By: The Cousin of Guajiro Frank Delgado was in Cienfuegos on April 11. He arrived that same afternoon at the Bus Terminal. I saw him coming out with his backpack and two guitars on his back. I expected Antonio Enrique, the president of the AHS.* And I was glad to see him with his hat, his glasses, laughing his head off and in flip flops. And I went to the Sculpture Park to hear him that night. But I also wanted the concert to end… Because it hurt to hear the audio equipment they gave him. But I never expected that Frank Delgado, who travels by bus in flip-flops, carrying his own backpack and guitars, is capable of starting a song twice because the audio is a piece of sh… seriously, offering apologies to everyone listening, he’s sincere and I tell him, “I was never so eager to see a concert end!”; but then I never expected that the same Frank would dedicate two texts, varying titles and alternating synonyms, the journalist Zulariam Perez Marti in the digital and print editions of the “Fifth of September,” the Organ of the Provincial Committee of the Cuban Communist Party in Cienfuegos. In both articles the journalist hopes that when he returns to sing in the Terry theater, as the troubadour promised to do, “he wouldn’t come as ‘famous’ Frank but as the troubadour of the people.” And you know why? Ah! Because the “rebel” Frank, according to the digital edition, “did live up to his fame as an insubordinate,” and, according to the print edition, “preferred to turn his back on the press.” And the press, neither short nor idle, passed the bill to him!
So there you have it, the two editions, digital and print. Don’t believe everything you read! I will continue preferring Frank and lamenting articles like this (these), signed by a young journalist for the only local weekly and using the language that begs for a response, perhaps in the next concert the “rebel” will be even more “insubordinate”… and continue offering his words in spite of the audio and other ills. That would be the best response of all.
Translator’s note:
AHS = Asociacion Hermanos Saiz/Saiz Brothers Association: A group funded by the Cuban government to promote Hip Hop.