are the same limitations that all of us face, but we’ll carry on.”

Maykel González Vivero, who joined the team in its fourth season, is a promoter of balance. He says that “it’s very boring when everyone is discussing something they agree on”. On the other hand, in contrast to Camilo Condis, “so pragmatic and clinging to the facts, to the numbers”, Maykel chooses to present himself as “more qualitative”.

El Enjambre is seen in official circles as too critical and, at the opposite end, as too trivial. The truth is that behind each installment there is painstaking professional work and the intention of opening a gap to expose and debate the main events of each week and the long-term problems that the country is suffering.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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